A Few September Highlights

Okay, so it's not all bad in my garden... there are a few areas that I am enjoying, now that they've been a little cleaned up. (4 GIANT bags' worth of cleanup, and counting!)  

First and foremost are the two chimney tile planters--these chimney tiles were my best garden trashpick ever, by the way, and I think that my back still twinges with the memory every time I look at them.  Both were planted with 'Vodka' wax begonias and other complementary colored and silver plants.  The sunnier one features a combination of lantana and 'Silver Falls' dichondra:

'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth and Japanese bloodgrass make nice surrounding companions, along with various small-textured herbs.

The shadier planter is much tougher to photograph, due to the unnamed brugmansia, 'Black Lace' elderberry, and peach tree that tower above it.  (Okay, and due to my lack of camera skills.) But it features 'Gartenmeister' fuchsia and this silver lotus vine:

That silvery leaf encroaching on the lower right side of this picture is collard greens, by the way. I didn't realize that collards would be so pretty, or I would  have placed them a little more prominently among the veggies!

Speaking of veggies, I kind of wish that someone had warned me that tomatillo plants have genetically ingrained plans for garden domination.  My SINGLE plant is scrambling over 2 different tomatoes, a blueberry bush, an elderberry, a rhododendron, eggplant, and much more. You can see it above--and hovering over the sunny tile planter in some of those shots, too.

Last but not least is my native honeysuckle, lonicera sempervirens.  I can't talk enough about how awesome this plant is, how long it flowers, and how carefree it is.  And every time I stop to admire it, I think about how I first admired it in the garden of the lovely Annie in Austin... which makes me smile.

I'm trying to be more positive about the garden, so if I can successfully dodge raindrops I promise to find a few more photos and post them later this week. (Thanks again to everyone who left kind words of encouragement for this cranky gardener!)

At Least Someone Enjoys a Messy Garden

Confession time: My garden is a total, absolute WRECK.  I'm neither kidding nor exaggerating... it's so bad that I refuse to take photos to post on this blog. Rather like how, when I was 60lbs heavier than I am now, I refused to let anyone take any pictures of me... I prefer to have no documentation of my shame!

How bad is the garden?  Well... lets just say that yesterday I filled up 4 of those supertall brown paper garden waste bags with stuff that I didn't want to compost. (I also refilled both compost bins with things that were OK to compost, plus the last of the shredded leaves from the previous autumn.) 

And, after all that effort... it's still not photo-ready.  *sigh*

Well, at least this guy likes a messy garden.  More places for him to hide--and, ultimately, to find dinner:

(He didn't seem to be too excited about my cleanup, by the way. Or maybe he, like my garden, just doesn't like the camera right now, either!)

More blogging soon... after a little more cleanup!