Why I Oughta...

One of the perennials in our front yard IB2DWs bed that performs well AND behaves well is Cat's Pajamas Nepeta.  There are three of them tucked into that long, linear bed.  And they put on a nice early Summer blue-flower show.  They're also NOT bullies in the garden.  They don't take over and push others around. That early Summer bloom cycle means that the spent flower heads are here all Summer long.  What to do about it?  Deadhead them.  Or, give them the 'Chelsea Chop'. I grabbed my snips and pruned off all the long stems with flower heads.  There's quite a mass of material after pruning all three: I should have taken a 'before' picture.  Because...all I have is the 'after'.  You can see them below.  Nicely pruned back to little orbs.  The third one is tucked in behind the blue Fescue grasses.

Earlier this year, I planted three small quart-sized nursery containers of a new (to me) nepeta named 'Chartreuse on The Loose' .  It is an interesting variety that has a unique color foliage (lime green), habit (trailing) and maintenance needs (it doesn't require deadheading to re-bloom).  Right away, one of the plants was eaten-up by the (dang!) rabbits.  But the other two seemed to do just fine.   Look back at this planting post in early May when the three small plants were just that:  small .  Lots of mulch showing between them.   Today?  They've made a drift with no gaps in between them at all.   See below for the current state of these trailing/spreading catmint perennials: I've mentioned that I need to continue to remind myself to add more of WHAT IS WORKING instead of adding net-new stuff.  But, these are both a reminder that sometimes new things can be great.  But, now that I see them working, I have put them...

#15 on my 2025 to-do list is to "lean into plants that are working" .   That largely means planting things that have been successful - either by getting established or not being destroyed by drought, rabbits, soil conditions or disease.    In 2022, I planted my first few Nepetas.  Catmint.  Roy Diblik up at Northwind Perennial Farm uses Nepeta in his matrix plantings and after researching a few varieties, I bought Cat's Pajamas and planted it IB2DWs .  Cat's Pajamas has been a good garden plant in both IB2DWs and I also have one in the cut flower garden on the side .  I haven't divided them (yet), but that's probably something I should look at for this year.   I'd put Nepeta into the category of plants that "are working".  With the new (large) pizza oven bed needing to be filled, when I came across a new (to me) variety of Nepeta, I decided to bring home three of them. This chartreuse-colored Nepeta is named "Chartreuse on the Loose...