Back in 2012, this was my favourite part of my gardens: the bee balm growing at the back of the garden shed. But the following year, it didn't come back; I ended up pulling out the dead roots. I love bee balm, was so pleased by its profusion, and yet I don't seem to be able to make it flourish, not like it did that first year.
Every gardener has that favorite plant, that particular challenge, a certain "no matter what" with some plants and bee balm is mine. I've replanted it throughout my gardens and I'm counting on its proliferation tendencies to bring it back into profusion. Look at it! How could you not want those vibrant Muppet-like flowers in your garden?
Or are they Suess-like?
I Googled the plant. It's also called "monardo" which I must remember in case that's the name used at the nursery (or catalogue since I'm going to try to grow seedlings). The description makes a point of saying bee balm with tolerate wet soil and I have the opposite problem; our clay ground dries out hard in the middle of summer. That's why I spend two hours every night lugging water jugs around the yard -- with the added bonus of spending every evening with my flowers.
My biggest flaw as a gardener isn't a lack of watering; it's a lack of soil enrichment. I'm as "as is" kind of gardener so I just plant stuff in the ground and hope it grows. Sometimes the best soil a plant gets is the kind it arrives in with the pot.
So in typical gardener fashion, this being early August, it's time to start the resolutions for 2015: Next year, I will mix black earth and compost into all my gardens in May.
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