Busy day in the garden

Now that the Fair is over, it is time to get back to gardening. I spent this morning digging up more old lawn, spreading more cedar bark mulch, and deadheading the marigolds, all the while waiting for delivery of 6,770 lbs. of ledger-cut quartzite rock from Rainbow Rock.

The rock arrived on a big truck, along with a Big Cat to lift it off the truck and plunk it down in my front yard. The man driving the heavy equipment (is this the stuff you are not supposed to operate when taking medications?) did a fabulous job putting the pallets exactly where I wanted them.
I had been afraid the rock would be put in the middle of my driveway, so I am really glad I could be there for delivery! Tomorrow I start digging the foundation trench for my dry-stack wall. Then one by one I will move the rocks to their final destination. I fully expect that the piles of rock waiting for installation will be a long-term fixture in the front yard.

One more picture is in order: My Salvia reptans (west Texas grass sage, A.K.A. blue willow sage) is now blooming. The ones I planted last year are reaching as high as 5 feet, surpassing the 3-4 ft estimation of the High Country Gardens catalog! They don't bloom densely, but the flowers are an intense clear blue. They are so pretty that they have converted another neighbor to the pleasures of xeriscaping; a woman from a few houses down the street dropped by to ask what they were and where she could get some. She left with the stated intentions of getting up with High Country Gardens right away!