Side Deck Gardens - lots of Lychnis Coronaria

Here are some of the gardens around each side of my deck.  I don't do much work in these gardens  as the following pictures will prove:

There is a lot grass in this one.  I must say, those seeds heads look better than what my ornamental grasses put out! Unfortunately the only thing to do when grass infests this badly is...

Dig everything out and throw it away. Now I have a big bare area.  I plan to just let it sit bare until I need a spot when I divide something.

On side two of the deck, lychnis coronaria is just putting out its bright magenta blooms.

Just this morning I removed lychnis from the bigger gardens, as those bright flowers clash with everything else.

but in the deck side garden, I let it reseed as much as it wants to. 

 I have planted a lot of the somewhat invasive silver artemesia here, too.  I like it with purple spiderwort.

I also have a lot of other flowers in this area, like the tall butterfly bush and the sunlit phlox in the foreground  that is almost ready to bloom. 

I will show you more of these gardens as things began to bloom.
While doing come clean up chores, I cut down these poppy seed heads to save for accents in my fresh floral bouquets.   I like to use them in fall bouquets.

I did a lot of garden work over the weekend.  Among other things, I moved these Forever & Ever hydrangeas that I planted in 2008.

Yes, they are 4 years old and puny as can be!  They should be 3 ft. x 3 ft.   In a good year, one of them gets a flower or two. It's sad.  I decided to move them right at the front of the border so they are not hidden by other flowers.  Hopefully, they will like this better.  Does anyone else have problems with Forever & Ever? 

It's a Banner Year for Lychnis Coronaria (Rose Campion)

Some years I toss the seeds about and in two years I have loads of it.

Other years I pull it out because it is such a bold color. It does not live well next to red and dark orange (though to my eyes a light orange is OK) and I have a lot of red/orange flowers that will bloom this week. I am sure I will be yanking a few plants out.

One plant it goes very well with is silver artemesia.
It's great with feverfew.

Mallow's a good companion.
I find it interesting with the smokebush shrub


Here are a few facts about lychnis to enhance your daily life:

It's an herb.

It's a biennial. (There seems to be some discrepancy about this. I have seen many places where they say it is perennial. I can say that in my garden it behaves as a biennial)

It was once used for candle wicks.

The root contains saponins, a soap substitute. If the root is mashed and boiled, it will lather and can be used for washing clothes, hair etc. In the event of a national soap shortage, I will still be able to have clean hair--I sleep easier at night knowing this. :)

There. More than you ever wanted to know about rose campion.