The Dancing Butterfly Takes Flight

With the heat wave here in NJ (okay we're talking 60s but STILL its February, usually our coldest month) I could not help but wallow in the mud. Yup, it is wet and deep. As Sunflower rattled off her favorite poem (Mud by Polly Chase Boyden)...

Mud is very nice to feel
All squishy squash between the toes
I'd rather wade in wiggly mud
Than smell a yellow rose
Nobody else but the rose bush knows
How nice mud feels between the toes

I began my first intentional ventures in permaculture. First I relocated three shrubs that I think are a honeysuckles or perhaps euonymus under the maple tree. The maple is actually in my neighbor's yard but space here in NJ is tight. The birds love this plant. Well they don't care much for the plant but they love the berries. The more I look at this plant, given to me by a friend, the less I am sure what it is. The spot where I have put them in on a steep slope and I am hoping they will help control our yard eroding onto my neighbor's fence.

Then I moved three lilacs, one of which is white but I cannot remember which one, to screen my front porch.

Finally I dug up 6 spiraea japonica 'neon flash' and used them to create a hedgerow between my front yard and that of my neighbors. Again, hoping to control erosion with this more than anything else. Until I determine the usefulness of this plant, if any, they will remain until I scavange something with which to replace them.