The rains came, the grass greened, and all was well for a few weeks, but now it’s dry again. I shouldn’t complain though since it hasn’t been hot enough to kill off anything, just a few wilting annuals and sad looking, dry dahlias. Fortunately the perennials have deep enough roots to carry on, and overall the front yard doesn’t look too bad.
The front border may be dry, but there’s still enough color and texture to keep things interesting. I watered a little after taking these pictures…. the guilt of wilting zinnias and coleus was too much of a weight on my conscience.
When things go dry I start to lose interest. The plants look sad and I hate watering, so my daily inspections just turn into bored sighs and a quick return to the porch furniture or air conditioning. It’s a shame since so many things are still peaking and a little water would do a world of good for my thin quick-to-dry “topsoil”.
The sedums (maybe sedum spectabile “Brilliant”?) are in full bloom with bees galore, and help give some nice solid color to what otherwise might be too busy a planting.
I don’t like a planting that limps into autumn in a half dead state of decay. I want something that hangs on until the last hard freeze forces things to come crashing down to an end. In the front yard that means a mix of long season “lingerers”, late perennials, grasses of course, and plenty of planted and self sown annuals.
It’s mostly green in this border in June, but the color really revs up in September. The yellow rudbeckias in bloom now came up as seedlings in June (when I finally got around to weeding and dividing and planting my way through this bed).
Occasionally some of the earlier perennials take a second bow. This clump of delphiniums was great in June (for a few days before strong winds flattened them all), but now they’re back for some late season color.
Green grass, full borders, and rebloom on the delphinium. The next storm will surely flatten them (again) but for now this corner by the garage is a nice welcome home. This picture is looking out from the garage, across the walk to the front door, and on to the front border along the street.
The beds along the house are ok too, but much calmer. This year I tried to limit the usual “too much color” look and stick with more gray and blue tones with some yellow of course. The red coleus just happened…. you know I can’t go cold turkey when there is open soil and a few extra plants in my hands 🙂
The plants are a little spotty, but the overall effect is much calmer than last year…. even with a couple clumps of orange mums coming along 🙂
I guess a bright accent by the front door is sorta acceptable. This almost became the year of the geranium considering how two pots overwintered became eight big plants when divided. I really shouldn’t, but maybe I can just roll this pot into the garage and hope for the best when winter kicks in. I’ve already got nearly a billion plants coming in so what’s one more pot?
Potted geraniums, a perfect container plant for gardeners with a less than perfect watering record. Seeing the blue leadwort (ceratostigma) blooming reminds me that I wanted to try a few colchicums here.
So the front garden is aging gracefully and as long as a little rain comes our way it should still be a nice, colorful fall. Seeing the pot full of geraniums reminds me of some developments this year which could now become an ugly problem. My containers have been multiplying and it might be time for some plant confessions.
sorta like suburbia 