Just as bulbs are beginning to bloom and perennials are starting to
slowly poke up from the soil, I have had a herd of wild carpenters and
roof layers wandering around all over the place. Talk about
stressful. One man was working on the roof when he tossed a large
tool onto the ground and into the middle of an azalea... not one of my
favorites, thankfully. It broke half of the shrub off and skinned the
trunk fairly severely. I might relocate it to a quiet place somewhere
to let it slowly fill back out or die, whichever it prefers.

A large rock was in the way, so it was moved backwards and onto a
two-foot pyrimidal holly (name forgotten at the moment) that I paid
too much for at a nursery, very few crocus blooms were not crushed and
a few other bulbs that only had foliage above the ground so far now
have a scant bit of crushed green remains left. Some small
twigs/limbs were knocked out of a variety of shrubs, and a dump truck
was driven over the brick edging around part of my circle driveway -
this was only done because the lazy driver did not want to back up a
few feet to get a better angle as he pulled out of the driveway.

Now the roof is finished and the carpenters do not have much more to
do that will require them to be outside, but soon siding will be
placed on the house and that will be a whole new nightmare as they are
going to be wandering around the entire house, my one blessing is that
that my precious perennial bed on the north side of the house will be
fairly safe since the north wall of the house is solid brick.

Earlier this year a large limb was brought out of a sycamore tree by
ice and snow buildup and two compacta hollies that I never was that
fond of were pretty much destroyed. They have been relocated to a
back corner where they can grow wild out of sight, perhaps I will like
them better if I do not have to seem them all the time and the damage
might give them some character as well, anything is possible.

I am going to fill in some holes in established beds and I am going to
be expanding, always expanding, just not enough time or money to do as
much as wanted....I am thinking that a longtime favorite of mine needs
to finally be added, a contorted filbert, but the question is whether
I should go (for) broke by picking up the beautiful and quite large
specimen that I saw at a local nursery for 229.00 or go for a quite
small one that another location (I believe I saw it at Lowe's
actually) has for $49.95. I am not that patient and these are too
small to have much character, but I just hate spending so much on a
single plant, especially one that is not all that rare. I did once
spend over three hundred on a lovely japanese maple, but it was one
that was very uncommon and over six feet tall and wide to begin with.

And I want to buy other plants now as well, I am not sure what to get,
as I want some things that every other person does not have in their
gardens....in this area at least. I ordered a vine maple and a few
other plants from the northwest usa, hopefully they will like it here,
although our summers can be brutal and only time will tell.

I so need to stop doing all of my buying during warm weather as
well...I have too few evergreens, which I am working on, but I need
plants that have more winter interest without leaves as well.
interesting bark, contorted limbs...the filbert would be a good start.
Some decicidious varieties of ilex would be nice for the berries,
although the ones I truly want are the orange berried plants that I
see on trips through eastern Oklahoma and all of the hollies I see
offered online claim to have red berries, which leaves me confused as
I *know* these are hollies (Ilex decidua) as well, I did manage to
find a site offering a hybrid with yellow berries, which might be
kinda neat but not for 29.95 per eight inch plant.

I always buy plants in summer for their beauty then and although the
japanese maples are always pretty in winter, most plants are
blah...especially shrubs like that diabolo or varigated weigela, or
popcorn grass which simply has no winter form unlike maiden grass
which is stunningly beautiful until snow breaks it down - this year it
managed to stay intact and I _so_ hate to cut it down to make way for
new growth, but it must be done...sigh.

they never sell them at nurseries here, not sure why, but i ordered
some pussy willows (giant and black) although unless they grow super
fast it will be ages before they are of much interest...also have a
couple of dogwoods that have lovely red bark in winter but that was
almost by accident as the main reason I bought them was for the
variegated leaves in summer. beautyberry is always at the nurseries
here in summer, i will get some this year. but i am just short on
ideas for winter interest. several things dislike our hot summers and
many of the interesting plants that ARE sold here are done so
irresponsibly as they can not tolerate the lowest temps we sometimes
see here in zone6b. i want a pond, that would be winter interest for
sure but i just can not tackle it right now...such rocky soil and i
would be stubborn and dig it by hand. hah. but this year i am going
to do things to prepare for next winter as well as enjoying the summer
and other warm times...winter is so bleak and depressing and i really
enjoyed what the gardens did offer, but there is too little.

and I would like a digital camera to take shots of my plants and put
them on my web site, does anyone have a reccomendation for a cheaper
digital that works well (easy to use for a camera ignorant chap?)