It’s already been a weird week of elfish triumph, freakish nature and things that nightmares are made of.

First the triumphs: our garden elves and selves yesterday planted the cutting garden and spread leaf mulch (every one of us was eyeing it jealously – why can’t we all have arboretum leaves for our own gardens?!) and the Rockettes changed venue to attend to post-planting details in the North Garden. A fresh layer of buckwheat hull mulch makes that garden look extra fancypants!

The leaf pile gave us this little treasure yesterday — qu’est-ce que c’est??

And I noticed this little sporty thing in a North Garden Clematis integrifolia today — it’s hard to tell but it seems to be one of the petals choosing a different path in life. (“I always felt like a leaf in a petals body…”) Anyone else notice this sort of thing ever?

As for nightmares – I was too bereft to take pictures: we lost a bunch of dahlias to rot. I was feeling so smug for packing them so diligently and – I thought – so successfully in sawdust last fall. As a matter of fact, I unpacked some and potted them up on the 18th and they were fine! Less than a week later Gail went to unpack more and noticed the wildlife (gnats… a family of mice…) and rot… What happened???!!

and I had to take a picture of this because if anything causes me to question my calling in life, it’s a tangle of garden hose…

But miracles bring me back from the brink — the bamboo shoots are up! We’re often asked if we sell it — we don’t. It’s the kind of thing that makes neighbors angry when it runs to their side of the fence and under foundations! (say it with me — “it’s invasive!”) There are nurseries that stock it though if you’ve got the space to let it run. We (I mean, the guys) mow the edges of our grove to keep it in bounds.