Over the past week or so I've walked around parts of our yard with my camera, capturing some of the late summer beauty going on.
Or lack therof.
Two things I learned this summer: I should not bother growing vegetables and it was a "really summer for weeds". Ugh.
I currently have four garden areas. One is at the bottom of the driveway, one is the Birdbath Bed where the birdfeeders are located, one is the fenced-in perennial/vegetable/fruit bush/pet cemetary garden and finally, the Bloom garden.
The end of the driveway beds and the Birdhouse Bed are pretty much on auto pilot. The Birdhouse Bed was planted by the previous owner and is in need of some attention but generally does it own thing. At the end of the driveway I have some tall grasses, hosta and impatiens. Given the length of our driveway (long), those plants are pretty much on their own as well. During the hottest part of the summer I try to remember to throw a milk jug full of water in my car so I can show them a little love.
The two gardens where I *attempted* to have any kind of active role were the Bloom garden and the fenced garden. In a nutshell: Bloom garden=success, fenced garden=big, overgrown jungle!
The Bloom garden has two distinct advantages. First, it's close to the house and therefore close to the water supply--which means I can easily hook up a sprinkler and water there. Second, it's highly visible from the house. As I sit at my desk the Bloom garden is my view. Highly motivating.
Oh, one more thing. The soil is so poor and full of roots, weeds don't really grow in there.
Especially not compared to the fenced garden...
Oh yes, the fenced flower and vegetable garden.
Things started off pretty well. I spent a few afternoons in there early on weeding, planting and putting down landscape fabric. Then a funny thing happened. It was time to water and I really didn't appreciate having to hook together and drag three hoses to the garden--only to have the sprinkler leak. So I didn't really water. During the dry part of the summer, that did the zucchini in. Then we started getting plenty of rain. The weeds loved it. Just to give an example, I put down an old rug in the garden. The idea being that it would suffocate everything under it and next year I could plant in that area. Ha. Weeds are growing out of the rug.
How does that even happen? Weeds are also growing under the landscape fabric--probably because I never got around to covering it with mulch or stones. Gardener fail.
I did harvest tomatoes and a few peppers. I also grew cilantro, basil, rosemary and mint. Too bad the garden feels so far away from the house so that I barely remembered to go there.
Two things that did thrive in that garden were the plants on my arbor. Two years ago there were just a few small vines of wisteria growing out of the ground near the fence. I twirled them around the arbor and the rest is history. Also growing on the arbor is Sweet Autumn Clematis.
I love this plant. It looks so beautiful this time of year with the profusion of delicate white blooms. Mysterious thing is, I never planted it. Somehow though it's growing perfectly up the arbor, flourishing. Either the birds brought it or our neighbor to the rear (whom I rarely see) planted it there. She had offered me some a couple of years ago out of her garden, but I never made it to her yard to dig it up. I'm pretty sure I was the victim of a random, and beautiful, act of kindness :-).
Before we know it, gardening season will be over for the year and it'll be time to plan for next year. I think next year my focus will be revamping the foundation beds at the front of our house. We ripped out a bunch of overgrown shrubs this summer so it's looking a little...lame. Of course the Bloom garden will get some love, as will the Birdhouse Bed.
As for the fenced garden?
That might just get the lawnmower.
