one last stand

There is a strip of my yard - a narrow, untended, overgrown strip between my neighbor's garage and the play area with a sandbox, trampoline and playhouse - where I put plants for one last shot at life in my care.  They end up there because a) I don't really like them, b) I have too many of them, and like them too much to get rid of them, c) I have no idea what to do with them, or d) curious to see if this should be the plant that takes over this narrow strip. 

Some unknown mint had taken over a garden along the side fence, so one summer I pulled all of it out ... it has one massive and stubborn white root system ...and threw it into the compost.  Except for a few stray roots.  Let's see if you really want to live!  And I planted a few into no man's land. 

A beautiful white Japanese anemone had taken over a front garden bed.  Pulled it all out.  No thick white roots here, but thin, hairlike roots that were almost impossible to completely irradicate.  It still hides in corners of that bed, under the blue spruce, tangled into the monkshood and lady's slipper roots.  Every spring those hairroots send up new growth and somehow manage a white flower before I yank them.  I couldn't get rid of them all, could I?  No.  A few go into the "anything goes" patch.

I had clumps of iris that had to be separated.  And when you separate iris, you either need to find many friends who need purple iris, or put them into unsuspecting neighbor's cars when they leave their doors unlocked, or dig up lawn to make more space for iris.  After trying all of the above, I just gave up and put one iris clump on top of the ground on the strip of chaos.  Didn't even plant it.  (That's passive aggressive gardening).  I'm not throwing you out.  Quite.  But not planting any more.  I'll just set you here for a few chilly months.  I'll check on you in the spring. 

Yarrow?  Yup.  Random lily bulbs?  Check.  2 raspberry bushes ... um yes.  But those are different!!!  There was a thought at the back of my head that maybe this random 'live if you want to' patch should become a nicely contained raspberry patch.  There is really no other place for raspberries.  But I couldn't quite get rid of all of the other courageous plants that will not die. 

Were you wondering about the iris?  The next spring, after abandoning the iris clump to the cold Saskatoon winter, I was taking a walkabout the yard, and that crazy iris was sending up shoots!  It doesn't bloom there; doesn't get enough light, but it lives.  The lily is blooming.  I really cannot remember how it got there.  The mint is spreading with abandon.  It supplies flavor for a great grilled pepper recipe from Jeana.  I'll get my first raspberries this summer.