Back garden going gangbusters!

We've had a good amount of rain in August here in St. Louis -- not too much, but a bit more than is normal -- and the garden is thriving for it. It's been a month since I showed you the back garden in the patio area, but it's really time for another look.

This is from the driveway looking through the "tropicals bed" -- no longer a good description as I've got tropicals all over now.

***

Moving to the right of the first photo it's another view of the same area:

My "let it grow" attitude toward the garden this year has resulted in some nice surprises, like the cypress vine growing on the post on the left. I haven't planted cypress vine seeds for years, but they always show up mid to late summer. The other post holds maypop (Passiflora incarnata) which is also growing overhead (unseen in this photo).

But stepping through and looking at the stream area:

Lots of growth! Here's what it looked like a month ago:

Notice how that one Colocasia leaf is above the pergola top now, and the castor beans are just going crazy! More on that in a minute because we need to turn around to see where we just came from...

Those maypop vines are a bit out of control, but so fabulous! That's canna 'Paton' on the right, with its fantastically upright foliage.

Okay, on to the castor beans, a shot taken while hanging over the deck railing (or maybe the deck stairs?)

Is there any better combination than bamboo, bananas, and (castor) beans?

You can see that they are about a foot taller than the deck railing now:

Can you believe that I thought I had planted these too late for them to gain a decent size?

There's another castor bean on the south side of the house (another photo taken while hanging over the deck railing):

I've not grown one here before, and luckily it isn't as large as the others or the kitchen window would be blocked!

While we're still on the deck, let's look at the stream area from above:

I think it might actually look better from above!

Turning a little to the left to see the "tropicals bed" from up here:

Hey, another castor bean! This was a volunteer and is in a pretty good spot. It's not too big either, which is perfect!

I love how things are doing back here with so little attention this summer!

I'll show more of the back garden in posts later this week.

.