Your garden

[donhakman]

Outside DC our 7 ft tall spider blooms are nearing their end. The garden runs 200 feet inside our fence and 3 smaller gardens outside.
The pungent honey suckle has flowered and turned to fluff. The jewel berry bushs have lavender purple berries. The 3 petal blue flowers (Trillium?) continue to appear in the morning or cloudy days. White Flox, strawberry plants and potted mums are around the hot tub.
I continue to find little garden statues that were grown over for the last 10 to 30 years. Several hanging accents have grown into the branches of the cherry and crab apple trees.
While digging I think I found a lightning strike of fused sand and earth. In the fathest darkest corner I made a rock garden with a sand beach with large 2-5 ft. antique sailing ships (coated with urethane) near a small hillside with ceramic houses.
I found a Maddona statue and put the South Park Jesus and Satan in her arms. The garden is not without a sense of humor or a variety of outdoor furniture of swinging benches, hammocks, an iron bench and assorted chairs. In the center of one patio I have my natural maple tree trunk table and black walnut bench. My wife is delighted to finally get these out of the house. I guess tree trunk furniture is a guy thing.

While most people see the pool in the center I see the garden, evergreens and shrubs that surrounds and overhangs much of the free form 45ft. swimming pool.

I have over a hundred bulbs to plant for spring. They are mostly blue and white hyacinths and other blue and white flowering bulbs. I think I'll put the black and white tulips on the west side of the house.
Black tulips have a very interesting history by the way...

[crispini]

1. awwwwwwwwwwww .........

My garden is holding up OK under the neglect caused by me spending every spare moment doing democratic activist stuff. The only thing that's actually DIED was the jasmine (sniff!) but it was never that healthy anyway, required LOTS of extra attention, mulching weekly and plenty of Garrett juice. I think the soil here is too acidic, or something. I need to pull it out and do something with it. The lawn is a little brown because I haven't been watering, but we're going to get some rain today. Other than that, the Turk's Cap has grown like crazy and attracts lots of butterflies and hummingbirds... this is my favorite thing in my garden. The tomatoes in the veggie garden have revived and started bearing again. All of my herbs are doing really well, choc mint and I had THREE Mexican Heathers grow where last year I only had one.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Acidic soil in Texas?

Surely you jest.

FWIW, I've gone through several jasmine plants here. No luck either.
Our soil here is notoriously clay. I usually end up pouring coffee grounds on everything to give it a good balance. It helps, but isn't foolproof.

:-)
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[tigereye]

4. we have clay too

keep putting various soils in it and mixing. That's what I do.

[crispini]

7. Or alkaline, whatever.

I can never remember about the pH thing but I remember reading somewhere if it's wrong jasmines don't like it.

re: clay... Compost compost compost... I have same soil just 50+ years of gardeners before me, supplementing it! So now I have a good 5 inches of topsoil, nice black loam. See why you should't have bought a new house? :P

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. Hee heee!

No, I know what to do; just costs a little more.

I had to start completely from scratch here. Crappy dead thatchy yard that I tilled to bits! I added tons and tons and TONS of compost. I started my own bin too; it was going great guns for awhile, but I neglected it this summer. Now I think it's got lots of weeds in it. I need to check it.

But I do find that coffee works wonders down here. Even after composting and mixing it in before planting, coffee helps to maintain a little bit of acidity for plants that need it.

Case in point: I've tried clematis down here before, but never had any success. They died nearly immediately. One last time, I told myself. I planted an autumn clematis this past spring, and it just sat there, but I nursed it lovingly with lots of coffee in addition to its waterings.

I neglected it a bit the last few weeks of summer, but when I went out the other day, the teepee I'd put it on was overflowing with beautiful teeny white blossoms. It was a beautiful canopy of creamy white! It was SOOOOO pretty!

But the teepee had fallen over. And I had to try to untangle the vines. So what did I do? Even though I was trying to be SO careful, I cut the main stem. CRAP!

