Other garden spots

My new perennial container garden.

I have a few other garden spots around the yard that I've been working on to varying degrees this year. When we first moved here there was a big round bed in the back yard with azaleas and some other shrubs. The azaleas died out quite a while ago and the bed became overgrown with Virginia Creeper and some other weeds. A very nice oak tree sprouted in the bed and we've left it alone. It's now a good 20-25 feet tall and is doing nicely since I cut the creeper out of it. My first thought had been replant the bed with shrubs, but something hardier than azaleas. There are a lot of pretty flowering shrubs that do well around here and I don't really have any other than a forsythia and a couple spirea. I didn't want to rush to replant, however, because I knew I'd need at least a year to finally kill the Virginia creeper that keeps trying to come back.

It's a work in progress, for several years to come.

I had been wanting a perennial garden, but I knew I didn't have the time or inclination to keep weeds under control, so I decided to try a perennial container garden. I'm aiming for very large containers because I think it will improve the chances of the plants making it through the winter. I used the two half barrels I had made from the used whiskey barrel I bought earlier in the year. I had a few other very large containers around and I'm looking for more to add in future years. With the plants in containers rather than in the ground, I can spray that damn Virginia creeper until it is dead and gone. Eventually I might plant some shrubs around the containers as well. It's a work in progress and will be for several years.

The pond has been here for several years, but has been badly
neglected for several years too. It's on the edge of another bed
full of shrubs that had become badly overgrown and infested
with poison ivy and other weeds. This has been a year of
reclamation for a few such places in my yard.

I got my pond going again this year, and I planted the big semi-circular bed in the front yard with zinnias as I had done for several years after I had made it. That bed got badly infested with bindweed and I've left it fallow for the past several years, spraying it periodically to try to kill that off. Another weed came up and sort of got away from me this year, but I hope to keep planting that bed and will do better with it in future years.

Water hyacinths blooming in the pond.

Anyway, here's a few pics from these "other" gardens and a few more from my container garden as well.

This is the end of a double row of boxwoods in the front of the house. My container garden is on
the far side of the row of boxwoods on the left. They really need to be cut back severely, which
I've planned to do during the past two winters but never did. This year for sure.
The planters here have lantana in them. The pot in the center is full of sweet potato vines.

This is my zinnia bed out front. I haven't weeded it like I should. Most of the seeds sprouted toward
the front of the bed, maybe because I was raking them into the soil and I pulled too many towards
the front. I'll do better next year.

 Meanwhile, my container garden continues to thrive. It's done better than ever. Dog bless Osmocote.

Vince coming through the walkway, which
has been narrowed considerably by the
lush vegetation on both sides.