Sunday Garden Survey with Sammy and Alice

Friends, I have let our little flower garden -- admittedly a work in progress -- get out of control. Sammy and Alice helped me take a little survey of the situation this morning before it got too hot. As you can see below, the garden area is rather indistinguishable from the yard -- Sammy is in the garden, Alice stands on grass in the yard (it is filling in from last year! Hurray!).


Since Sammy likes to run through my garden, I have been reluctant to plant anything that could be easily mowed down. I once had a small iris bed within the garden & Sammy trampled it into extinction. So with the combination of the heat and the fact that I've been in and out of town, I just let it go & the weeds took advantage! The sun and high heat scorch everything now -- the only things that really thrive are the crepe myrtle.

The knock-out roses will take the heat and sun, too, but my other hybrids are just in survival mode. I planted some bee balm in the spring and it has spread, but the leaves look a little battered from heat. The cat mint is a great plant and doesn't seem to mind the weather, tho it is not blooming so profusely.

Bee balm among the weeds. I thought this would bloom, but so far, nothing:

Cat mint:


I bought a plumbago yesterday, so cleared some weeds out to put that in. They are such a pretty annual and will bloom well if you keep them watered. I thought I would try to work about 45 minutes every morning this week to clear weeds and mulch.

Plumbago:


Now planted, in the far bottom left corner of the picture. The walkway looks a bit like a bridge to nowhere, but it serves a purpose: I built it because it was the place the dogs kept running through, so I made them a path! I'm thinking of adding another to the right of it, another natural walkway for the dogs. It keeps my plants safer. I think I will get some more plumbagos to fill in & then mulch.

I got a little ways, but still have lots to do as you can see. I left part of the pool fence up because it keeps the dogs from racing through the bed so much and it is a convenient place to hang beach towels!

Most of my potted herbs have done okay, but I need to repot some of them. I've never had good luck with rosemary until this year. I purchased a variety bred for our climate and it has done fantastically well! It is called Arp rosemary & it will take high humidity:

My basil likes the afternoon sun & thrives as long as I keep it watered:
I'm really pleased with how well my figs are doing. The potted fig is a magnolia variety; the other is a celeste. Figs only produce on second-year growth, so no figs this year. I planted both last October.
Sammy and Alice say they are going to make me stick to my weeding plan!