Sunday, August 6, 2017

Welcome to the Jungle

Back at the start of the season, I showed you a view of the back gardens that looked something like this...
a month or two later...
I know the pictures are small, but you can see that it's gone from nice and tidy to a wilderness. Part of that is my fault. I made a mistake with the Indian blanket sunflowers. I thought they were the nice short, 2 ft tall red ones... but as you can see, they are well over six feet now.
I can't complain too much, they are beautiful, and they bring the bees and birds and butterflies. But they have shaded out the newest garden. The plants there have done alright, but they'd do even better with a bit more sun.

The mammoth sunflowers are up against the house, as I knew they'd get big. They've been slower growing (just closing in on 5 ft now) but they've had one downside...
I thought my double-blooming Oriental Lily would be able to compete with it - it should grow almost as tall. But it just couldn't keep up and got shaded it out. It did bloom, but they were small and weak. Something to keep in mind for next year.

The raspberries have thrived with all the early rain we had. Despite a huge chop back, they are bushier than ever. I think I'll thin them in the fall so I don't have so much work to do next spring.

The blackberries are doing well and it looks like I will get to eat a few this year.
 If I can get them before the birds! this one was already half eaten.

Come fall, I'm going to have to give Chicago Peace a good pruning
It's big and beautiful, but I don't want it to take over the Little Bee Garden. And I want to make sure Crimson Glory has space to thrive...
And while we are in August, and you can already taste fall in the air... there's still a couple months left of beauty in this little jungle of mine.

7 comments:

Araignee said...

What a beautiful yard! I love the jungle look. So exotic-almost tropical.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful flowers.

I didn't realize your back yard was fenced. That's really nice. A bit of privacy and a nice safe place for the kitties.

Mereknits said...

YOur flowers are beautiful, including those tall and proud sunflowers.

kathy b said...

You have so many lovely blooms. My little patches of gardens seem to runaway with weeds after Aug 1. I did get out there yesterday and weeded. SO Im trying to keep up. Maybe I should try some climbing roses here.........the neglected cosmos seeds are the clear winner here!

Eastside Cats said...

Sunflowers! Love them! Unfortunately, I forget that I want them...and obviously it's too late now to plant...DOH!

Delighted Hands said...

Beautiful!!!! I notice here in central NY there are signs of Autumn already, too.
We will enjoy the flowers and the sunshine while we can!

bittenbyknittin said...

Love your so-called jungle - I like my flowering plants tall. I've been working hard in the garden all summer long and I can see progress, but someone who has not seen the "before" the after doesn't look like much.