Tuesday, July 24, 2007

A Small View of my Garden

Cone flowers, French Lavendar, Butterfly Tree, & Sage.


Newly planted Cone Flowers.

I like to plant vegetables & herbs anywhere I can find room... here you can see some Swiss Chard & Basil.

Saturday I spent time planting and cleaning up this planter and the planter on the opposite side of it which has 2 huge Mexican Sage plants & a Rosemary bush. (I'll post pictures of them another time when they're in bloom.) It was a beautiful day, a little warm but tolerable.

Eventually I hope to have a completely drought tolerant garden. This area is just the start... it's filled with French Lavendar, Yarrow, Cone Flowers & a couple of other plants I can't remember the names of but are also drought tolerant.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

One day I was lucky enough to view this garden. It was a hot summer day, too hot for William's class out by the tracks, so he took a couple of us indoors. He was very proud to say that you were the caretaker of the garden. I too am wishing for that drought tolerant garden, but am a sucker for the pretty english one as well. Just no time to do it all, and paint too.

Anonymous said...

I love the close-up photograph of the Corn Flower! I had a drought free veggie and herb garden for about five years until water restrictions grew so bad in Australia I had to even give that garden away :( The herbs are now in pots. The veges did best with kumera potatoes planted amongst them. It grows as ground coverage and shades roots. Eggplants also did extra well :)

Anonymous said...

I meant 'Cone Flower' Ooops.

Lavender said...

Echinacea is one of my favourite garden plants, you have a lovely garden there and I can tell its just going to get better and better! Will Mooky get to eat the chard? My budgies love the stuff.
Thanks for visiting the birds & the beads

Anonymous said...

I'm gonna hire you as my landscaper Sharon...soon as I get me some money.

Good job.

Oh, and that new camera takes clear videos. Looks good! (Talking about the video of Mooky below this post!)

Anonymous said...

It is the middle of winter here but I am just waiting for a couple of fine days so I can start my container garden on my balcony again. Over the past four years it has fallen into disrepair.

Anonymous said...

All my grass is brown. I cut way back on water usage. I wish there was a grass that was drought tolerant (besides pampas grass, which we already have in the back). We have fescue because I really don't like Bermuda grass very much.

Barkfoot said...

I love that garden, a nice mix of everything. The bees always go for the cone flowers/ echinacea (from the latin for hedgehog), it'nice to see you encouraging them. Your mix of herbs, veggies and flowers looks like 'companion planting', is this deliberate? I always plant Nasturtiums to distract the caterpillars and Rosemary to deter the ahids. I think this is how the varied and crowded typical English Cottage garden came about.

Rachel said...

Hi Sharon! I really like the pics of your garden, very pretty. The pictures of Mooky taking a bath are fabulous and so funny! My little conure used to LOVE the shower, but she routinely made a huge mess with her water dish as well. Great shots! keep on!

rauf said...

Looks lovely Sharon, a good mixture of wild growth and manicured garden.

Sharon said...

Robin - Thanks for stopping by & I'm happy you got to see my garden. Yes I am the gardener of the household and he's the artist!

Anonymous - I also grow vegetables in pots because we have a gopher & mole problem, although this year I planted all but one of my tomato plants in the ground. So far they are doing great! I figured you meant Cone Flower & not Corn Flower!

Lavendar - This is the first time I've planted Echinacea but I plan to plant more of it. I wish Mooky would eat chard he can be so picky sometimes.

Slick - Thanks... make sure you get lots of money! BTW I like how you changed your blog so it's easy to see your comments on our comments.

Archie - Gardening is fun & I also do container gardening as well.

Sonja - If you find a drought tolerant grass be sure to share!

barkfoot - It is a form of companion planting but not all intentional. If there's room I plant it. I've Nasturtiums before and they were just filled with aphids... although I don't know if they helped with the caterpillars. I have several Rosemary bushes!

Rachael - Thanks for the compliments the birdys love to make messes!

rauf - I tend to like the more wild looking plants.

Two Pis and a Poi said...

Aw... I love your yard! We're so jealous! Michelle can't even keep the houseplants alive.

T-man Angel said...

Mom's coneflower never got blooms. She has it in a pot. Next year she'll try planting with fertilizer around the roots.

Anonymous said...

Today is Friday. You still messin' around in your garden??

Anonymous said...

How pretty and restful - I love it!

Anonymous said...

That's a nice looking garden. I have 2 butterfly bushes in my yard. They are very drought tolerant and I like that also.

Those pics below of Mooky's wings are great. You get very good photos of him. I used to have a lot of difficulty taking pics of my grey. They never would turn out very good

sandy said...

ONe thing I've never had around in my yard is coneflowers and I really like them. I'll have to plant some. Your garden's looking good. It was soo hot here in the Inland Empire yesterday. Just being in the sun felt scorching. We went to Ventura where it was much cooler..

Anonymous said...

That looks like my sister's garden...only without the flowers and leaves lol

Bibbie said...

Ooh I like your garden Sharon! I look out on Mum's garden here and right now the enclosed vegetable garden is pretty bare. But then, it is winter. The strawberries are mostly planted out, and the broadbeans are coming up, and lettuce and rocket, and some silver beet = swiss chard. Also some other seeds of winter vegetables that were mostly old and out of date went in. Mum said if they come up, they come up... As for water, well Mum has some big rainwater tanks which save a lot of water for the vegetable garden and she uses a little town water too on the two days she is allowed, for two hours each time. The rest of the garden gets the used bath and shower and washing machine water if it gets any.. Mum has quick showers (about 90 seconds!!) and shallow baths thatuse less than 50 litres of water that then gets bucketed to flush the toilet! Mum uses just soap so it is safe. The irrigation pipes to drip the water into the ground is covered up in mulch so the water does not evaporate.

Yes, of course I help - the undrunk water from my water dish gets tipped out twice a day onto a potplant.

The fruit trees will soon be in blossom but for now, I enjoy looking at the jonquils which have been in bloom for about four weeks now.

Gazard7 said...

That is lovely, I never seen corn flower before in Malaysia here.

MrManuel said...

Wow, your garden looks really good. Much better than anything I have, or would be willing to spend time on! lol

Anonymous said...

You get a new camera and you just disappear.

Hope all is well

Sharon said...

two pi's & a poi - So she doesn't have a green thumb but it looks like she takes good care of all of you!

t-man - Does it get enough sun? Or maybe it needs a bigger pot.

Slick - No not in the garden but I wish I were.

lisab - Thanks.

schnoodlepooh - I also like that the butterfly bush grows quickly!

What can I say Mooky is very photogenic!

Sandy - This is the first time I've planted cone flowers and I plan to plant more of them. When I'm working in the yard the heat doesn't seem to bother me but then again it is hotter in the Inland Empire.

mrsmogul - So I'm guessing your sister is into low maintenance gardening?

bibbie - Sounds like your Mum has a big vegetable gardenand I applaud her water conservation methods & yours too.

gazard - Corn flowers are pretty but I'm sure you have other lovely flowers in Malaysia.

Slick - I'm back!

Anonymous said...

How beautiful! We have a thick patch of echinacea, too, right in front of the porch where I sit on sunny days. Those flowers grow well here in Nebraska, and I never get tired of looking at them.

We actually saw a garter snake weaving through the echinacea today. Not on the ground, but somehow supported by the leaves, about halfway up! Well, actually, Mommal and Manmal saw the snake. I was shrieking up a storm indoors, exactly where a dusky conure should be, when a snake is around. But I think it was probably too small to eat me, whew!

Anonymous said...

Yes, really. I join told all above.