Rancho Obsesso garden before any action


Mucho planting today. Moved balloonflower (boy, those guys have deep roots!) and oregano, both stalwarts returning from last year but, given how much their neighbors grew over the winter, now in dopey places. Planted two new lantana and two new nasturtiums. Lantana always does fabulously for me; it's one of the few annuals I'll plant, and the only non-native. Because it's so gorgeous, that's why. My nasturtiums, on the other hand, never do well, and I can never resist them. A beautiful plant with an ugly name. This year I carefully chose compact, upright, drought-resistant... yeah, sure. I pulled up a bunch of curly mint, also a returning volunteer and robust enough to take over the place. I'm trying to keep it corraled in one area, and the Queen Anne's lace (weed? what weed?) corraled in another, both up near the bee balm, which is not a volunteer but, since its anemic beginning when I put it in three years ago, has also decided it wants to take over the place. I weeded like crazy, though that will need a lot of re-doing when I come back in three weeks. I planted rosemary, thyme, and sage in a big pot on the deck, for the joy and use of the cooks among us, and lavender in another big pot, also for culinary use. (Someday I'll lay on youse guys the Rancho Obsesso recipe for lavender beets.) I put the basil by the front door, where it gets sun but not as much as the back deck, so maybe it won't fry this year. I gave it a dish of moss for company. And since I had to dig up some wild strawberries to get all the above done, I put them in a pot on the back deck, too. I did that last year and one of the catbirds considered that pot his private berry patch, swooping down to pick at it every while we were out there having lunch.