Saturday with Weeds and Self Seeds

Today I spent the hours between breakfast and lunch weeding. My garden was not just due, it was overdue, for a good amount of pulling pesky, fast spreading and fast growing weeds. The goal was to do "the hill," below, it's what people see from the street and I figured I can leave the back yard and the less visible areas for later, and at least have the appearance of a maintained and weed free garden.

(The picture below of the hill is about a month or so old for you detectives out there.)

I didn't get nearly as far as I had hoped, because the skies suddenly opened up and I had to run inside for cover, and lunch. My husband had made pizza on the grill per request from our boys. Totally delicious, I have to say. He's getting quite good at it.

Here's about a third of what I had time for. I should have taken a before picture, because there was so much weed that it was a bit hard to see what was actually growing here. After I have cleared this area of unwanted vegetation, it is so much easier to think about what annuals and perennials to add. My whole garden is a big hodge podge of many impulse buys, but, I'm now striving towards creating a flow and some unity, adding more of the plants that thrive to fill out the bare spots.

While weeding, I notice plenty of plants that have self seeded. Take this bleeding heart, for example, it found its way all the way from the other side of the house, and situated itself at the end of a row of Hostas. This one is going to have be transferred to a better spot.

On the topic of self seeding plants and finding new spots or not, my Swedish blogger friend at Garden Flow, just wrote a little bit on that topic. The Google Translator makes the translation into English a bit amusing, but if for nothing else, visit to enjoy her beautiful garden in northern Sweden. You won't be disappointed.

While taking a closer look today at my Bleeding Heart, I noticed that someone has been gnawing or nibbling on the lattice. If you look closely, you can see it at the bottom left diamond. Who lives under our porch?

I also found that a few kinds of Salvia has self seeded happily and generously all across my hill. Quite happy about that, because I love it's blue colors and I have a huge amount of real estate to fill on my perennial hill.

Here I'm asking you experienced gardeners for help. This looks so familiar to me, but I'm not sure what it is. Some kind of Salvia? I've seen it in a few spots in my garden. Keep or pull?

Among my perennials I have a few aromatic herbs. Weeding among those is a pleasure for the senses. Here, my variegated Lemon Thyme that keeps growing bigger every year. Love, love, love the smell of this one.

Well, that's it for now. Thyme to enjoy the rest of Saturday with my family.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend out there!