Fall

As we leave summer behind and head into fall, I decided it was time to look at what worked and what did not work in my garden. Lots of things were trial and error this year. I gained sun, but drainage remains a problem. My backyard is so tiny, but it is where I do almost all of my gardening. It is a real challenge to find the best plants I can.

Here are a few things that worked:

I bought a small turk's cap just to see how it would do in the shade side of the yard. So far, so good with this plant.

This is the bed along side the garage. It is always a challenge as it gets hot late afternoon sun for only about 2 hours. I decided to use mainly my

garden "treasures" in this bed, adding just a few plants. I have been very pleased with the results.

This is a pass-along maiden hair fern from my Mother's best friend. The tree we removed always gave it shade, and I was so afraid it would die with the added light, but it has flourished. This is a very special plant to me.

Uh...isn't this Elephant Ear? Guess it is doing really well...but....I never planted an Elephant Ear! No...the previous owner didn't either. We bought this house new 25 years ago. Where did this come from??

I always had begonias across the front of the house, but grew so tired of them. I went with profusion zinnias this year..and will use them again next year. They still look beautiful, and are practically maintenance free.

Now...let's talk about what didn't work!

Columbine Texas Gold..ugh! Everyone I know that has shade has beautiful columbine. I tried so hard. What went wrong?




I planted this Russian Sage in the hot sun, but it looks pitiful. I think it may be the drainage problem we have in this area. I will leave it though and see what happens next year.

This is my project for next year--the bed along the side of the house by the driveway. It gets late morning and afternoon sun. It stays pretty dry, although the sprinkler system will water it. I have not decided what to do here...but I am digging everything up as soon as I have time.

All ideas are greatly appreciated! :)

And, I hate to tell you that this is my biggest disappoint- ment: the wildflower garden.

In April the bluebonnets were so pretty. I had visions of this bed loaded with many different flowers, all standing tall and blooming forever.

It just didn't happen. The bed gets good sun, and not too much water...so what happened? You can see the few coneflowers left, I already pulled the clasping coneflowers up, the mexican hat never bloomed, the salvia greggi (to the right, you can't see it) has nice foliage, but no blooms. Even the cosmos doesn't look good. I guess it's this clay soil. I need to amend it, but the bluebonnet seeds I planted are coming up, and I don't want to disturb them. I don't know what to do with this bed. I dream of a bed full of tall blooming flowers, but it has remained only a dream.

So, I will get out my gardening books and look for new things to try. Isn't that what this gardening thing we do is all about. Sometimes we fail, many times we succeed...and all the time we hope.

"Gardening is an exercise in optimism. Sometimes, it is the triumph of hope over experience."

Marina Schinz

Happy Fall everyone!