Pink dandelions

I know I'm crazy but I just couldn't resist.

My pink dandelions are blooming!

Aren't they fun? These are Taraxicum pseudoroseum as opposed to the common lawn weed, Taraxicum officinale.

 Now that they are flowering, I'm wondering if they will successfully naturalize in the lawn like their yellow relative. I'm seriously tempted to grow up a bunch and plant them out in the front yard in place of my regular yellow ones. It would be so much fun to watch people walk by and do a double take!

Lawn alternative of the day

I love this hell-strip planting on street with otherwise completely uninteresting front lawns. It is simply masses of violets (why do some people call them weeds?) and a small creeping sedum (of unknown identity -- anyone care to take a stab at IDing it?).

Here is a close up:

I love it -- simple, zero maintenance, and looks terrific.

Photos of ideas 2: Rainlilies

This is a picture of yard of a house I walked past in Shikoku, Japan while visiting my friend Reiko's family:

Like so many Japanese gardens, this one is full of graceful, understated beauty. The rain lilies (Zephyranthes) dotted randomly in the grass, the simple stepping stones... I love it. This photo inspires me to rethink my "lawn" areas. I've never been a big lawn person, but this is the sort of lawn I do like -- simple green background to randomly dot flowers in. But how do you do that practically? What about mowing? I'm not sure how they manage it in this yard, but I'm trying to make a space for this sort of look by replacing part of my grass with moss. I'm also considering replacing my grass in sunnier areas with a dwarf blue grass, or maybe short "no mow" fine fescue both from High Country Gardens. Without the need for mowing, I could mix all sorts of bulbs and small perennials into my lawn...

Some pictures

My new camera (Cannon powershot SD880 as recommended by the NY Times here) purchased off ebay arrived, so I shall include some pictures.

 First, some images of my beloved cardoon I raved about here:

And secondly, some images of my moss lawn project I discussed here:

Here we have the cleared ground with my little moss patches planted on it. 

And here a closeup of one of my little baby moss clumps. Still looking green and healthy, and beginning to spread! Hopefully by the end of next summer I'll have a lovely moss lawn.

Moss gardening

Ever since I read George Schenk's gorgeously photographed and charmingly written book Moss Gardening I've been itching to try it. The book is full lovely photographs of lush gardens carpeted with rich green tapestries of moss. And I mean tapestry -- each stretch of moss is richly interwoven with a thousand different shades of green as different species of moss (and sometimes lichen) grow together.
So, I'm trying it. In a shady part of the yard where grass doesn't much want to grow anyway, I just ripped out an exceptinally ugly raised bed left by the previous owner, and in the resulting patch of bare soil, I carefully transplated little chunks of moss gathered from around the yard (and even the old singles from the roof I'm replacing) and placed them about 6 inches apart on the bare soil. It looks rather sad at the moment (I still haven't replaced my camera so you'll have to use your imagination) but hopefully with regular watering and time they'll grow together and form a lovely carpet. If it works, I plan to round up all the grass in the side yard and replace it all with moss.