Summer lushness

We've had more rain recently, which at least in my garden means that summer is back to normal. The cooler, drier air is gone, replaced with the hot humidity that we're accustomed to in St. Louis.

This change in weather has seemingly awakened the plants, and I'd swear they're all growing before my eyes, filling up all of the available space. The only way to describe it is "lush". Let's take a look at the area just behind the house: the driveway, patio, stream, and deck.

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I'll start on the driveway, since I walked out of the garage. The vines on the triangle pergola (left side of photo above) are minimal this year, with the Malabar spinach getting a late start, and some herbivore pruning the hyacinth bean earlier this summer. The maypop (Passiflora incarnata) by the air conditioner though is going crazy.

Stepping forward and looking to the right through the triangle pergola:

Taking a couple more steps toward the end of the driveway, still looking right:

Almost at the end of the driveway now after a few more steps, and the steps on this side of the Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Aureocaulis' are almost hidden by the Pleioblastus distichus bamboo:

I should probably prune that down a bit, as I don't want people stepping in strange, dangerous ways to avoid the plants.

Turning to the left, castor beans are over my head now:

Slightly more of a turn to the left lets us see the prairie beds and the veggie garden (where all of the poles are):

A bit more to the left and you can see how the pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) is kind of taking over, but really filling the holes!

The turtle eggs are behind that monster. Notice the mushrooms in my woodchip pile -- beautiful!

Even the few potted plants and a 55-gallon drum that I'm not sure what to do with look good here:

The Datura inoxia just won't give up -- it really wants to grow in those driveway cracks!

This spider web made it tricky to go down into the backyard this morning:

So let's go back to the walkway next to the air conditioner...

Turning to the left and looking down a little:

Pennisetum 'Vertigo' adds some color, while my Plumeria has doubled in size and I think needs a bigger pot now. Yahoo!

Rotate a bit more to the left:

Keeping all of my small pots in that large pot (halfway hidden behind the scouring rush) was a great idea. Each of those plants can be pulled out and used as fillers in other beds as needed, although I suspect some of them have rooted into the soil beneath.

Keep turning to the left..

This area surpassed my hopes this year! The maypop vine is loving it here, blooming like crazy and perfuming the air at certain times of the day. The potted plants below are working quite well too this year.

So now I'll go up the deck stairs and look back...

And finally show you the few plants I have on the deck this year:

The pot on the left contains oregano (left blooming), Patchouli which is now dominating but smells so wonderful, and some rosemary that you probably can't see. The square pot contains curry plant, onions, and one 'Minnesota Midget' melon plant, with three more pots of the same melon next to it. I planted these sort of late, but they're really going crazy right now. This variety has a short maturing period and does well in containers, so we'll see what happens.

The other corner of the deck contains some 'Tigger' melon plants, but they don't look as photogenic as these do. Not sure if they'll have time to produce, but they're my only hope as deer have learned to jump my veggie garden fence and are regularly pruning the good parts off of the produce down there.

The 'Berries n Cream' mint is just wonderful here (maybe a slightly bigger pot next year), and the repurposed water jug (lower right corner) is looking great!

So that's a look at the back garden, nearest to the house. Lush is the right adjective, right?


How are things looking in your garden?

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