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30 year old house. In my third growing season. Still A LOT of work to do. Gardening in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Zone 7b. E-mail me at gsmith@email.com with comments!
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Much needed work on the backyard continues, but with much much work still to do. I have added a swing. It's very nice but the mosquitoes keep me from sitting there for too long. I have been hearing an owl occasionaly for the past couple of weeks. Black stem and black runner colocasia are quite showy. The banana shrub has done well, hiding the air conditioner as intended.
The new bed in the front has become very overgrown. Perennial sunflowers and zinnia have taken over. I have been having to cut back some of the sunflowers because they have been falling over. One good one is pushing 10 feet tall though. It's hard to believe that this area was all grass 6 months ago. Wiegela has grown exceedingly fast. They are all about 3 feet wide now. There have been some casualties - petunias and sambucus have died. The autumn moon japanese maple that I got at a bargain price a couple of months ago is doing spectacularly. It's hard to believe your eyes when you see a tree with yellow and red leaves in the middle of the summer.
The shade area around the new patio has done well, although I have been slack about keeping the weeds out. Hostas and caladiums planted early this spring have all done well. The hellebores and azaleas all look very good. I still want to put an arch in the middle of it. Impatients are doing well. There are many of them that came up from seed from last year.
Many of my cannas have struggled. The ones planted down near the road in particular. That is my swamp area. During heavy rains, water may stand there for a couple of days. But we haven't had any super heavy rains like last year. This is the area where the cypress trees died last year. The sea shore mallow is very showy, although not very tall. The joe pye weed is blooming, although still only about a foot tall. Zinnias dot the steep bank along the road, but overall the weeds are winning the battle.
Hopefully I will have some pictures soon. Too many weeds right now.
The new bed in the front has become very overgrown. Perennial sunflowers and zinnia have taken over. I have been having to cut back some of the sunflowers because they have been falling over. One good one is pushing 10 feet tall though. It's hard to believe that this area was all grass 6 months ago. Wiegela has grown exceedingly fast. They are all about 3 feet wide now. There have been some casualties - petunias and sambucus have died. The autumn moon japanese maple that I got at a bargain price a couple of months ago is doing spectacularly. It's hard to believe your eyes when you see a tree with yellow and red leaves in the middle of the summer.
The shade area around the new patio has done well, although I have been slack about keeping the weeds out. Hostas and caladiums planted early this spring have all done well. The hellebores and azaleas all look very good. I still want to put an arch in the middle of it. Impatients are doing well. There are many of them that came up from seed from last year.
Many of my cannas have struggled. The ones planted down near the road in particular. That is my swamp area. During heavy rains, water may stand there for a couple of days. But we haven't had any super heavy rains like last year. This is the area where the cypress trees died last year. The sea shore mallow is very showy, although not very tall. The joe pye weed is blooming, although still only about a foot tall. Zinnias dot the steep bank along the road, but overall the weeds are winning the battle.
Hopefully I will have some pictures soon. Too many weeds right now.
