. . . toured the garden (Pt. 2)

Here are coral peonies surrounded by green and red smokebushes. I bought these little tiny sick looking smokebushes in a nursery's "scratch & dent" area about five years ago. They have thrived in my garden. We should probably prune them down to the ground occasionally, but I like that they provide privacy. There is a little ninebark bush blooming there, too. I like the combo of the dark red and coral.



I built this area completely by myself; dug out all the sand from the sand trap that used to be here; paved the area with bricks; lined the four sides with rock. I like to plant something unusual in this urn on a pedestal that sits in the middle of the patio. It started earlier this year with the million bells, a lime and white hosta, and orange-blooming begonias. But the deer ate the leaves off the hosta and most of the begonias, so I stuck in a little red shrub and another different (cheaper) kind of begonia, then sprayed the entire garden copiously with "Liquid Fence". I smelled the urine from that product for a long time, but the deer have stayed away. The urn doesn't look as good as it did before, but it's okay.



This is an area that was in complete sun until the redbud tree grew so big that it became a shadier space. There are still some daylilies that do all right, but I have replaced a lot of the plants with different kinds of hostas. I love hostas and daylilies; plant 'em, ignore 'em and wait for them to bloom and/or get bigger. No fuss gardening.



This area was the last of the three phases of the sun garden. It used to be where I stuck transplants, There's yet another smokebush. This thing was literally a stick from another bush that I stuck in the ground. It rooted, looked like crap for a few years, and is now thriving. Everything in this area is a transplant except for the bronze colored coral bells. I liked the colors together.


This pictures shows the steps and path leading from my self-made patio into the sun garden. Until we trim the smokebush, it's impassable. A baby clematis is trying to climb the right side of the arbor. I think I'm done with the sun garden (for this year, anyway).

Blogger won't let me show more than these five pictures, so I may post a part 3 to the tour. I haven't shown pictures of my "Baby Betsy" daylily, or my "Just Joey" rose. I could show pictures of the shade garden, but I'm still trying to figure out how to terrace it (and how to haul the rock to use) and how its drainage will work. The dirt in the shade garden is hard clay and hasn't improved much despite the mulch and compost I throw on it; I would like to raise the terraced beds and add better soil. I think I'll do it in stages too, and I want to get started before long so I won't have to work in the heat and humidity, because I am a wuss.