This is the garden that faces southwest and gets the greatest amount of sun. There is morning shade along the edge by the house, but for the most part this bed bakes from June through August. It now has a soaker hose buried in a loop through it so I can do some deep watering when we are lacking rain.
One of the problems with this bed is the area outside of the rock edging. It's technically part of the driveway. The driveway is pea gravel, which needs topping up every other year. But since we live on a ridge, most of that pea gravel gets washed down the drive and into the road. So we've decided to have the drive blacktopped. Hopefully that will happen this year.
As a result the weeds that would normally be under gravel, or easier to pull out, are taking over. It's mostly plantain and teasel, one of which comes out easily, one of which has roots that need to be dug out. Consequently the edge of the bed is a mess.
The plan is also to plant a small tree at the lower edge of the photo. Something that would shade the big window that's visible in the sided area, and the little window in the brick. Both are bedrooms and their inhabitants would greatly appreciate a little shade. The basement window has a tiny, tiny boxwood planted in front of it, but it's going to be years before there's any shade from that.
The bed right now is pretty when viewed obliquely, although it looks mostly green because the bulk of the flowers will be Asiatic lilies and Hemerocallis. There's a show of tulips that came with the house and iris in the spring (and far fewer weeds) but the iris tends to suffer from rot even though it's full sun and can be very dry. I'm not sure what the deal with with them. It's frustrating.
I need to add fall color. There are coneflowers, several varieties, and a helenium, along with a Joe-Pye-Weed and Ironweed. I'm hoping to remember next year to add to the late season plants. I have a habit of seeing flowers blooming in the spring and buying them, and forgetting the late-summer flowers. And obviously I'm addicted to daylilies and Asiatics. Most of them are crammed in here because the deer eat any Asiatics that are further than 10 feet away from the house. I'm curious to see how the Lily Bed on the slope by the road fairs. They seem to avoid that area even though there's not much traffic, almost none at night. My plan is to add something like echinops (globe thistle) to deter the deer and make it look less like a buffet.
Hargett does spend time in other places besides sitting on the rocks. He has a habit of following me around as I work and so he ends up in many of the pictures.
