Lester's Tropical Garden

Last fall Adam put in a retaining wall/new garden bed alongside the driveway. This space was previously a steeply sloping hill that grew grass poorly and dandelions and crabgrass rather well. I spend our long winters reading all kinds of gardening books and I was inspired to put in a tropical-style garden. I actually have a short list of various garden styles i want to try some day when I have more space. But for now, I am thoroughly enjoying the fastidious level of attention to detail that a city lot-sized garden affords. If i have a true 'before' picture, I haven't looked hard enough to find it (this previously wasn't an area at all worth photographing). So you'll have to start with the 'early spring' picture. The pineapple-type things sticking up are Fritillaria rubra maxima. They are the one thing I planted last fall.

Last week I planted the bulbs i ordered back in March from my trusty bulb source, Brent & Becky's. I planted Canna musafolia and Canna 'Pretoria' along with various dahlias, Crocosmia 'Lucifer', and a couple Lanta 'Landmark Citrus' plants from Klein's (a trusty source of annuals, though this year they seemed pretty picked over).

 

Today I finished the planting, except for the red spider zinnias I plan to direct seed tomorrow. I planted several Geums; Hibiscus 'Lord Baltimore, Colocasia 'Mohito; an Echinacea 'Tiki Torch'; the Castor bean 'Gibsonii' plants, black eyed susan vines, Gaillardia 'Arizona Apricot' & 'Arizona Red Shades', and rooster spur pepper plants that I grew from seed (most seeds courtesy of Seed Savers, my favorite seed supplier), a few Margarita sweet potato vines, and a few serrano pepper plants. I really tried to plant things that I know rabbits don't like. This bed needs to be as rabbit-proof as i can make it, since it would look silly with a bunch of chicken wire. I've never grown Cannas or Colocasia before. I'm hoping that I'll figure out how to dig them up this fall and over winter them, though my attempts at overwintering my first dahlias this past winter were a dismal failure. Turns out that loosly stuffing them in a sack with some shredded paper wasn't sufficient.

 

I know it's currently more impressive in my mind than it is in a picture. Check back in a few months for a much larger, more impressive view. In the meantime, here's a view of my front yard. It changes every day. In fact, since I took this picture a couple days ago, Adam has removed the final two yew bushes and replaced them with the summersweet 'Ruby Spice' shrub he bought me for my birthday.