Rain! Precious, precious rain...

It has rained pretty much all week long and I couldn’t be happier! The garden was hanging on by a thread. I’ve lost so many plants the past two growing season it’s not even funny. Things in the garden were looking so ratty and haggard. But look at it now, so lush and green. And besides, I’m about ready to start re-doing some things anyway.

Even the grass is starting to fill back in some. All the St. Augustine was lost to the heat last year. Honestly, it’s really pretty but I don’t care what kind of grass I have as long as it’s green.

Hope this short post finds you well and happy. Happy gardening and many blessings sent your way!

In the Garden 08/03/09

Jamie and I had a very busy and productive weekend. We’ve needed to put in a third line to our drip irrigation system since last year; it was one of those things we just never got around to doing. Jamie and I laid out another 200 feet of line and we should really see some good growth on some of the things that were maybe not getting as much water as they should. I told Jamie one by one we are slowly completing the really large projects and within the next year or two our garden will just simply be a matter of maintenance. The next large project we tackle will most likely be the lights or the water feature, but that’s down the road and more than likely next season.

Why don’t we walk around a little and see what’s going on in the garden? The Thunbergia Grandiflora is looking good this year. It’s really covering this 20’ section of wall well and should be filled with blooms before very long. I hope it’s going to be breath taking.

I think one of the reasons it’s spreading so well is because Jamie and I got permission from our neighbor to place this fencing on the back of her privacy fence. It gave something for the vine to hold on to and enabled us to fan it out nicely. Next year we will need to divide this plant more than likely.

We have a couple of first blooms in our garden right now. ‘Zephirine Drouhin’ is giving us our very first bloom ever. It’s planted on a split rail fence in the front yard between 2 ‘Veilchenblau’ we thought the pink and purple would look good together when they bloom in the spring.

One of our Banana trees is giving us our first bloom too. We have tiny little bananas about 1 inch long. Every time a new petal opens more bananas are exposed.

The Susans are looking good. We will be dividing these in the fall, they have hole in them that needs to be filled so we’ll just move them over a little.

Jamie had decided he wanted black berry lilies in fall of last year. We’ve purchased two since that time. This one is ‘Hello Yellow’. I’ve fallen in love with these little flowers and I want to fill the new bed with them and Candy Lilies. If you happen to run across cultivars of these lilies feel free to email me the name of them so we know what to look for in catalogs and online.

‘Sound of Silence’ is rewarding us with blooms again.

All three of the Pee Gee hydrangea standards are filling with blooms. They’re going to need re-shaping after they bloom.

By far one of my favorites in the garden is this Black and Blue Salvia. The humming birds just absolutely love this plant. Last night swarms of little birds were fighting and fussing with each other over which one would drink its nectar.

I think we’ve decided on the new shrubs to replace the mums this fall. I’ll be telling you more about that at a later date. Thanks for all you ideas and the plants we chose did come from your suggestions. Hope everyone has a good week and I’ll be visiting you soon.

This Past Weekend

Well, the weekend has come and gone. I managed to relax and take it easy a little bit. I did get out in the yard and rake the fallen leaves up. We still need several bags of shredded leaves to mulch the new bed we've been working on. I was able to mulch enough leaves to cover about one third of the Tropical section. Our neighbor has told us that when he gets his back yard vacuumed we are welcome to the leaves. I sure was hoping he would get it done this weekend, but he never got around to it. I'm not a patient person so I'm just about ready to hop the fence and rake them myself. I wouldn't be in such a hurry but we have friends from out of town stopping by Wednesday and I just feel the bed would look better if it was completed. They certainly will not care that it isn't done. They are both gardeners and very creative ones at that. I took some pictures of the the few things that are still in bloom.

This is one of three Blackeye Susan that were given to us as a gift. One of Jamie's co-workers wanted to share part of her garden with us and this is one of the plants she sent. When I was just a little boy I would stand on the old wooden bridges on the local dirt roads and drop the head of these flowers in the water. I would watch them spin like little helicopters down to the creek and then they would float away. To this day I instantly think of that when ever I see them. I don't know which particular species it is.

'Blackeye Susan'

The 'Bloodflower' Asclepias curassavica is making a come back. It's the host plant for Monarch Butterflies and let me tell you. Those fat little caterpillars feasted on this stuff. That's okay though because we watched the entire process as they became butterflies and even captured it with pictures. It was absolutely fascinating to watch.

'Scarlett Milkweed'

This is one of my garden treasures. I don't know the name or I guess I should say cultivar of this rose. I only know that it is very old and I mean the actual plant. My grandmother had it for years and years. When she passed I transplanted it before her home was sold. It's one of three plants I took from her yard. I almost lost it last year, but it's making a come back. I couldn't even begin to describe the color to you. The photo doesn't do it justice.

'Grandmother's Rose'

This is Canna Lily Canna x generalis 'Futurity Yellow'. I've had it for several years and this past summer it got divided into four sections and planted in the new bed under the Tulip Poplar. I was told it wouldn't do very well there, but it seems to be thriving. The Poplar bed is one of four new beds Jamie and I put in this year. It still looks pretty empty because most of what was planted in it is still in the ground sleeping. I'll be sure to post plenty of picture of it and the other beds next spring. It is just impossible for me to document everything we've done this past Summer. It's just simply too much. I'm just going to have to make a big effort to keep this blog up to date from this point further. I'll try my very best, though my schedule is hectic.

'Futurity Yellow'

The New Tropical and Woodland bed is a work in progress. I'll try to post some picture to show exactly where we are with it some time this week. I did add four new plants to it this afternoon, but since I'm only posting pictures of the actual blooms in our yard you will just have to wait. Just like me.