Wednesday, October 19, 2016

a garden story II

I quite enjoy chronicling the growth of my garden. It's only been since just last year have I even attempted to grow anything and I very much enjoy it. In 2016 I planted even more than last year! Here is what the back deck flower bed area looked like after I cleaned it up in mid-March.



The same area at the end of September!



I don't care for the look of the underside of the front deck so my aspiration has been to grow something tall enough to cover it. This was how it looked in the middle of March when things had already started to sprout. 



Full grown! I wish it could look like this all year long. It sure gets boring in every other season.



Back to April. I decided I wanted to try to save some money by growing my own flowers from seed: Hollyhock, wildflowers, zinnias, and morning glories.



I was ecstatic a week later when they sprouted. 



I repotted them after a few weeks and by the end of May they were ready to be planted outside.



By that time my perennials had started to grow.



My hydrangeas were supposed to grow buds on the old woody stems but some frost killed them. I was psyched to find that they were regrowing from the bases though! 



A few weeks later they kept going. 



My pink hydrangeas never did bloom though they did grow tall-ish (I'm hopeful for next year but if they don't, I'm replacing them), but my Endless Summer Hydrangeas tripled last year's growth!




Last year they were blue but I adored their purple color this year. 




I planted half of the morning glories in the front yard and half in the back and it seemed like it took forever for them to grow. Also, my shade wildflower seedlings did not grow well - too much seed in not enough soil I think. So I bought another pack and they quickly thrived.



In August I discovered I had mistakenly sown creeping jenny along with the morning glories back in the spring. They were choking them out! Duh. I spent a hour ripping the weeds out and thereafter the morning glories grew better.  



On the first day of school, August 22, my front flower garden was looking amazing.



A month later it was in full bloom. 



I love morning glories! 



But after the frost they were done for :(



Talk about a mound of flowers!



But now it looks like dry wilted spinach. Evie says to leave it until Halloween because it's a good decoration.



I was also proud of my deck flower baskets. I planted the zinnias from seed, and though most of them died out from this first basket and I had to add petunias, several survived. It worked out! 



The middle basket had many more zinnias.



And the last basket had the most. It was so cool how they flopped in every direction. 



For mother's day I got the bush there to the right, a Snowmound Spirea.



It grew quite a lot, but I was even more happy how my Frannie transplants overcame being killed last year and began thriving this year. Faith gave me some transplants in the spring that have done very well here too.



We bought only two tomato plants this year - an Early Girl and a Cherry Tomato. By July they were huge already! 



We had many tomatoes, but also planted two crops of carrots and green beans. 



Here's the back deck again. So lovely.




A glimpse of the perennials next to the path.




I planted my weakest zinnia seedlings in the back here where I thought they would die but they did absolutely amazing. I'm definitely planting them again. 



It took my morning glories a while to take off but when they did begin to climb, they went fast. I was so happy to have lots of blooms because last year I had so few. 



This was the last day of August when they were at their prime. Later in September they started turning yellow. They added a lot to the pergola and I'll do them here again next year.



They grew all the way up to the top of the pergola which is at least 15 feet high. This was after the frost though. My Cosmos in front there lasted a little longer but they didn't mound up as much as last year.  


Anyway, I quite enjoyed my garden and can't wait until next spring to try some more. Right now I'm attempting to grow an indoor herb garden. 

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