Wow, I have more than I think!!

Wow, so I found a piece of lined paper that I had scrawled all my plants (or the ones we could identify) on last year when my former tenants' mother stayed here for a while. At first I wasn't too fond of the idea, considering, for one thing, that her son and daughter-in-law and their new baby were enough people in the already-crowded two-bedroom upstairs. It also became very apparent that she and her daughter-in-law didn't 'care' for each other overly much, so she spent most of her days sitting in the van in our driveway, with beer cans lined up in the snow banks and a smoke in her hand. However, to my surprise (and happiness), she was an avid gardener - actually she was one of those 'salt of the Earth' types who took pride in living in the middle of nowhere (like the woods), in a cabin with her dog. The only reason why she was relocating to Ottawa was so she could be closer to her son and her grand-daughter. Anyway, I digress.. So she marched me around my yard one day and showed me all the plants I had, and man did I ever learn a lot. I learned that the giant old maple in the back yard is what she referred to as a 'danger tree' (meaning that the wires tangled in its branches and the fact that at least two of its limbs are totally dead is not a good thing), and she pointed out different plants that I had no idea I had, and suggested how I could trim them back, etc.

So here's a list of what I'm starting with - makes me glad I didn't go ahead and order my $110 worth of seeds (catalogs are evil things) because quite honestly I think I may have more than I can handle already!

Here goes:
- orange lillies (who doesn't though)
- wild rose bushes
- ferns (possibly a 'Moose Antler Fern'?
- daisies
- black cherry tree
- English ivy
- juniper bush
- tulips and yellow crocuses
- peonie (but I'm not sure it survived when the previous owner butchered it!)
- 2 hostas (new to my garden in the Fall )
- hydrangea
- periwinkle
- peppermint
- spearmint
- dill
- lovage
- oregano
- tarragon
- basil
- thyme
- lavendar
- yellow tickseed
- some big huge red-flowered plants from Mom
- some unidentifiable purple 'pom-pom' looking flower I planted in the fall
- really annoying three-leafed plants that grow out of control and that I have to try to get rid of so they don't choke everything else out again
- two white-flowering trees (bushes) that I can't for the life of me remember the name of

So to that list, I'd like to add some hellebores for under the maple, astilbes for along the side in the shade, lemon thyme, fennel (loved it last year mmm), epimedium rubrium (better tell myself now - pretty ground-cover with pink flowers!) to go in the front under the cherry tree and around the juniper, and geraniums because they can grow well in shade.

Eeeek! I so have my work cut out for me here.
The exciting part too is that I am also hoping to move my herbs to big barrels that I'll keep on the deck in full-sun, and hopefully I'll grow some strawberries as well (apparently borage grown with strawberries enhances their flavour) and of course some tomatoes (but this year it'll be in a deep container as they apparently hate shallow ones, like the one I gave them last year).

Now I have to go make a list of things to do... And then go to sleep.

Zzzzz...

xo