June blooms

These are a few of the things blooming in the Not-So-Secret-Garden at the moment. They can all be listed as "mostly" deer proof, drought tolerant, perennial, and beautiful. The plan is to fill this space (25' x 75') with more of the same and eventually have to water neither much nor often. (as opposed to my neighbor across the road who has a ginormous lawn that she waters every morning and every evening, 15 minutes each time...7 days a week...and which looks like yummy pasture within 24 hours of her once a week mowing) But I digress. The soil in this patch is mostly clay with some very gravelly spots and is blanketed with a few big truckloads of ground up trees (and the occasional munched toy, candy wrapper and such). I have attempted to ammend the planting areas with compost and a "decent" soil mix, the deer fertilize as they "prune" (they didn't prune all of the sweet peas this year-yippee!) and the battle with the Bermuda grass is a constant.

It is a fun place to putter. I've met a lot of neighbors whilst working out there as the garden is along a very busy road. (once a deputy stopped to ask if I'd seen someone they were looking for "because you're always out here working". I love that the cops noticed!)

Several years ago I unwisely planted a scarlet Oak at the east end of this garden area. Beautiful tree. HUGE now. LOTS of shade. I should have planted it at the north end! My property is SO shady that its hard to grow the sun worshipers. The other problem being that where there's sun there are deer. Thus the veggie garden is in the dog's yard, along with tasty bloomers. flowers, that is. I could have more sun touching "my" earth if only I could afford to hire a tree service and then erect taller fences. Some day....