Online Inspiration

I shamelessly stole this picture from Nancy Forrester's Secret Garden. If anyone from there reads this, please don't sue me - I'm providing free advertising!! Any way, in my search for tropical gardens online, I came across this one and thought - This is what I need to do in the corner garden!!!! Instead of an island like I had previously planned, I could go around and create a niche seating area, which I really want. Someday, maybe. I guess I'll have to start re-working some beds and planting some birds of paradise.

Next Year's Plans

Well, since you all liked this year's plans, I figured I'd show you what I'm planning on for next year, although this is far from the final draft. So forgive the spelling mistakes. I know how to spell elephant, I really do! I just too tired to go and fix it. Anyway, this same garden as in the previous posts. The right, next to the shed, turned out nicely and I'll keep it basically the same next year. The big change will be a circular bed in the middle of the garden. I am hoping to move the bananas from the pool out here, but I don't know how they will transplant. I also want to put some pretty crinum bulbs that have out here, if I don't kill them in the pot first. Finally, I'd like to add some gingers, pine cone and shell. My drawing (if you can even call it that) sucks. The scale is way off (my bamboo poles look like railroad ties) and the circular bed is supposed to be more in the middle instead of pushed back against the fence. But the drawing does give me an idea of what it might look like and allows me to experiment on paper with color and placing. Already I see that I might be giving up the trellis altogether and putting in some tall pine cone gingers, leaving the shell gingers for the circle. Anyway, give me your thoughts on it - ideas are always appreciated.

The Evolution of the Corner Garden

Since it is the end of the year, it seems like a time to reflect how far the garden has come. Since I took the corner garden from nothing this year, I thought I'd feature it. In May, I drew up some plans:

This was the before, back in May.

Here is the corner in September. I didn't get the bamboo in, elephant ears and gingers replaced it. In the corner, in the plans showed a raised bed that would be a mini bog area. Didn't quite happen. In fact, none of the borders were put in. That is on the to-do list for January. Instead, my beatiful crinums reside in the corner. Not sure if they will stay there this year.

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The most notable element missing in this picture are the trellises. I was short on cash this summer, and expensive plans like the trellis and the borders just had to wait. Hopefully we will be able to put them in this year.

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The before. The crinums were temporarily planted there before moving to the corner.

This part of the garden really turned out better than I planned.

Plans Halted

This week my family endured a traumatic event that while not life threatening or permanent, nevertheless caused significant disrupption on our summer plans financially. Plans for the corner garden are halted, save for the few dollars I scraped together for mulch that I'll get this weekend. I really don't want to loose the plants I already have. The trellises and the landscape lumbers are put on hold indefinitely. Sure, things could be a hundred times worse, but this event could have turned out very badly, put into question some parties we were planning on and totally nixed any hope of a vacation this year. It basically put us in a pretty bummed out mood for a week and a half.

I found myself really turning to the garden for calm and peace. There isn't much to do in the garden right now. The big weeds haven't taken hold and I've kept up with most of them. I'd normally be primping the garden about now - mulching, buying some filler plants. The urge to do so now has been hard to resist. Instead, I've been trying to focus on no-cost options. I've moved elephant ears from a bed that was hard to get to and not really visible to a more prominent spot in the corner garden. Everything that could potentially be propagated by a cutting has been done so and a ton of baby plants are lined up in plastic cups. I've asked everyone I know for snips of their plants and have considered going to the homes of people in my neighborhood and ask for theirs, but I am a bit freaked out by that. They might come at me with gardening shears for even asking for a clipping. You never know.

Mostly, I've been sitting, relaxing and enjoying the garden for what it is. Like parenting a child, I always see three gardens when I look: what it was, what it is, what it has the potential to be. And like a child it's hard to enjoy a garden for what it is and not worry about what it could be. After spending this time, I really realized one of the reasons I love gardening so much was that I associate it so closely with wealth and richness. I've toured estates and beautiful homes and the ones that strike me are the ones with lush and cared for gardens. Even a simple cottage looks amazing with a beautiful garden. The real joy is that even though I can't add much to garden right now, the garden pays its rewards ahead, so I can still enjoy my previous work. And unlike a diamond necklace, a gadget, or a new car, the garden is constantly changing and new, only getting better and richer with age.

Corner Garden

Update on the Corner Garden. The sweet potato vine and purple queen are finally taking off, but the butterfly ginger and the shell ginger I planted this week are suffering some transplant shock. I bought the shell ginger, but the butterfly ginger in the corners are from the same bunch that in the background of the picture. These were not doing well in another bed. Hopefully, they will do better here.

The Palm Tree is Planted!

The palm tree is in! Finally. I added purple queen, sweet potato vine, and hot pink coleus. I was excited about it until I looked at the picture and it looked so plain. It needs some mid-size plants. I keep noticing the spiky butterfly ginger in the background and think I might try adding some of those. I also saw some Shell Ginger (Alpinia zerumbet) at the store, a plant I’ve always liked and would like to try. They reportedly grow to about 5 to 6 feet. It needs something. The original plan called for Canna ‘Tropicana’, but with the hot pink coleus and the orange begonia, I am beginning to think that red leaves would be too much. As for the coleus, it wasn’t what I was thinking of when I went to the store today. I was intending on some impatiens or possibly some pentas, but they really don’t hold up to full sun and this bed gets it, especially in the afternoon. Coleus isn’t a huge favorite, primarily because it dies off in the winter and it just isn’t didn’t excite me. But when I was in the corner of the nursery, scanning over all the plants, squinting for a patch of hot pink, this plant caught my eye. I mean honestly – who can resist a plant with hot pink leaves? Not I dear sir, not I.

Okay Dokey, Smokey

I got the palm tree! I love it when a plan comes together! Inspired by my artistic ambitions, my honey got me a palm tree for an early Mother’s Day present, way sooner then I expected to get one. Just goes to show you that if you put your dreams out into the universe, they will come back to you. My Mr. Monster looked hard for the right tree, (a Queen Palm) and he really hustled to get it before he had a stretch of 5 16hr days at work. So sweet!! I love him!!!

I won’t be planting tonight though. Smoke from fires counties away is blanketing the area. You can see it a bit in the background, although this picture doesn’t do justice to the smell or how yellow it makes everything look. There was so much ash over my car this morning that I had to walk around the house to make sure that it wasn’t on fire. I truly expected to see flames from a neighbor’s home. Unfortunately, we are in another drought and the only thing that will help is some much need rain. Hopefully it will come soon!!

The Plan

Here is the plan. This is for the southwest corner of the yard which has been up to this point been designed pretty half hearted. I've always wanted to do something Asian influenced, but I haven't had a clear direction. So while me and munchkin were drawing last night I decided to sketch up some plans. I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since I'm not at all gifted at drawing. I think it clearly shows the direction I want to go with this garden.