Xeriscaped Cottage Garden

Marg, I like it! I know what you mean about too many plants though. I have that trouble too. Usually as long as one section of a plant is still showing I leave it ... but I have had to move some that get totally covered up. lol

Hmmm.... I would probably be trying to get something groundcovery in the pot with the tree, and fretting about the vines not covering the fence...

It's your garden, space things the way that suits you. Beauty is very personal. I would say wait a little bit until it is stinkin hot before removing anything. Some plants will be perfectly happy in the heat, as long as they have sufficient water, and some will go a little dormant until fall. So the balance may change a little over the summer.

Thanks toofewanimals and realbirdlady. I had thought about putting some groundcover in the pot - and that makes a lot of sense. I need something that can stand up to a 12+ pound cat, who occasionally likes to lounge in the pot. And I'd like it to cascade a little. Any suggestions?

I don't see too many plants. It looks great to me also.

What a difference a few months make! Okay, the verbena and salvia have taken over, and I wouldn't mind it so much if either of them would bloom. Looks like plenty of shades of green, but no flowers! It is lush, however, compared to the first picture I posted. Any idea how I can get my verbenas to bloom? Last bloom I saw was probably April.

I'm not sure why the verbena aren't blooming. Maybe there isn't enough sun for them? Which Salvia is it? can't answer why they aren't blooming unless I know which they are. I have Salvia transylvanica, which blooms all summer, however I also have May Night - S. nemerosa and that only blooms in late May / early June, then it is done until next year. Aside from a few sparse blooms here and there.... I also have some others, let em know which you have. :)

Here is a spring mix.

This is high desert cottage, post spring blooms. Now I survive summer and wait for a great showing in fall if we get a fall here. This is the ratty looking season.

In front of the previous picture it looks like this. Each day some more of these plants that spread like mad and die in the Winter pop up and fill in the gaps. I have no clue what they are, but they develop dark black balls on them that grow into more and more plants.

I have made a huge error in the next section of yard. I planted this box of Zinnias, that are apparently 10 feet tall and over tower all other plants there in the area. I will let them bloom in fall but then cut them and kill most of the seeds for next year or block out where I don't want them in the future. It is like a jungle of Zinnias.

The hot, summer weather is getting to some of my plants. Evidently a few salvias can't take the heat, and I've all but given up on one of the cupheas. I gave up on a bat face cuphea months ago, because my cat kept eating it.

I am enjoying a new visitor to the garden - a toad! I scared him up after I moved his hidey-hole, so he decided to retaliate by digging in my amarillis pot and kind of hiding in there. He has his hidey-hole back, but I guess I've tainted it for him, because he stays in the garden, looking forlorn-if a toad can look that way.

Helenz I don't think your gardens look ratty at all. They look wonderful to me. You should see all the plants in my yard. If they like a good garden soil they currently have no lower leaves or yellow if any. My Joe Pye Weed looks completely dead. I just can't keep up with the watering. It is hard when you have the odd/even day watering ban in effect.

You guys have that in New Hampshire too? CRAP! Drought everywhere. We are going on that too, like Los Angeles, I bet. That is why I am trying for more Xeric plants now, so all won't die. I thing I just need to do shrubs in front and forget it. Too hard here. I should switch to hard scape and garden rooms, shade and wind blocks and forget the plants for now. BUT I CANNNN'T!!!

THANK YOU THOUGH MEREDITH.

Your welcome. It's funny though, some summers we have way too much rain (like last m) and then others it is dry. Another funny thing is last week they had forcast thunderstorms for our area (almost every day) and we could see the sky turn black and see / hear the storms all around us.... but we didn't get more than a sparse sprinkle for a few minutes. Not even enough to get my clothes wet never mind the soil! It's been very strange here this year, hot hot hot and dry. I have my Hardy Hibiscus starting to bloom right mow and they usually don't bloom until late Aug thru Sept! Very weird year here so far.

In deed it is.

We have gotten enough rain again this year, only put the sprinkler on a couple of times. But you are so right about the hot hot hot and the early blooming. All my daylilies are done blooming, some usually aren't finished till mid/late Aug. Thank God for the Cone flowers blooming and the Dahlias starting.

I know, thank God for my Wall Flowers and Snapdragons, dianthus. Even my roses don't get enough water to bloom consistently here.

Check out the "Seed Trading" forum. There are occasional "Round Robins" where a few dozen seed-saving maniacs fill big boxes with little packets of home-saved or commercial seed, and then ship it around the country to each other. Put some in, take some out.

You don't need to find someone with exactly what you want, who wants exactly what you have.

Also, while getting ready for such a Round Robin, I've found that people will often list far more things than they took the trouble to list in a formal DG Want List. Or someone asks for something, someone else goes "what, THAT old weed? I can't kill it off where I live! I'll grab you a handfull." ... then you know they do have it it and ask for some yourself.

It's perfect for my kind of "Garden Plan":

- See or hear about something pretty or interesting
- Get it in a trade
- try to sprout it
- try to grow it
- stand back and say "WOW!" (or maybe "HUNHH?!?")
- try to save its seeds (or feed it to the compost heap)
- repeat

Who can know what they will think looks good until they see it in front of them?
I guess some people do have that kind of artistic sense, but not me.

And I have already found that in swaps, someone will send me twice as much seed as I need ... then someone else wants to split it ... and talks me into trying something I never considered ... who needs a plan when we have serendipity?

Corey

Great picture!! : )

Corey - I like your gardening philosophy. I am a plant, change, and change again kind of gardener. If anything is too fussy, out they go. Almost anything that I get for free, I am willing to try. Trees have to be pretty much fruit trees or out they go. Exception is the dogwood whose redeeming quality is its lovely flowers in the spring.

I have a soft spot for dogwoods. Grew up with them, and there was a twon in CT that had a "Dogwood festival" every year.

I don't know how they did it, but it seemed like every house on that street had dogwoods lining the road. Heaven!

Like Nantuckect where they have the Daffodil Walk, but with dogwoods.

I call oneneighbor "Atilla the Gardener". She has a BEAUTIFUL yard in part because anything that doesn't THRIVE, and thrive quickly, gets relocated or booted. i think she also plans it, but manages to avoid that sterile or geometrical look.

I'm soft-hearted about booting a plant that's having a hard time. Also stubburn and chaotic.

Corey