The heat of the summer of 2012 melted my desire to photograph and log my plants. We were on water restrictions and things did not look good at all. To be honest, over the winter, I barely thought about the yard. Then we moved. Listed the house in January, sold it in February, moved out in April. Goodbye shade garden and Hello to full sun! I've had to start from scratch with a completely different set of options. It has been exciting and overwhelming. Fear of failure causes me to sit and stare for long periods of time.
My old address was 4th St. This has been a normal Spring and an easy summer so far. I've driven by the old house and it seems everything is in its PRIME!! Pangs of guilt & sadness then waves of pride is what I feel. Since I moved before Spring, I did not take anything with me and my sun exposure is so different I'm afraid some of my faves would burn up here anyway. Plus, I had no plan. I've heard the new owner (who confessed at the closing that she has a black thumb and kills everything that her dogs don't dig up - (gasp)) has hired a landscaper to take care of the yard. She was indifferent to what was there, because it was a bare winter scene at the time of exchange, but then told me she was quite surprised at how much was coming up and blooming. Last week I drove around to the back of the house and stood on my car to peek into the backyard and my Annabelle Hydrangea was GORGEOUS!! I felt kind of creepy so I won't do that again, and my curiosity was mostly soothed.
So, now starts the goodbye 4th St shade and Hello Appleton sun!
Now I am going to blast this post with the photos I did take last year and never posted. Just for memory sake......
My Sum & Substance Hostas really had a great start, but the slugs & snails were ruthless. Those big waxy leaves were covered with holes and the stems had been eaten so badly that they were not strong enough to hold the leaves upright. These photos were just the beginning... it was kind of sad really
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| Backyard Peony. Finally - I found the perfect spot for this one! However, it bloomed 3 or 4 lovely blooms that wound up face down in the grass covered in ants. I'm done. I ripped it out. I'm so over this plant |
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| Shasta daisy. Only a few blooms - but they were powerful. Just didn't get enough sun for a large grouping. |
Favorite! Large Clematis blooms. Waited 3 years for this one
Tried something new. I put a hibiscus tree in a front pot and swore to myself that I'd take it inside come frost time. The tree only bloomed a few at a time, then rested a week then set out more blooms. But other trees I'd see had constant blooms....don't know what I did wrong, but no matter, because I did not winter it, so it did not survive. That was a mistake. This would have looked great at the new house.
These were the bloom heads. I have no idea what is covering them, but I went to the nursery and looked at their hibiscus plants and none of them looked like this. Weird.
My Bee Balm from Amy
This Hydrangea, which I've nursed for a few years now finally begins to show off. In previous years I had 1 or 2 bight pink blooms - very pretty but not enough flowers to be showy. This summer is bursted with lots of blooms - but the colors had changed. Not complete and total pink - but with white frames on the petals. And the white rim is thicker or thinner on other blooms. Why is this?
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| Endless Summer Hydrangea |
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| Endless Summer Hydrangea flower head |
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| Endless Summer Hydrangea flower and leaves Now this Flower is PURPLE with white - same bush!! |
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| Endless Summer Hydrangea with dark pink, light pink and purple blooms |
Next to the Hydrangea is the Ligularia "The Rocket" This is the 2nd one to be planted here. It looked great, but I do not know if it survived the end of the summer.
I was so excited for those tall yellow blooms to spread around the Hydrangea and shield the view to the under side of the deck
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 This is another Endless Summer Hydrangea - but this one is Blue. I laid down down some heavy hints and luckily was heard loud and clear, so I received 2 of these for Mother's Day. I think it got too hot too quick and I was not generous enough with water or fertilizer. They were puny by the end of the summer and I did not winter them. I was unsure if I needed to. Spring 2013 there was no sign of them. I had them in pots on either side of a white arbor, just to cover more of the structure. Hostas were supposed to grow at the base of the pots and cover thier plainness. I got both these large pots (filled with good dirt) from freecycle, so this whole plan worked out great.....except for both of the hydrangeas dying. A the end of that experiment, I'm still not sure what to do with potted Hydrangeas. All my readings have different advise. It's so confusing sometimes.... |
I really loved my Astilbes - they looked great with the Hydrangeas
My deck planters. This year was the year of the Coleus. I loved this corner when it got big!
This is one of my favorite combinations - Coleus with Blackie Pototoe Vine. This looked really good. The only disappointing thing is that I found Blackie does to root as easy as the other Sweet Potato Vines
I tired my hands at succulents. The little green alien things are called baby toes. They were kind of freaky -people could not help but touch them and they broke off easily. Sadly the Baby Toes did not survive
This corner was not to pretty. The green vine coming up out of the pot is from a sweet potato I bought from the store and rooted. It was very vigorous but not pretty at all. No more of that next year.
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