End of Summer in the Gardens

It’s the end of summer in the gardens out in the yard and on the front porch. Thankfully, many of my flowers will bloom through to the first frost.

Haven’t shared an update of the garden areas in a bit so thought I’d take some time to do it today.

Disclaimer: I have almost no idea what I’m doing when it comes to the vegetable garden stuff. And just a tiny bit of knowledge (not nearly enough) with the flower garden stuff. Also, I despise weeding.

Want to go on an end of summer garden tour of the yard (and front porch) with me?

The Butterfly Garden

This is right at the corner of our driveway, the sunniest spot around here. These bargain zinnias have brought me so much joy! Glad I took the gamble on the dead looking plants that just needed a bit of love. I grew the white alyssum flowers from seeds purchased at the dollar tree (guess I do sometimes find things there after all). Not pictured in the photo below:  all the purple asters, coneflowers, nicotiana, and lantana. Plus one recently acquired small mum. No longer thriving in the garden: white petunias and yellow snapdragons.

A butterfly! (of sorts)

 

Fence/Wall Garden in Front of Front Porch

I’ve replaced all the herbs that were in the small pots with white, yellow, orange, and pink mums. Relocated the herbs to various places mostly in the backyard. Mr. Flamingo stands watch over my bigger pots of mums. And on either side of those, my attempts at fall gardening: green beans, okra, and cucumbers for a fall harvest, I hope. My husband says no way are we getting okra in October. I say I feel like the little boy in The Carrot Seed.

On The Front Porch

Uh, that’s not a flower. No but it’s very exciting. I’ve been looking to get a new cushion for this bench since the beginning of last year. Toyed with a new bench but I just like this one even though next year it will likely need replaced. Maybe.

So excited to sit out there again (you might recall Chip, the stray cat, ruined the former cushion with a most unwelcome gift. Still miss the silly little fellow a bit).

The blue lobelia didn’t make it in my hanging basket (not sure what happened so I relocated a tiny strand to a different pot and though you can’t see it, filled the hanging basket with mint. Between the mint, sage, and lavender, the front porch smells amazing.

In late August, I cut back the pink petunias and am getting a lovely second wave of end of summer blooms. Also, yesterday, I repotted fussy Ms. Lucinda the Meyer Lemon Tree. Hopefully, she won’t throw all her leaves off in protest.

Shall we move on to the areas where I’m a bit less sure of things.

The Usual Vegetable Garden

Better than past years but still a sort of not much to see here, move along stop on our tour. We’re going to get a few more cucumbers. A few blooms on other plants as well. We should have cucumbers, beans (not enough), hot peppers, and maybe one more eggplant. Oh, I also planted another row of okra for fall harvest back here.

Around The Backyard Deck

This fussy fuchsia plant’s also been giving me fits. I think it could be best friends with Lucinda the lemon tree. However, it finally decided to get it’s color back and go ahead and bloom again after I moved it (again) and put some plant feed in the pot. Realized I don’t take many pictures of the plants on the back deck. Maybe for a future post I’ll share more. It looks a bit more shabby than the front. It’s a weird sun/shade area of morning shade followed by intense afternoon sun followed by more shade. Hoping my herbs adjust okay to the area. Also, have a citronella plant and of course, lemon grass on the table back there.

Side of House Raised Garden Beds

We planted our tomatoes in a raised bed on the side of the house this year. Let me introduce you to Audrey 3 (Hopefully, you’ve seen Little Shop of Horrors to get the reference) also know as our tomato plant(s):

We’ve had a record number of tomatoes (for us) this year. Usually, it’s early October and I’m picking the green tomatoes to just fry them. So far this year, we’ve had EIGHT red ones. However, I do feel a bit as if I’m getting eaten alive as I go deep into our tomato plant mass to search for them. And I learned a new trick this year.

Brown bag tomato trick: If you put a slightly ripening tomato in a brown paper sack and place it in a warm sunny location, the tomato ripens and turns red! Game changer for us. Am I the only one who didn’t know this?

The second raised bed was a bust with nothing much happening. I’ve moved some lemon grass (Bought way too much of that) over there as well as some woody looking lavender. Blue tub gave me a handful of beans and huge squash plant that never produced. Now, I’ve got carrots going in it. Fingers crossed.

How are things going at the end of summer in your outdoor areas?