My end of summer garden report

Grandpa Ott morning glories

Gaillardia hybrid and lantana

Overall, the garden was a mixed bag this summer. I'll start with the positive. There were plenty of flowers from the spring into the early part of the summer.  Which included Grandpa-Ott morning glories, lilies, lantana, gaillardia, and my biggest surprise, sunflowers. The most surprising aspect of the sunflowers was not necessarily that they grew so tall, but that they grew so tall while being grown in containers. Every single plant grown in my garden has its feet in containers. We are unable to plant anything into the ground as per our lease agreement. I have many years of experience with container gardening. So as long as the sunflowers were well watered, they did well.

Oh...and the lilies! I planted several oriental lily bulbs in different containers throughout the garden and every single one grew, save for one, and bloomed, each with a wonderful scent.

Smelled better than it looks.

I am very proud of my hibiscus plant which was a holdover from last summer. This one wintered inside and even gave us a bloom or two. This guy got trimmed and has bloomed continuously all summer. Another holdover from years past is the confederate star jasmine with its lovely jasmine scented blossoms.

Scratch and sniff needed here.

Herbs were my best crop for the most part. I bought a big plastic barrel planter where I moved my rosemary (have had it for 4-5 years, maybe), lavender, and oregano plants. The rosemary looks happier than it was in a much smaller container. The lavender bloomed well considering that I did not trim it like I could have last fall. I had another surprise with the oregano as it bloomed and helped attract bees to the garden. Other herbs that excelled were, mint (which bloomed to my surprised) and new additions, lemon balm and bee balm-Eary Grey (smells like the tea!)

The vegetable yield, or lack thereof, was a big disappointment. Radishes were okay early on, but took forever to get going because it looked like they were plagued with either slugs or snails. Once I took more care with them, I had a few radishes to eat. I had zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers (twice) that failed to bear anything. It could be that they needed to be in a bigger and deeper container. I had a few green beans but not enough to yield a sufficient harvest. 

The lone bright spot on the veggie side were the tomatoes. And that's because I planted them in is a re-purposed ice bucket tote. It worked because I got some good cherry and grape tomatoes. The two plants are still hanging in there and are presently dealing with a mealybug infestation. There are blooms present so I hope I can keep the plants going and pests away for a few more tomatoes.

The biggest disappointments were the perennial flowers that did not even survive the season! I planted shasta daisies in two different pots and seemed to do well initially, but after the plants bloomed, both separate plants died. The biggest disappointing perennial was the dwarf purple coneflower, a fickle guy, who wilted at the smallest of dry spells. While its pot-mates, the oregano, rosemary and lavender, did exceptionally well, the coneflower up and died, as did the two following ones. Other short-lived perennials were two different gaillardias, including the one photographed above. I had hope to have a pop of color in among the big herb pot, but each one died. Perhaps, these perennials are not suited for container gardening.

As of this writing, the pride and joy of my garden is the long-lived chilepequín pepper plant, that has started a profuse bloom cycle. I've lost count on how many years I've had this plant in my garden, my daughter was a baby and she's almost 11, so I've had it almost ten years now. This plant came from the peppers of my dad's plant back at my parents' house. I first dried a few peppers, planted them in a pot, but nothing came up. So the next time I threw a few dried peppers and a few seeds just over the dirt, and sure enough up came the sprouts. Nature, I tell ya.

Thanks for visiting and for my reading about my garden. 

I'm 6'1". These sunflowers were tall.

Who wants seeds for next year?!