Village Green’s cheery little garden plot outside the front door of our store is getting a slightly earlier start this year. Yesterday I planted a handful of flowers to begin to brighten things up – nothing unusual, but still fun, with the hope of giving our customers a little smile. The flowers look small now, but they’ll fill out.
What’s growing? There is already a nice purple sage I planted 2 springs ago, that has somehow wintered once again, even under the avalanches of snow we had this year. And now, joining the sage, is a little mound of purple-blue lithodora, some brilliant, fuschia-colored snapdragons, and some bright yellow African daisies (osteospermum). Also a couple little stock plants (yes, that’s their real name), in two shades of purple. Stock is fragrant, so if you kneel down on the sidewalk out there, you can get a nice whiff. I planted a little clump of dianthus, as well, with the common name of cheddar pinks. With luck, that will come back to bloom again next year. Those snapdragons could reseed themselves too, if they do well. There are a few plants from last summer that I’m still expecting (hoping!) will appear, such as the perennial purple coneflower (echinacea), and maybe even that prolific dark purple sweet potato vine that people kept asking about last year. We’ll be keeping a watchful eye on it.
