How Does Your Garden Grow

Know ya'll are wondering how the yard is progressing after planting those 200 plants!

Here's my mom's Shade Garden. She looks out on it from her bedroom window.

She did it almost all by herself - her trusty little hole digger and opinion giver was on hand for some of it, but she pretty much aced this one on her own!
The Japanese Maple was moved by our landscapers and was purple in the spring.
Maybe next year when the Rose of Sharon we planted to the south of it grows, it will stay purple longer with more shade. One can only hope.


Gotta love having a sprinkler system. I'm glad I refused to drag hoses for Grammy and we got one! Despite needing several adjustments over the summer, it's been great. Even if only for entertainment. Yesterday, Grammy and Mike were adjusting one of the heads, and when they turned it on, water hit the pillar in the photo below, ricocheted off the metal and almost soaked Indy. It was funny, but not as funny as the day I adjusted a sprinkler head at Grammy's Alpine house while she was standing there telling me what to do, and the doohickey popped off and she got nailed right below her neck but above her waist, if you know what I mean!
Now THAT was funny!

So here's the upper patio - Indy's Special Chair to the left! Can you see the big bush (Lantana) at the bottom taking over the patio? Last year it was 3' high and this year it'd be over 5' high but we keep it trimmed for our own protection. The butterflies love it. But when it was shorter, the cats considered it their walk-by snack stand. Poor butterflies! Now that it's taller they aren't getting caught nearly as much and the cats have to come home to munch.

We've have tons of gorgeous butterflies and hummingbirds in the yard now.

And in the East

To the West
We're waiting for birdbath's to go on sale to complete the trio of pots
in the area now known as the Dead Zone (of noxious clay).

Swamp Hibiscus
These are wonderful perennial shrubs. We weren't sure what it was last summer when we bought it, along with my Patio Pot Plant (seriously that was the tag so you know I had to buy it) which turned out to be a pretty purple Princess Flower. I'll photo the Princess when she blooms which should be soon.

Anyway, I digress. Since the Swamp withstood our winter in the pot on the patio, (coldest temp about 10 degrees), we bought two more this year. The blooms are as big as dinner plates!

AND THAT'S HOW THE GARDEN GROWS!