gardening III.

11 December 2004

This summer, Merrystar and I spent a lot of time working on our gardens. I took some pictures in August but other things have been more exciting of late.

In the front, the balloon flowers (second row) maintained consistent blooms for most of the summer.

The pentas (first row) burst free of their little pots and went absolutely nuts, growing to about two feet tall by October. Here you can see them just beginning to shoot up and obscure the entire bed.

Unfortunately, the pentas attracted all manner of wasps and bees. One of them stung Merrystar, so that sealed the penta’s fate.

To replace the tight-n-bright that we ripped out to the side, we repotted the plants that were there and added a gaura. The gaura is truly a crazy little plant. Merrystar loves it.

The backyard is a mudpit no more. Well, it’s less of a mudpit; it’s still swampy, but we filled it up with flower beds and water-loving plants, so it’s a more hospitable mudpit.

A quick look through the history of the mudpit:

This is the view from the bookroom before we did any work. Ugh. I’m so ashamed.

Looking better with a half-ton of gravel and some beds.

And after we’d gotten things in place:

Much better.

I took some videos to help orient visitors to the layout of the backyard. Grainy, but you get the idea:

• survey
• turn left
• go straight

Here’s the view from the trees outside:

Under the deck (still needs work.)

Wide shot of the backyard:

Along the back fence:

From the birdbath:

The deck creates a shaded area where we’ve planted some bleeding hearts, mountain laurel, and astilbe.

Must. Hide. A/C Unit.

Up on the deck we had a chaste tree that we moved (in September) down into the corner by the AC unit.

And, the flower boxes that we’re going to get rid of in the spring:

Of course, it’s now December, so most all the plants are gone. Last weekend I yanked the pentas out of the front bed, cut back the remaining plants, and cleaned out the undergrowth in the boxwood hedges. Ditto in the back yard, leaving only the mountain laurel, chaste tree, and azalea standing. I put in some springtime bulbs out front, but otherwise that’s it for gardening this year.