UPDATE: Corner Garden and Shed Garden

The tropicals in the corner garden are just loving the wet weather. The gingers are starting to recover from the squirrel attacks and the crinums look great under the palm. A canna I thought I moved to the pool area is blooming in the corner. Moonflower vines are crawling quickly up the trellis. The spiral ginger is struggling in the circle, but I've found ginger tends to struggle a bit its first year. The shed garden is having a tougher time. The Persian shield is doing well, as always. Maybe I'll change things up. Plant the P. shields along the front, with a line of gingers behind it. The banana on the left and the palm on the right have been slow to recover from being frozen over the winter.

Cats

What is up with this? A family of cats has moved in under the shed. The babies are very cute, but Mama is kind of mean and I'm nervous about my daughter playing in the yard with a bunch of strays running around. If anyone has any ideas on how to get them to move out, I'd appreciate it.

UPDATE: The Shed Garden

See the shed garden's history here.

Update on the Shed Garden

This garden is what it is. For some reason, it is not capturing my imagination, maybe because it is pretty decent as is. There are bananas, palms, elephant ears, Persian shield, butterfly ginger, and hidden ginger. Below is a picture of the butterfly ginger bud, one of my favorite plants.

Update on the Shed Garden

The shed garden is coming along, but of course, not as much as I'd like. Mostly it is just uneven. The right side gets more sun and seems to be really taking off. The left is lagging in the shade. The butterfly ginger is looking very full and I'm looking forward to a lot of blooms this year. The lime green sweet potato vine is popping up in spots, but is no where near as lush as it was last year. The one thing really thriving in the shade is the small little hidden ginger, which loves the shade.
Beer Bottle Border! Thanks to the inspiration from Vert, I decided to create my own border with what is mighty plentiful around the house, beer bottles. This is bordering a new pie shaped bed that connects the shed garden to the corner garden. I'm a few bottles short, so we need to get busy. Party at my house!

Update of the Shed Garden

Oh, how I miss the better days of the shed garden. It is looking a little barren.

And WTF are these on my ginger?!?!?!

Fortunately, there new sprouts of hope amongst the despair.

The Aftermath

Well, the good news is that the bird of paradise made it. It was pretty severely hacked, but the plant as a whole made it through. In the pool garden, the bananas died, but they will grow back. The hibiscus died too, as usual. Hibiscus will grow back, but not enough to bloom before the next frost, so I treat it as an annual. There are hardy hibiscus plants available, so I might try those this year.

The shed garden didn't fare as well. Everything but the palms died back. Not sure exactly what will come back this year.

This is a bit of a depressing sight.

However, the shell ginger, a plant that I thought would be highly effected by the cold, looks like nothing happened. I will have to use this plant more liberally this year. Note the hot pink coleus next to it is not look quite as pink as it once was.

The crinums are perky as ever.

I lost much of the lantana tree, the Mexican petunias, and about half of the sage. The crepe myrtle tree was cut back a couple of weeks ago. The passion flower vine, butterfly bush, and the pentas at the bottom of this picture still look pretty happy.

The pansies have earned their reputation as good cold weather plants.

Shed Garden Update

The shed garden has lost some of it's mid-summer luster.

Update of the Shed Garden

The shed looks full and lush, as usual. 1. Butterfly Ginger. 2. Persian Shield. 3. Sweet Potato Vine.

Shed Garden

For all my complaints, my one love in the garden is the butterfly ginger.

It is stunning every time I look at it.

Attack of the Sweet Potato Vine!

It is getting a bit out of control.

Today's Blooms

It is blazin' hot. Yeah, I know. It's hot here and in the rest of the country. Everything is stressed and looking less than stellar. The only things happy are the gingers and cannas. The butterfly ginger is putting on a beautiful show. Just when I think a bud has spent all of its delicate flowers, more come out the next morning.

The cannas are coming up and surprising me with their colors. The garden changes weekly. This one bloomed with a definite red tone. Not what I was hoping for, but pretty. Besides, who can resist a beautiful flower with a bug on it? It is like the paintings by the Dutch artists who paint vases of flowers just crawling with insects. I love them!

Garden Update: Shed Garden

Something is eating one of the banana leaves in front of the shed. I should be upset, but instead I was fascinated by the pattern of the holes. Exclamation points above sitting Buddhas? This is either the Rorshach test of the plant world or this plant's attempt at a Warhol.

The shed garden always looks nice, even when everything else looks parched. I did the least amount of planning for this bed and it requires the least amount of work. I just went with the flow in it. (Maybe that is the secret I missing with the rest of the yard.)













The pool garden update. The purple queen is totally taking over. They are hidden in this picture, but my cannas are finally reaching in a nice size.

Shed Garden

This is the shed garden front and from the side.

An alien in the Shed garden.

Ok, so it is just an alocasia in the garden, but I think it looks like some multi-tentacled alien creature. I'm super entertained by my own over-active imagination.

Pictures from the Shed Garden