More Changes in My Yard & Flower Gardens (Photo Essay)

For the past two weeks I've been doing little things around the yard. I've planted a few more flower pots and added some different flowers to the mailbox garden. I also spent some time trimming back the juniper stuff that was growing out into the driveway. 

I even went out with the branch cutters one day and cut all the dead english ivy off the backyard fencing. Well, I had first tried to "unwrap" it, but that proved to be very tedious. The cutters worked just fine and were much faster at the task.

The two Gebera Daisy plants that I planted in the mailbox flowerbed have not been doing too well. I've come to believe that in order for them to thrive, they need to be in pots and planters. So before they died, I replanted them in a flowerpot and added more gazanias and black-eyed susans in their place.

(Above: Hopefully I caught the gerberas early enough to save them.)

(Above: The mailbox flowebed today)

Earlier this season I attempted to save two azalea bushes that I lost last year with the drought. No matter what I did, they simply were not coming back. So I finally dug them up and trashed them. In their place I added another hydrangea bush, which I think is supposed to be white blooms, and a yellow day lily plant. You can see how it looks now in the photo below that was taken this evening.

The flowerpot gardening seems to be going alright. My tomato plants are so tall that they began bending over the railing. With them being in planters, I can't really stake them up. So I moved the entire planter to the middle of the table on the back deck to keep the stalks from breaking. Now they're growing out and up from the table. No flowers on them yet, but it shouldn't be too much longer.  They're about 5 times as tall as they were when I purchased them.

The green pepper plant shown above has about 6 small flowers on it all of a sudden. So those should become little bell peppers very soon. Nothing on the yellow pepper plant yet, but it was planted a month after the green one.

The watermellon plant has three flower buds on it now. I took the macro shot above of one of them. So maybe I'll get some watermelons afterall.

The photo above is my first hydrangea plant that I planted in May I believe. I was worried about the blooms because the only one it did have turned an awful green color. I broke it off and tossed it 2 weeks ago. Now the little plant has a lot of booms sprouting and seems to be staying the pink color it was when I purchased it.

The flowerpots along my little walkway to the mailbox seem to still be doing well. You can see that my second order of solar lights arrived and this area got one of the 3 new lights.  The other two went along the driveway and also into the mailbox flowerbed.

Finally, the flower bed with the bird bath is still growing like crazy. I had to move my two little ceramic mushrooms to the back left because the impatens were growing over them. The begonias in the center are practiclaly as tall as my knees (about 2 ft tall).

Since last weekend, we've gotten some regular rain showers almost every other day. This includes a 15 minute downpour that came through here late this afternoon. I have not had to hand water all week, which is a first so far this season. Hope we get more rain tomorrow too!