Why I Oughta...

My Mom recently brought to my attention how I don't have any perennial geraniums in our garden.  That's actually not true as I have one under the dwarf Ginkgo tree by our back stoop.  Brookside Geranium .   But, why my Mom brought it up was when we were talking about groundcover.  And..."living mulch".   Or, more...my desire to buy LESS MULCH each year by filling in the spots in the garden with easy-to-maintain perennials. I was at the Big Box store recently and saw these small geranium plugs for $6.98 and 50% off.  They're New Hampshire Purple Geranium.  And, they're certainly small.  But, for $3.50, I figured I'd give it a shot.   Proven Winners has a listing page up for New Hampshire Purple Geranium .  Hardy Geranium, Bloody Cranesbill.  They say: A profusion of magenta-purple flowers atop compact, spreading mounds of leaves makes this one of the best low-growing cranesbills. Low-growing.  Like that. ...

Over the years, I've written and linked to various 'garden rules' and 'garden mistakes' lists.  And, I've made a bunch of those mistakes. And, learned from the 'rules'.  But, over the holidays, I was talking to my oldest sister and my brother-in-law about gardening.  They're taking on a new, exciting project and are in the midst of planning a clean-sheet garden at their lake house in Michigan.  The conversation drifted towards them asking for advice on where to start.  And, that made me think about what I would tell other gardeners.  I went home and ended up writing a Google Doc that included some advice, links and thoughts.  After editing a little bit, it ended up taking the shape of being a list of rules (or advice) that I've seemingly adopted for my own garden.  I thought it was worth sharing as (in this case, like many others here on the blog), I've adopted Paul Graham's advice and wrote things out.  The act of *writing this list* ta...