Great potager, all filled in!

Almendra

Nice job! Don't you just love the different seasons with different flowers? It certainly looks lush now.

WOW, your garden is gorgeous, Haziemoon - I especially love the little bistro set, that must be the best place in your county to have breakfast!

Your garden looks so beautiful! I'm envious of all that sun! I'm also trying to find a cute bistro set ($$!)

Thanks for all the compliments everyone. It seemed like it
would never be what I envisioned when we put it in this spring.........next year it should really take off, I hope.

Kristen........
The bistro set I found was at KMart......great price..Big Lots had some beautiful ones too........might be late in the season now though. As far as the sun goes.........it's miserable out there till about 8 or 9 at night. So we hardly
ever get to sit out there. Hopefully the grapes around the arbor will really take off next year and give it the shade
we expected.

Haziemoon

Haziemoon,

Your Potager is very lovely, woman! It will grow and really shoot up next year. What you lack is the background landscape shrubs and trees that make other people's look fuller and more lush (the illusion).

You ought to buy some landscape shrubs - evergreens, deciduous shrubs, and trees to plant around your garden. Add some huge rocks and ornamental grasses for winter interest. They are on sale right now at most garden centers. Some on the clearence racks! (hold me back!!!)

Here are some I can think of:
Holly & Yew (in various sizes); Eunamyous (sp?); Junipers (pillar and spreading); Boxwoods come in all sizes and leaf sizes (mini ones are great for edging). Chinese Privet (gorgeous variegated gold and silvery foliage - lovely); Monkey grasses; various ornamental grasses (not green, but lovely in the winterscape). Bridleswreath Spirea is lovely in winter although it is bare twigs. (I use the twigs to make lovely wreaths and sprays for the holidays). How about Oleanders? They bloom in summer and are evergreen.
These will block hot sun, blasting winds, dust and add some privacy.

Hot - I think I know the elements you have to deal with there. Brother! I used to live in the high Mojave desert. High altitudes and sparse vegetation. Alkaline water, cockroaches big enough to carry off your poodle, and sand, not dirt. We got two inches of annual rainfall. Dustdevils that packed a whallop and stickery tumbleweeds that could tear you a new one. Sand blowing and small rocks being bounced along the ground by the sheer force of the terrific winds! Asphalt streets so hot that it melted and stuck to your bare feet and retreaded your sneakers! My dad had to either have the car repainted and the windshield replaced every year, or buy a new car due to the sand blasting winds. I loved it there though. Honest! :)
~SweetAnnie

What a change, it looks beautiful!
mary z5bks

Wow! What a great garden. I love your design and use of the gravel and the bistro set is the perfect touch.

Michelle

I've tried to plant things around the edge to give it a natural border......but Annie you are right..evergreens are the way to go! right now it's looking great around the border, but it will be sad looking this winter.
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Don't get too depressed yet. I see you have several plants that appear to give winter interest. When you do your fall clean up leave some of the seed heads. Depending on how hard your winter is you may be able to harvest some of your mint and other herbs. Your bay tree, at least I think it is a bay, will of course come inside with you. I know with the 100+ that most of the country has been having you don't think of visiting your garden with a hot steaming cup of something but this year try it. I find that it helps midwinter blues to sit there looking at your garden thinking warm thoughts of where you want to move things. What new stuff you can put in just there if you plant less of something you need but didn't like very well.

However do not rush to the garden center because you will purchase several years worth of seeds which will be brought up each year for the rest of your life.

Oh, Haziemoon! Your flowers are just beautiful! I love the color combinations and varying sizes of blooms. Really pretty. Your garden is beautifully designed and is lovely to behold just as it is. I wasn't trying to be a Know-it-all, Hazie, I hope you know that. I was replying to something you wrote regarding the photos I posted of my gardens.
I've noticed that the most exquisite, lush-looking gardens always have tall, gorgeous trees, mixed hardwoods and pines, spruces, clipped yews and boxwoods, hollys and the like of evergreen & deciduous shrubs of all kinds that are the "Bare Bones" for the gardens year round. They make the garden look more full and the colors and textures more vivid.

~ Annie

Haziemoon,

What is the tall purple bush in your garden? Some kind of Salvia or Lavender? Gosh, it's pretty. I wouldn't change a thing INSIDE your garden. My suggestion was for outside your garden, to frame it.

Annie

SweetAnnie,
I didn't mind your suggestions all all!!
Thanks for your input.

The purple bush is Russian Sage. It's HUGE!
If I had realized how big it was going to get, I think I
would've planted several around the edge to fence it in!

Look at what the morning glories have done in the last couple weeks...
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They are growing on the ground now and are about 2 feet tall!
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Haziemoon