Gardening When You Are Not a Gardener

I know I've written here before about our garden, and fixing it up, etc.  Of course, it's an ongoing process, but after finally getting into shape last summer, it's been a lot easier this summer to keep it looking nice, and we've even been spending time out there during the evenings on days when it hasn't been too hot and humid.

When we first moved in, the garden had all kinds of amazing plantings.  Over the years, between us not having a clue, the installation of a new roof where they just threw stuff into the garden from the roof, killing quite a few things, and street work, a lot of the smaller things have died off.  I *love* plants and flowers, but a) know nothing really about most of them, and b) have the love but not the dedication to grow elaborate gardens and keep them going.

Having said that, I do like to have *some* plants and flowers out there, and in the front planter on the one front of our house (we have two fronts, it's another story altogether).  In the front planter, it's not worth planting anything too nice, as the few times we've done that, we've found them dug up for someone else's garden, or in the case of some tulips, dug up for what we decided must have been a Mother's Day gift ... so the front planter generally has plants that are inexpensive and not terribly desirable to dig up.  This year, I planted rosemary and lavender right outside the door a few weeks go, and then today, added some impatiens and zinnias.

(The little plant to the right of the impatiens is a plant that is supposed to spread and flower, and I've completely forgotten the name ... )

 (Note: this vent is inactive, it's just in the way.)

I am pleased, even though there aren't many plants, and some will surely not make it.  Next spring, we want to try and add two rosebushes to replace the ones that were extremely old and spindly that we removed.

Inside the actual garden, which is enclosed next to the house, I tried some perennnials, in the hopes that maybe at least one would "take" and come back next year.  If they do not (and realistically, they may well not thrive), they were all on sale, so it's not like I've invested tons of money in flowers.  

I tried a butterfly bush (shown here after being watered, so it's looking droopier than it did when I planted it:

A coreopsis plant in another spot:

And finally, a dianthus plant (top in photo) along with the last of the zinnias in the grouping I bought:

So we'll see what happens.  For now, everything looks pretty, and happy, and maybe I'll be lucky this year and more will live than die.  I also have an azalea to plant, but I need The Tim to help dig the hole.  We had a lovely azalea when we moved in, but it was taken out when some plumbing had to be done, so hopefully that will do well once it's in the ground.

Of course this morning while I was doing all of this, I had a lot of help.

Jetsam snooper-vised from under a chair, where he could appear both regal and patterned.

While Jack was extremely busy with a bumblebee that was in the dirt and then later, between the bricks.  I think it was near the end of its bumblebee life, because it wasn't flying at all.  But it did keep him busy, which was fine with me!

The garden is a happy, enjoyable space now, and I'm glad I spent all of that time last year really working hard on it.  It's nice to have a private space in the middle of the city.  :-)