We live on a main street, and it was interesting how much commentary from passers-by was sparked by this work. I don't particularly like working in the garden in full view of the world, but it is amazing how quickly one gets lost in the task at hand and forgets about location and surroundings. One guy startled me by shouting from his passing car: "good luck getting anything to grow in this dirt." After I brought in a load of compost and topsoil to mix into the gravel and clay, a kind stranger driving by offered to give me some of his peonies and white siberian iris clumps that he had been dividing that week. Tickled at the kindness, I accepted and would tuck them next month into my new bed along with a smattering of other perennials acquired from local nurseries.
We visited John's dad and stepmother this month and she gave me a smattering of shade-friendly perennials from her garden--some yellow foxglove, sedum, missouri primrose and sweet woodruff--which I tucked into the back. I also took 10 tiny cuttings from some wild rose bushes near my mother-in-law's house over Mother's Day and tried to get them to root. These are pink rambling-type roses that I really love (see photo of parent roses growing on a fence in Nantucket). So I dipped them in rooting hormone, stuck them in pots covered with bags, stretched burlap over the newly seeded driveway, and waited.
