Replanting and Children's Playhouse

The Transplants

Playhouse

 Today moved  two plants from our backyard garden down to Prospect Gardens. The one overflowing an old bucket (top of the picture) is a dwarf astilbe. In the brown plastic pot is the indestructible and versatile ajuga. This purple wonder makes a great ground cover, tolerates shade and part sun light and will survive in any soil type. I love the ajuga's texture plus the purple plume-like flowers that appear at this time of the year. Plant one or two and in no time  you will be sharing the surplus with friends and neighbors.

The transplants are from my backyard garden and specifically a garden to the left of a lovely playhouse.  The playhouse has a long and poignant history. The former owner of our house, Bill, took it in trade for work he did. We don't know exactly what year. However we do know that Bill's and Delrosa's daughters played in this sturdy house. Our daughter Emily and her friends spent many happy hours during long summer days in this house. They enjoyed a table and chairs, plastic dishes in a built-in cabinet, and a small kitchen stove.  Pictures were on the light blue walls and a small cuckoo clock that no longer worked.  If walls could talk I am sure there would be many happy childhood stories.

Ann and I recently scraped and repainted the interior and exterior. Now that Emily is an adult, I sometime joke that we should rent the playhouse to some very short university students. A friend suggested that I use it as a potting shed, but the interior is not high enough for my six foot frame.  Our two young neighbor boys and their friend recently took turns hiding in it while playing a version of blind man's bluff.  

The Destination

The astible and ajuga joined impatiens, purchased from the Bruce Company. Its a shady area of the gardens, just around the corner as you go down the ramp located where South Prospect curves into Fox Avenue. Walnut pods bomb this area in fall and city crews remove the top soil as they plow and push the snow.   Some plants survive such as the jack-in-the pulpit which hug the walls. They disappear as the impatiens take hold.

The impatiens are two shades of pink; adding a splash of color to the furthest southwest corner of the gardens. In the nature of gardens, the impatiens will be long gone before the snow and the city crews return. In the meantime, I and others will enjoy the impatiens and other flowers that make up this rather enchanting corner garden.