October: Big News, Little Blooms (GBBD)

Hard to believe that I took these photos more than a week ago already... and yet the garden looks so different now, just 7 days later. Cold weather and chilly evenings have started to take their toll, but all of what you see in these next few photos is still in bloom:

Blue caryopteris and 'Black & Blue' salvia provide a nice habitat for George the Giraffe

When backlit, the flower spikes of 'Hameln' pennisetum positively glow

Acapulco agastache is a reliable late-season bloomer for me... if only it still looked this vibrant!

A larger (re)bloom on my African daisy (Gazania) 

Cool-toned Russian sage flowers separate the self-sown 'Lady in Red' salvia, front, and 'Hopi Red Dye' amaranth

VERY late this year: First blooms on the pineapple sage

Cool+Wet=Reblooming 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort

A surprise rebloom on my (unnamed, but probably Jackmanii) clematis

Last but not least, the big news: Steve and I are engaged!  We had gone ring shopping together more than a month ago, but I was still very surprised.  I wasn't sure which ring he had ultimately chosen out of the 2 or 3 antique rings I liked best... and I definitely had no clue that he had already spoken to my parents to ask for their blessing.  I didn't quite comprehend when he dropped down on one knee on the beach and reached into his pocket during an afternoon walk at a beachfront park... but, luckily, I recovered in sufficient time to stammer out a "Yes!" and a huge smile.  Needless to say, we are both very excited!!!

Not nearly as excited is this old girl... can't you tell? Sister knows that once we get married and Steve moves in, she's going to have to endure his torture... but secretly, I think that they both enjoy running each other around the backyard, chasing the little yellow tennis ball and tugging at sticks. And, although he doth protest with a, "Really, dog?" here and there, Steve scratches Coco's belly readily enough when she rolls over at his feet and presents it. 

So I'm thinking that they will be just fine.  :)

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!

The Best Watermelon I (N)Ever Grew...

Isn't it a beauty? Bigger than any of the ones I grew last year, and still growing!  I didn't have a hand in planting it, however, I was just smart enough to let it grow.  Ma Nature decided to seed this watermelon next to the driveway and remind me who's really the top gardener around here.  (As if I could forget!)

In the end, I still win--I will get to enjoy its deliciousness in a few weeks.  :)

Color vs. Texture: Which is Your Favorite Type of Contrast?

I posted a LOT of silvery shots yesterday for the August Foliage Follow-Up, so I thought that it might also be interesting to show the only two non-silver photos that ended up on my hard drive after my foliage-focused garden tour. After uploading the photos, I realized that they illustrate two very different types of contrast that I play with in my garden: Color contrast, and texture contrast.

Mega-watt color contrast:

Green 'Chubby Fingers' sedum, dark 'Chocolate Chip' ajuga and golden creeping jenny mingle amiably on the edge of the driveway garden.  In a closeup photo like this, you can see some textural contrasts as well... but in the grand scheme, when you are viewing the garden from normal height, these small-scale groundcovers all provide a similar, fine texture for the garden floor.

Textural contrast:

'Hameln' pennisetum, sedum spurium* and oakleaf hydrangea. All three plants feature a medium shade of green, with reddish/brownish accents in their flowers, stems and leaves... but the oakleaf hydrangea leaves are bold, and the fine-textured sedum and grass differ in leaf shape for additional textural interest.

Foliage contrast is much more obvious, of course. It's like the tight minidress that flaunts a woman's assets and leaves little to the imagination. Textural contrast, to continue the fashion analogy, is more like the dress that looks demure from the front but is (surprise!) completely backless and drop-dead sexy.  I enjoy using both kinds of contrast in my garden, along with some plant form contrast thrown in for good measure. (And a few areas of low contrast, too, to give the eye a place to rest.)

So what kind of contrast do you all employ in your own gardens? Do you tend to steer clear of all contrast, or do you find that one type of contrast is more pleasing than another to your eye?  I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on this... particularly as a have a few garden areas to revamp in the coming year!


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*Note: At various times, I have purchased 'Voodoo', 'Fuldaglut' and 'Dragon's Blood' sedum spurium, and each has been moved and transplanted so often that I have no idea which one(s) are in any particular area of the garden. They are much easier to tell apart in the springtime when their foliage colors are strongest--during the summer, as you can see above, they mostly fade to green. 'Voodoo' tends toward a chocolate or grayish red color, 'Dragon's Blood' to deep red, and 'Fuldaglut' often has a glow of bright green on the centers of its red leaf tips in the spring. I would recommend any or all of them for planting, if you are so inclined.