The Gateway Drug

It starts with vegetable gardening.

I wanted to eat organic, fresh food and start a fun hubby that would provide a bit of exercise and give me something other to do than lie on a hammock in the hot, blazing summer sun.

And it's morphed in to something else entirely.

Hubby so aptly surmised that my new "floral" gardening obsession/problem started from the down time that comes in between vegetable growing seasons. So I'd like to think that I'm not at fault. Completely.

But while puttering about my yard, looking for things to do and weeds to pull, I started to notice that there was a barren spot here, an ugly eye sore there and square foot of sunbeam there. So of course, I had to cover it, pull it, or fill it.

And so, this afternoon my car drove me to the farm and feed store where I chatted up the (too) helpful employee about every plant under the sun, and even those in the shade, and discussed how wonderful our husbands must be, to trust us to go to farm stores and nurseries and to be responsible while we're there.

That fragile, beautiful trust that we women like to test under the strain of hefty bags of fertilizer and large root balls.

Which I probably would have shattered, had Hubby been a less wonderful, understanding man.

I bought myself a dwarf Japanese maple.

A ridiculously frivolous purchase I never would have pictured myself ever making...

One which I would have eventually justified to myself -with the neighbor's tree splintering one of our maples last year with their large, hurricane-danger-prone tree- but, as I wanted to be able to sleep at night with my conscience, I called Hubby and asked if I could buy it. To which he immediately said yes. Because, for some odd reason, he lets me run with this crazy hobby of mine, in every scatterbrained direction I can think to go.

Which is why I love Hubby so very much.

So this is what I did today...

I put this little fella in a large built-in, stone window box under our bedroom window.

With some Golden Creeping Jenny...

With a burnt orange-y Coral Bell...

A Plum-esk Coral Bell...

And these little fellas, which were already there and why fix it if it ain't broke, even though it sort of disrupts my color scheme.

I also threw in an orange/red scotch broom at one end and am planning on throwing in some sort of fountain grass at the other to create a bit of symmetry.

But of course, that scatterbrained part of me saw weeds which I had to go pick and while I was pulling the weeds, I noticed my daffodils were pretty much dead and could be tied back.

So....

That's what I did next. And eventually I'll get back to my built in window box garden. But only because I ran out of rubber bands for my daffodils.

Did you follow that reasoning? Because I doubt Hubby will either...

But I've gotten halfway through and so far, am really happy with how it looks. And Hubby doesn't hate it either, so it seems to have been worth it so far. Of course, now I've got to go back to the farm store for that fountain grass. And Hubby hasn't taken away my keys or my credit card. Now that's trust...for a Bumbling "vegetable" Gardenista.

Have you ever made a spur of the moment "I have to have it in my garden" extravagant purchase? Do share!