A look around: back yard from the house

I thought it's time that I took another look at the garden. Everything is doing fine, except the heat and lack of rain has made some of the plants look a bit "tired". Just not exactly fresh -- know what I mean? Overall though, I'm pretty pleased with how things look right now.

This post is an overview of the back yard, so don't expect any closeups of specific plants, because there aren't any. It's important to look at the big picture sometimes -- individual plants are cool, but it's the effect when you put them all together that is really important.

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So here's the back yard, as seen from the house looking back (so the house is behind me as I took these shots). Some shots were taken from the deck (which is probably obvious) and some from the ground.

Let's start with the driveway. This is looking to the left.

You can see the Datura growing in the driveway crack next to the light-colored pot. I usually park my truck here (on the left side of this image), so it's nice to see the space open for a change.

Next looking right from the same spot:

I love the way the Malabar spinach looks on that small pergola! It's one of my favorite new plants of this year. If you look closely you might be able to see one or two of my elephant ears. (Of course I'm being funny -- it's pretty difficult to take a photo back here without getting at least one elephant ear in the shot.)

Here's a view of the back part of the yard, standing at the end of the driveway. The patio is to the right and the basketball hoop is to the left, just out of the shot. (Click for bigger view or you'll never be able to see anything!)

Now I'm standing next to the deck with the deck stairs behind me, looking back toward the driveway a bit. In the back you can see the basketball hoop which I was standing next to when I took the previous panoramic shot:

Here's a panorama taken from the same spot as the previous image -- at the top of the stairs leading to the patio:

Now we'll go up onto the deck for a different perspective:

I wasn't sure if I'd like that potted bamboo there (at the left side of the frame above), as I usually have a trellis with annual vines in that spot. I may go back to the trellis next year, but the bamboo provides height and greenery immediately in the spring, while the vines won't really get going until mid-summer. So I haven't decided what to do yet.

This is looking to the right now:

The castor bean dominates this area, although it's not quite as large as it has been previous years. I expect that's because I got it into the ground later than I should have, but it's also not been getting as much water as usual so that may have something to do with it too. It will be interesting to see how large it is in a month.

Since I'm taking photos at a downward angle, the stitching software creates a bit more distortion than I'd like, but it's still a nice overview. Here's the whole panoramic shot (with even more distortion):

So that's a look at the back yard. As suggested in comments of previous posts, I'll try to find some time to label all of the plants in some of these photos. It sounds like a lot of work though... perhaps it's a task for this winter?

Until I do though, if you have any questions about plants you see here, ask in the comments!

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