End of Month View July 2014

A big surprise during this summer of 2014 has been the weather.  In my End of Month View for June I wrote about our relatively cooler temperatures along with rain, and that weather pattern continued into July allowing plenty of time to finish up a few projects.  It's time for a walk through the gardens to see how things are going, so in this post I'm joining Helen at The Patient Gardener for the End of Month View to look at the progress.

Most days still begin with a cloudy sky that burns off through the morning as the sun casts shadows on the east facing front of the house.

The view from the north entrance to the driveway shows the landscaping sweeps around with the shape of the drive.

The silvery plants in the recently improved gravel bed are joined by white blooms of Plumbago.



The shade garden to the right of the front walk was replanted in June and is growing in among newly completed walkways.  You can find the "before" photos here.

The view out from the front door is of a woodsy, shaded garden.

The Texas sage has begun blooming along the driveway.  Just over 3" of rain on 18 July triggered the first significant sage blooms of the year.

One hundred feet of purple blooms!

Through the back gate the refurbished buffalo grass lawn is looking good.  The bare patches have been filled with transplanted grass from behind the wire fence, and a new wildflower area was created as a result.  The grass typically brown and dormant at this point but is still very green.

The area to the right of the gate is beginning to fill in with random plantings of rooted cuttings from friends and other parts of my garden.  The big yucca was shared by a neighbor and is strategically placed to discourage deer from jumping the fence.  It seems to be working and we haven't seen deer limping around the front yard for a while.



The tank garden is growing in and getting a bit wild.  Might need to do some taming this fall.  I've been researching ways to add a bit more structure without changing the character of the garden.

We get so much sun in the summer the bougainvillea blooms in the shade.  Soon I'll remove that tomato cage so the bougainvillea can grow up on the old iron door recently placed there.

So what's behind that deer fence?  That's a crimson passion vine growing on the post and a grape vine peeking through the fence in front of it.

A row of Pomegranate 'Wonderful' trees and a collection of deer favorites like Macho Mocha Manfreda and roses.  You'd never guess this was one of the worst sun-baked spots in the yard a few years ago.

In the other corner the Pride of Barbados are blooming and the deer have not eaten the blooms off yet this year.

That just might be due to the detour fence of cedar posts constructed across the pathway at the corner.

Over on the south side of the house the native sedge planted along the stone path in May has been mulched which has improved this area.  They are slow growing so it will be a while before they show significant progress.

My traditional ending for the garden review post is the view through the back gate as the sun sinks in the west.

You can find a tour of Helen's beautiful garden and links to more virtual garden tours in the comments section of The Patient Gardener's Weblog.