Hose guard attempt: Pelargonium in a pot. Idea good, and it works, the pot being heavy, but the execution is sloppy: the stake, the irrigation flags, the piece of metal randomly stuck in the ground...
Attention to small details makes a garden all the better. I've been working on details lately. As a beginning gardener, just getting a plant to grow and thrive was my biggest thrill--but we gardeners always want more, don't we? More beauty, more...
Color coordination that brings out the best in each plant, that shows them at their best.
Not coordinated with anything, but looking its best anyway: Clematis 'Bourbon'
Blue, white, golden coordination:
Some small area details: the mailbox bed got some rehab last year but needed more. The plants chosen are sturdy, heat loving plants: Gaillardias, Coreopsis, a recovered Aloe aculeata that had spent time in a 'recovery' planter, and some annual Marigolds to fill spaces while other plants grow.
Looking uphill at the area:
The Dicliptera suberecta, planted last year, is about to flower for the first time. Also planted last year, the Teucrium appears to be thriving in a hot, very dry spot:
The Dicliptera is reported to be a Hummingbird favorite. Looking forward to see if it proves to be so here:
The Senecio came out in one large sheet:
I liked the Teucrium, which when it flowers, reads lavender to the eye--good with all the pinks:
The Cosmos seedlings are doing much better than my first attempt with them last year. I started planting them out--they're all pinched back hopefully to branch better than last year's.
So, that's it for this post. I still need to pull those random bits out from next to the Pelargonium hose guide. A garden is never finished.
yes, details like pinching cosmos make all the difference. My seedlings are punier than yours but on track in size for early June here. And that Aloe aculeata is such a looker, glad it recovered! Great spot for dicliptera so it can sprawl forward.
ReplyDeleteGood to know about the Dicliptera, thanks. San Marcos said it's a hummingbird favorite, so had to try it.
DeleteThe Cosmos were such a sweet joy last year through the summer heat, had to do again--gave them better care and they look better than last year. So hopeful for a repeat.
Love that Aculeata--hope it settles in. Hey a Sideritis cypria, descendent of the one you gave me, came up in that bed! Happy to see it there. Some come up and thrive regularly by the big 'Hercules' but are not easily visible. I leave them to it.
Love it--all of it! Cosmos sprinkled here and there--more magic!
ReplyDeleteThe Cosmos bring joy despite summer heat, and seem unfazed by it, too. Something to look forward to. Made up for the disappointing Dahlias last year.
DeleteYour garden always looks good! I've pretty much given up on Cosmos even though I love them - they seem to be a magnet for mildew here. Do you spray yours?
ReplyDelete?!??!! No mildew at all here. Didn't even know they got that. I got ordinary seeds from Armstrong's, not nifty colors mail-ordered. Just not organized enough. The ones for sale are the shorter kind and I like the tall ones that rise above the roses and sway in the breeze. No Zinnias this year--that's what has failed here, alas. I need to try harder with those, too.
Deleteclarification: the Cosmos plants for sale are the short kind. I got seeds of tall kind.
DeleteNice to read some of the thought processes behind the decisions that other gardeners make. I would like to do a better job with hose guards. I use stout sticks pushed into the ground.
ReplyDeleteI like that stuff too. It's so educational. I love 'Gardener's World' on Britbox where they talk the "whys" extensively. I've learned a lot.
DeleteThat particular pot is perfect--it's very heavy, first of all, and is curved inward at the base so the hose slides downward and stays where the rounded base meets the soil and doesn't rise up and escape to decapitate a plant.
Come to think of it, in another location I put a piece of rebar into the ground and then hid the rebar by putting a pot over it--the drain hole in the pot being the entry to the rebar. That's worked well for years....
DeleteAnd would we have it any other way? ("a garden is never finished") Your attention to detail is paying off. I love the idea of slipping cosmos into the garden and may steal your idea for next year, if I remember.
ReplyDeleteAlways baffled at plants-as-furniture--people who want them to look exactly the same all the time, including the same size---they are living things, not furniture!!
DeleteI was enamored with your variegated Farfugium last year and have been looking for it in local nurseries since: no luck.
ReplyDeleteI remember the mailbox bed renovation. Nothing like finding the right plant for the right spot: it's looking good!
Chavli
Getting there, the mailbox area. had to put wire protection around the marigolds--blankety blank rabbit. Thought rabbits wouldn't eat those. Grr!
DeleteThe variegated Farfugium was a one-time discovery that you either grab or regret not grabbing. That one I happened to grab. There are more out there somewhere, but where?
Got a variegated Monstera deliciousa recently--at Trader Joe's! I read the variegation on that one is not stable, so it may revert, sigh.
Orange and pink. A definite yes to the this combo. The variegated Farfugium. Ditto. As the garden matures it's the little tweaks that take it up to the next level. Keeps things interesting.
ReplyDeleteOrange and pink works for me. :)
DeleteThe gardens where people have gardened avidly for decades and continue to are often the best, as the little details are added to and refined and further refined over time. Lucky to be able to attempt that.