Perhaps It's Time to Prune?

The weather in metro-Atlanta has been just plain nasty lately, with temps in the mid-to-high 90's every day for what seems like months!  To top it off, every day the weather forecast is for a "30% chance of showers....as long as your house is facing east, painted blue, and a Dutch Colonial"....do I sound bitter?  Seriously, the weather pattern has been so bizarre, the Big House sometimes gets 2 inches of rain in an hour, and at home, we get none (or vice versa).  Fortunately the Big House (where I get paid to make it beautiful) has a great irrigation system; unfortunately the Stepchild Garden does not.  Every time I go outside at home, I am reminded of the Hefty bag commercial, but in this case it's "crispy, crispy, crispy...."

Certain of the plants, however, are delighting in this weather.  Here's a shot of one section of the perennial border at home.  Everything is toast except for Rudbeckia and Verbena bonariensis, which are about waist high!  Those other things are the tops of the Lythrum "Morden's Pink," which really need to be pruned, but they're going to need to wait for a cloudy day.

A little further down the way, here is the arbor that marks the entrance to the garden at home.  The moonvine and New Dawn rose are so out of control at this moment, they are both reaching out to grab unsuspecting children who walk by on the way to the bus stop.  I like my friends, and I want them to visit (no, really, I do.....but in August I really just like the moonvine more......)

                                

Have a fabulous and cool day.......

Some Photos of the Stepchild Garden

Here is a photo of the arbor that Chuck built in June, which is finally starting to look at little more "settled in." The New Dawn Rose had to be seriously whacked back when I removed the old arbor, but it doesn't seem to be any worse for the wear! I trim this back at least once every ten days and it always looks like Medusa, waiting for unsuspecting pedestrians. The great part is that all of those tentacles are covered with hundreds of pink blooms in May, in time for the tour! The Moon Vine is racing up to the top of the arbor, and just starting showing off some blooms last week.

The top shot is the sylphium I mentioned last week. It's the perennial that everyone mistakes for a small tree. To give you an idea, the sad looking dark-leaved canna in front of it is about 3 feet tall. It puts on this much height every summer, and still manages to throw off at least twenty "babies" each season.

The seond one is showing some of the perennials that are strutting their stuff this week. The "Hot Lips" salvia is light and whispy, but holds it own with the rudbeckia and "Victoria Blue" annual salvia. That Teddy Bear Magnolia just went in last year, and will ultimately shade out the perennials, but such is the nature of long term gardening....

PS Try as I might, I never manage to pick up the hoses before the photos are taken....