Garden Diary: August 26, 2017

The Only Triple Datura Bloom So Far in the Butterfly Garden

So, here I am again. I know I've been neglectful of the blog, but summer is such a hard time for me. But  now is fall planting time, so I want to catch you up on what's been happening in the garden.

Peppers - Finally!

As you may remember, I planted pepper seeds last spring, hardly any of which sprouted. I vowed to try again in the fall, which I have, the difference being,
I got most of these seeds from fresh fruits, and they have all sprouted within days. I now have Cubanelle, the NOID red pepper that did so well last year, and tabasco peppers all planted from fresh ripe fruits. I did plant the rest of the Grand Belle Mix seeds, and have four seedlings coming up now. I plant to eventually plant these in my community garden spot, which I am told I will get by the end of September. They should be of a nice size by then, and grown into 3-inch pots.

"Little Ruby" Alternanthera is choking out other plants

 A Fresh Start

South Facing Outside Garden

I've made a decision to rip out the south-facing outside garden this winter. Last year, during the summer drought, I was begging it to grow, and this year with all the rain, some plants have gotten completely out of control. The Little Ruby alternanthera has come up everywhere from last year's seeds, and is choking out some desirable plants. It's pretty, no doubt, but there is way too much of it in the wrong place. I need to take a lot of that out. I've had to dig up some plants and put them into containers to save them from being totally killed by it, and others, like my triple yellow datura, just refuse to grow. Plus, none of the zinnia or cosmos seeds I scattered came up, and I'm thinking it just overgrew them and choked them out. I have only two small zinnias that have survived from the dozens of seeds I planted.

The sweet potatoes in that garden have to go too. I planted them hoping for a crop, but they are really not harvestable due to the roots of other plants. I'll have to find a way to get them out. I'll leave the ornamental sweet potato and hope it can now have a chance to grow.

The larger plants in that bed tend to overshade the other plants there, so I'll be taking a lot of those out as well. The large red cannas and a couple of the pigeon peas will be gone. I'm going to leave only the yellow poinciana, which is finally growing, and the confederate rose, which is up past the roof now.  I may move the confederate rose to where it gets more sun, because I don't know if it's going to bloom this year or not, since it gets so much shade from that oak tree.

My Favorite Coleus

 Changes Planned for the Courtyard as Well

I'm also thinking of ripping out most of the inside courtyard too, and putting some of those plants up against the fence, like the bananas. I want to create some artificial shade in there on the south side with latticing and vines so I will have somewhere to put my tropicals. I'm definitely removing the sweet potato vines from the courtyard, as they are getting way out of control also.

It was all just an experiment, and I want to just start over and try different things now. I can hardly wait until the leaves start falling. That's my sign to start ripping things out and letting the garden go dormant for the winter.

Happy Gardening!