Back to the garden center!

[spinbaby]

I’m heading to the garden center this afternoon, presumably just to buy some lawn patch to sprinkle on the bare spots. Stay tuned to find out what I actually come home with.

[mercuryblues]

1. If you are like me

you will come home with a few flowers, potting soil, gloves, a home improvement project and windex.

[spinbaby]

2. And the tally is...

...lawn patch, potting soil, deer repellent, a flat of pansies, and three pots of lithodora. It’s a hopeless addiction.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I wish I could grow lithodora but I'm in zone 4.

And anyhow there's still 2' of snow in my back yard.

[spinbaby]

6. Thats a rough zone

I’m zone 5, maybe even 6 because I’m in a sheltered location. My nephew lives next to the Ohio River, which gives him a zone 7 microclimate.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. Yeah, we always have to be careful about what we buy at a garden center

to be sure it's labeled zone 4 hardy. Most local garden centers are pretty good with those labels, but the big box stores - not so much. A lot of things do grow nicely here, and the University of Minnesota and other botanists have developed some tough hybrids, even including peaches.

[Mazeltov Cocktail]

3. The more you know

And now I know what lithodora is . . . thanks Spinbaby and google.

[spinbaby]

4. I googled it while I was standing in the garden center

I thought at first it was lobelia, which it strongly resembles.