So my clematis is no more. :-(

I'm hoping to invest in some mums and orange and black pansies before the party. :-)

Thanks tigereye! I'll be posting lots of pix; don't worry!
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[crispini]

15. You can get free used coffee grounds

from Starbucks. Reduce, reuse, recycle! :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

17. and I DO! =)

I LOVE that! Just discovered it a couple months ago. Isn't it great?

Call me after lunch for a frustrated rant. :eyes:
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[fudge stripe cookays]

2. I'm looking forward to FINALLY

getting our waterfall going before winter.

The pond sat there all summer getting gross. I've been treating it with anti-mosquito stuff. All we need now is the check valve for our pump and LOTS of rocks to put around it.

I'm going to get it all hooked up for our Halloween party. My lamb's ears have gone hog wild giving the area where I put them some much needed interest. My herb bed is looking a little scraggly though.

My catmint is doing wonderfully, as is my basil. And the scarlet runner beans have taken off.

My weigela is finally doing something; it's been getting bigger and bigger over the summer. Good to see it finally beginning to fill in its bed. But much of the garden saw neglect this summer as I divided my time between voter reg and Halloween props.

I need to re-mulch my paths before the party. This weekend it's supposed to be beautiful and cool. I've got a huge area I'm going to till, then cover with pebbles near the pond. I have a wooden pallette for sitting on top. I'm going to get a thick foam mat and cover it with festive fabric, then sit Halloween pillows on it for the party. And hopefully we'll be getting a fire pit for everyone to sit around too.

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[tigereye]

10. scarlet runner beans!

I had some and didn't get around to putting them in. I planted Hummingbird vine/Cardinalis late and it is growing wildly now, but it is probably too late for hummingbirds. I also planted black eyed Susan vine. I love vines!

Everything else except annuals in pots ( I had lobelia that lasted all summer - unprecedented, since it usually croaks from the heat right out of the gate), and some perennials that bloom late, are pretty much toast. Coreopsis are done, other daisies are done, some Mexican paintbrush are still going.

I had wisteria that kept blooming on and off and I have to keep hacking at it to avoid it surrounding the house.

Now I need to put more bulbs in.

Happy planting and Halloweening to you, FSC. Hope you put up some pix, it sounds great. I love Halloween.

[fudge stripe cookays]

16. Thanks tige.

I'll definitely put up pix of the party and surrounding scenery. Many local DUers will be present, so it'll be a blast!

I wish I could plant lobelia here. No way! I found some delphiniums at Lowe's a couple months ago, and they actually held up for quite awhile. No telling if they'll come back or not.

And I had 5 huge foxglove plants, but then a few months ago, all of them just up and died. I don't know what happened. It made me very sad. They were so beautiful. They wre on their way to taking over my bed. :-(

I have one little peach snapdragon peaking out of my one bed after my purple coneflowers died back, and I had 2 tiny Jacob's ladders emerge. Of ALL the seeds I planted a few months ago, the snapdragon and JL's were all I got. :eyes:

[tigereye]

19. I had a lot of luck with seeds this year

many of the annuals I planted and some perennials were from seed. I didn't buy many perennials that were adult this year. I have some snapdragons that self-seed every year... and this year they were colorful again.

My son usually picks out flowers for some sidewalk planters we have... and those all did well, too. He picked nice color combination. There was salvia and violas, marigolds, and galliarda, and those daisy like flowers that like salt air ( can't remember what they are called) and other daisy- like flowers. I have a lot of echinachia myself that sit in a bed with the black eyed susans and they were REALLY tall this summer. Plus I have my Jackmanni Clematis that was done in June, but really beautiful. Like I said I lust after vines!

Happy fall.

[fudge stripe cookays]

20. Sea holly?

Are those the daisy ones with sea air affection?

[tigereye]

22. they look like galliarda

I think the term starts with a g... they are really pretty. Usually they are yellow and orange with brown centers.

