This is a photo showing an early attempt at adding some colour ...
Last year I added quite a few potted annuals and gradually started adding other great plants such as cordylines and coleus. I was very pleased with the whole area by the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Then came the summer ... and our 'wet' season. Things did not go well. I certainly learned a lot of valuable lessons ...
Pelargoniums don't like being wet.
Torenias don't like endless overcast days.
Nor do Aralias.
The hordes of grasshoppers that come with the rains love to eat Cordylines.
Calibrachoa hates both heat and humidity. They're not all that keen about lots of heavy rain either.
There's some sort of pest that hovers in my garden and loves to wipe out any Verbena that comes close!!!
Well ... lessons learned ... and time to start anew. So ... after a rather long period of rain and endless cloudy overcast days, I've finished potting up lots of new plants ready for another go! Now I can't wait for the blooms to appear! The following videos are my record of the potted plants out in the courtyard at the end of Autumn.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Your courtyard garden seems very inviting! You have put in so much hard work!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice tour of your garden! I have enjoyed looking at your plants. They are all looking wonderful! And you really have a wide collection. I love the orange crossandra ;-) Enjoy the rest of Autumn.
ReplyDeleteyou garden is wonderful. You must havr too many pots to count, which is always cool. For a second, i thought the wallaby was a giant rabbit. jim
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful garden! I would have loved to walk there, and see all the gorgeous flowers! Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteVery pretty, peaceful, and welcoming, Bernie! Nice progress!
ReplyDeleteYour garden is exquisite, what a great place to be!
ReplyDeleteYou have spent a lot of time and hard work on your garden and it is sure to look more beautiful everyday until the next wet. Hopefully these ones will survive. A lovely place to relax with a book and a cool drink.
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ReplyDeleteI love your courtyard garden, so many flowers and trees, it's fantastic.
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments. It's still very much a work in progress and I'm so looking forward to the winter ahead and then our spring ... can't wait for all the lovely flowers.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful courtyard! I'd love to relax out there. Love the birds in the background! Nice jungle effect. I hear such sounds in my gardens, but it's my neighbor's pet birds who stay in the lanai. Can't believe the grasshopper damage on that 'Cobra'! My cordylines are usually not attacked by the grasshoppers. (knock on wood!) Maybe it's because we have so many crinums, which grasshoppers find irresistible.
ReplyDeleteHi Bernie, i can fully relate with you. You have a lot of plants so you will be very tired also. I have come to a point that i don't plant anything anymore, just prune a little and just leave themselves on what they want to do, hehe. There will come a time that you will succumb to fatigue and just want to relax, anyway they are already established so even if not much annuals are there, you will still appreciate what they'd become. Take a rest, or else you might not be able to smell the flowers, and take care. BTW, you invite me there and i will help you in gardening, and we will have lots of fun!
ReplyDeleteHi Bernie, I really enjoyed your video diary. The plants are gorgeous, and to hear the birdsong in the background is just delightful.
ReplyDeleteSue
Oh my word! What a large container garden you have. Beautiful. Do you start any from seed and how much watering do you do? Was that a Kangaroo in the first video? Outstanding! Do they eat your plants....you can tell I know nothing of your area of the world..will be tuning in to learn more though. What a sweet calming voice you have.
ReplyDeleteAppreciated your comments Floridagirl, Andrea, Sue and Darla.
ReplyDeleteFloridagirl ... birdsong is constant here, even in the middle of the day! I rarely have the TV or the radio on any more ... much prefer to listen to the great variety of bird calls!!!
Andrea ... so far I haven't got tired of looking after all my potted plants. The rest of the garden doesn't need much of my attention ... so I spend my time looking after the Courtyard and the Greenhouse Gardens. It's still a joy right now. Lol ... visitors are welcome anytime!!
Sue ... glad you can put up with the Aussie accent!!! It does interfere a bit with all that lovely birdsong, lol!
Darla ... yes I do start some of my plants from seed. This year the 'wet' season we had earlier meant lots of my annual seedlings failed. It was just too damp and muggy for them. The Bracteanthas came from seed collected last year ... so did the Salvias.
Darla ... sorry I missed your other questions!
ReplyDeleteWatering the potted containers ... I have potted plant in both my courtyard and greenhouse gardens and I only water them every second day for most of the year. So that means greenhouse plants watered one day, courtyard plants the next. During our winter, I can get away with every third or fourth day ... during our summer, it has to be every day (when we're not getting torrential downpours of rain, lol!)
The creature in the video is a wallaby ... slightly different to a kangaroo (but I won't go into that just now). Whilst the wallabies eat mainly grass, they do sometimes eat some of my plants ... but I've learned which ones not to plant in the garden beds they can reach. Occasionally one of them will come up onto the courtyard though and have a snack. They really love portulacas!!!
You have a wonderful variety of flowers and beautiful foliage plants. They must bring you a great deal of pleasure. Your courtyard looks like a great place to relax after all your hard work. I also enjoyed hearing some of the background sounds of wildlife in your garden. Thanks for the tour!
ReplyDeleteDebsgarden ... my courtyard garden is definitely a source of great joy. I love adding colour in amongst all the surrounding green ... this year I'm trying more of the oranges and reds.
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