I had the best of intentions with my garden/landscaping this year.
But somewhere between April and now, I completely slacked off. April and May were filled with book tours and conferences. Then there were vacations and more conferences. Then it was a thousand degrees and near drought conditions. Then it was September.
It's actually kind of embarrassing.
Just look at this poor perennial I planted in the spring. It has neglect stamped all over it, doesn't it?
And then, oh, this is so bad. Just look at the morning glories I planted a few months ago. Sad, sad, sad.
This time of year, the morning glories are supposed to look like this (this pic was taken last year, when I didn't slack off all summer).
Yet, somehow, even amidst all the abandonment, Mother Nature decided to take pity on me. With these.
Those are impatiens. And I didn't plant a single one of them. Apparently, last year's crop of impatiens dropped seeds. And because we never put down mulch this year (hanging head in shame) the seeds took root. Before we knew it, the whole back garden had impatiens popping up left and right. My daughter calls it the "impatien plantation." I call it a miracle.
The weather is starting to turn, and we might actually get rain this weekend (thank you, Hermine!), so I think it's time to give the yard a little TLC. And maybe even get that mulch put down. Finally.
My DH always works on our flowers. I don't have a green thumb in my body!
Your impatiens are lovely. For not the same reasons, my gardening went kind of like yours did this year.
I was disappointed in that last year I bought climbing roses for several new trellises and they didn't grow at all this summer until three weeks ago! Now they're growing like crazy.
Grow? What's that? Everything I planted this year plotzed. Every hanging plant I bought curled up and died. I'm cursed.
My only consolation is that the organic farmers I talk to at the local farmers market say they've had the same problems.
If weeds count as a garden, mine's doing quite well. LOL I enjoy herb gardening but didn't have time this year to plant anything.
Sadly, our weather was so strange this year, I didn't even get zucchini to grow. Now that's bad!
I think you need some sort of surprise garden intervention!
I am so with you! LOL!
I replaced all my container plants this week with pumpkins! No watering required!
If mine was any worse, I'd have to wear a bag over my head when I leave the house.
Our maple tree has grown and changed the 'climate' in our hot, sunny patch of front garden into a shade garden. The plants are not impressed.
I hope for better results replanting next year.
Not well at all. Like you said, way too hot to even get out there to do any gardening. The funny thing with mine is that every plant I have is overgrown - nothing died but because I didn't prune, pull, etc., I have like 6 plants of each perennial! Mostly purple coneflowers. Really need to get in there and thin stuff out.
Whew! So glad I'm not alone. The weather was so crazy this summer, wasn't it? Maybe we'll all have better luck next year.
I don't have a garden so I'm living vacariously through everyone and our gardens this year was not so good. There's always next year.
A lot of folks had really poor gardens this year for a variety of reasons. Too much water, not enough water, too hot, and other stuff. Several gardens even suffer a lack of passion and enthusiasm.
I guess the best thing to do is prepare our gardens for next year and hope that Spring brings a renewal of attitude as well as life.
I have no room to do a garden. I love flowers but have a black thumb. lol Maybe I'll get some potted plants this spring for some fun! I already have the potting soil.
How's this for timing? Just got an email from a local garden center. Subject line: Stressed plants?
Uh, just a little, teeny tiny bit. LOL.
I've given up on my flower garden beside the house. We're going to cover it with small stones and possibly put some large terra cotta pots with blooming flowers there sometimes.
I managed to keep most of the flowers in the pots on the deck alive but that's about it. Even the snapdragons - which I've never planted but seem to have every year - didn't make it through this summer. But that's not surprising. I've always believed Erma Bombeck was talking about me when she wrote the line, "Plants under my care have been known to commit suicide."
But look how tough those two plants are, still green and kickin'!
I didn't know impatiens reseeded, that's good info. It's why I love tickseed and snapdragons, they do that and we have both plants out the ying-yang...and I like it.
We had a pretty good year in our part of Colorado, good moisture when we neeeded it and I have a DH who likes to go out and help dig in the dirt and weed and till and all that. He and Lady K had a little experiment this year and grew hot peppers and tomatoes from seed in a mini nursery up in the spare room. Cups of dirt and seed with a clear plastic cup taped over each cup. We ended up with tomatoes and pepper plants....yep...out the ying-yang. Even with the late start at planting due to late snow well into May, we have a crazy veggie garden this year. We are very popular at work since we bring in the extra tomatoes.
We plant xeriscape so we have pretty good luck with our plants of agastache (foliage smells like mint or bubblegum), Russian sage, sedums, achilleas, tickseed, hollyhock, etc.....It's a crazy landscape, but we love it.
Oh dear! I hate to tell on myself, but I've done very little as far as gardening. My in-laws gave us two of those Topsy Turvy tomato plants and they did quite nice for about two months (which felt more like ten minutes). Time definitely got away from us this year. So many things have been going on, but this is not a good excuse for my non-gardening. Most of the flowers/greenery I have comes back every year and requires very little watering between rain storms. Easy, right? Well, my coneflowers didn't do near as well as some of you ladies. I did get a few starts of mums off of my mom and they did nicely. Our azaleas did nicely (all on their own, once again). I planted some cosmos in some small plants, but when my husband moved them to the front deck (which we're never on), my attention was averted. I did the same thing with moonplant seeds and was once again averted from them. Note to self: don't let husband move flowers so that I don't forget to water them. Needless to say, the cosmos and moonplants are dead. One more note to self: dump dead flowers in tree line. Maybe us women should stick to what we do best: reading. I've gotten lots of that done this summer and DO NOT regret any of it.
I intended to plant a garden....never once got around to it. Maybe someday I actually will!