Welcome to post number two at the most marvelous garden blog on all the interwebs. I'm posting my second set of pictures that I took this past Saturday, the 1st of May. Since the last set of pictures the only big change that I've made is mulching all of my garden beds. The nice thing about this set is that I've taken more pictures and it's easer to get a sense of the entire yard.

This first picture is of the back of my backyard which is located almost exactly due east. This is the most recent bed that I've made because there is a big tree next to the bed that has made growing things there challenging. My strategy has been to basically throw a bunch of plants in the ground there and to see what lives.In this picture you can see the aforementioned tree on the extreme left. Working left to right I have a astilble that blooms pink, a group of purple irises, and sedum. I'm not hugely in love with any of these plants and I expect to make some changes back here as time goes on.

This next picture is of a bed that is immediately to the right of the one pictured above and runs at a perpendicular angle to it. It too is on the east side of the house, but since my neighbors fence is located on its south side, and because I'm north of the tropic so I don't get overhead sun, it is in shade almost all day long. In its center I have another astilbe. This is my favorite astilbe out of the ones I have because it has really nice dark red flowers. I recently found that rock next to the plant in the woods by my house I thought it would make a nice decorative accent.

This is the bleeding heart that I showed a picture of in my last post. It is located immediately to the right of the astilbe above picture. This is the time of year for this plant and it really looks nice. I was looking around at my local farm stand the other day and saw a bleeding heart with white flowers. I had never noticed that variety of the plant before and I am thinking about maybe getting one for the north side of my house where I get no sun.

The picture below is of the bed located across from the one pictured above. It contains my glorious climbing hydrangea, which has really filled out since the last picture of it. The shasta daisies next to it are also doing really well. The wet spot in the center of the picture is of a newly planted peony that I got on clearance at Ocean State Job Lot. Since I got it in the ground pretty late, I'm not expecting much from it this year, but it should look great in the years to come. It is a really interesting variety - Monsieur Jules Elie.

There is supposed to be a bunch of Black-Eyed Susans growing throughout the bed, but my neighbor's cat keeps eating the leaves as they come up. The plant is supposed to be poisonous for cats, so I have expect to find a cat corpse in the yard. It would probably thrill my dog Whitman, whose fat head is pictured, as he has been unsuccessfully trying to catch that cat for three years now. In the second view of the bed you can see the north side of the house in background.

This is the other end of this bed. I'm trying to get a mix of plants that bloom at different times of the year here, so I have an Arctic Fire for the early summer, the Black-Eyed Susans for the mid summer, and some Astrids that I transplanted from the front for the fall. Since this spot is sunny almost all day long (except late afternoon when I took this picture), I'm also thinking of putting lillies or hollyhocks here as well.

A glorious shot of my marvelous chive plant. When the gods get tired of eating ambrosia they come over and ask for some chives from this plant.

Now we're going to leave the back yard and progress around the house to the front garden. As I've mentioned the north side of the house faces due north and gets very little sun. The plant's I have growing there have to be full shade tolerant. There is a completely nondescript holly bush that is there just to take up space. I recently added a new astilbe plant there that I have high hopes for.

Here is a picture of the astilbe. Despite being another Job Lot clearance special, it's done really well and I'm pumped to see what color its foliage comes out. Ironically, I took this picture during just about the only time during the day when this spot gets any sun. You can see just how un-sunny the place is by the ample mildew on the siding that the condo association hasn't gotten around to cleaning yet.




Coming around to the front of the house, there is a Rose of Sharon and a couple of Hydrangea plants. I also recently added those blue flowers whose name I've forgotten. I plan to get a couple more of them to add more accent to the front. I think they really help bring more interest to this area early in the season because the front looks really plain before the hydrangeas fill out.