[TX-RAT]

5. My gardens covered with intermittent flash's of browns and whites.

Damn them deer. I have to run them out 3 or 4 times a day.

[crispini]

8. Hee!

Squirrels eat my tomatoes. At least in the spring. Little tree rats.

[demnan]

6. I bought some Spring bulbs to plant

I'll take up the gladiolas left by the previous owner and put in minuature daffodils, crocuses and tulips. Just got some button mums in pots to put out. That should do me this fall.

I have a condo and only have a garden that is 3 ft by 1 1/2 feet, but I do the best I can.

Next year I might try some tomatoes in pots for the patio.

[donhakman]

9. When we had a balcony I did this...

A deli was thowing away some steel wire baskets so I stuck them under the railing and voila - an outside the railing garden!

[ZenLefty]

12. Squirrels have assumed command.

They take the pears from the tree, and gnaw at them until they get to the seeds in the middle, spitting out the fruit as they go. The half-eaten pear is then discarded on the plants below, until ZenLefty goes around with a garbage bag and picks them up. I've tried to cut all the pears off the tree, but it's huge, and there are bundles of them where I can't see, let alone reach.

Other than that, half the plants died when we went on vacation and the person who was supposed to water them, well, sort of forgot. Things should come back next year, though, and we'll have a nice fresh start.

On the brighter side... the Irish moss is doing very well, as are the many species of hosta and sedum. Pestemons (sp?) are doing great. Morning Glories are creeping up everything in sight, but they're kind of a weed so I don't really think they count. The front bed is fantastic as usual - lamb's ear, artemis, yarrow, and a few I don't know the names of.

A lot of the plants I put down in the Japanese garden this spring aren't doing as well as I'd hoped. But the things that did do well (veronica, hens-n-chicks, thyme, lupines) I'll plant more of next year.

[fudge stripe cookays]

14. I'm jealous!

I love morning glories. Usually, I have tons of them, but this year I tried a different type (white with blue stripes) over my little iron teepee in the back yard, and they did absolutely NOTHING.

I wish I'd planted the regular blue ones, but got neglectful with everything else going on. Maybe next year!

Squirrels can be a pain in the butt. But out where we live, there aren't too many trees, except the big ones in our yard. Our neighborhood is older than some in town, so our trees are beginning to age nicely. We've started having some of the little visitors, and they're so funny I can't stay mad at them. As long as I put chickenwire down for my bulbs, I'm OK.

I leave little china cups full of seed and peanuts out for them. They dig that.

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[ZenLefty]

23. Morning glories grow like weeds out here.

We've never planted any, they just came with the land. Next year, I'm putting a deck over where many of them grow, and it won't surprise me if they find a way to grow around the weed barrier and smother the deck. :o I don't mind so much, though - I like a lot of plants out there.

[barb162]

13. just got done planting a pink-flowered potentillas yesterday

and will get a endless summer hydrangea in the ground today. Squirrels are breally busy right now and the chipmunks too. I have been doing a redesign of the front most of the summer. An extremely large job as it involved pulling two trees and replanting more native trees, ground covers,etc.

[Red State Rebel]

18. My rose garden is still in full bloom :)

I'm still wanting to add a few more bushes to it (Knockout variety) and I have an old table and chair I'm going to paint in various pastel colors to set out there. I want it to look like someone was enjoying a cup of tea and just got up to wander around the grounds so I'm gluing a cup and saucer to the table and maybe a straw hat to the chair.

My perennial gardens are fading - mums are blooming tho. Petunias and impatiens are getting leggy so I'm going to cut them back this weekend. They should keep blooming till the cold gets them.

I just got finished looking at iris bulbs online and I'm hoping to start a new garden down below the house with those and some daylillies.

[fudge stripe cookays]

21. Cool idea Fred!

I love teacup decorating.

I've got a couple feeders I made myself from antique store finds. I glue em to broom handles and plant them, then fill em with seed or peanuts for the squirrels.

I like that idea. Might have to try it myself!
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