May Backyard Garden Tour ~ birdhouse garden

Good morning everyone. How y'all doing? It is already May and I'm behind on giving you all a tour of our front and backyard gardens. Today I'm going to start with our back garden and there've been a few little changes, not a lot. I do want to go over a few things that I would like to potentially change about our garden, maybe update, switch out a few plants, but I thought I would start right here, mainly because the sun is getting ready to hit this area really hard and it just, it looks better when things are a little bit more shaded. We just redid this flower bed, oh I don't know, maybe a couple of months ago and it is already beginning to fill in very nicely and I have been fertilizing the impatiens, oh about once a week, sometimes twice a week, only because we have already hit the 90s and we are watering very often now and already you're beginning to see some of the columbine flowers come up and this is the flat that I picked up from evergreen. So they're a combination of different colors and I am hoping that you'll just see a big drift of flowers here pretty soon with the columbine, but don't the impatiens look awesome? This is a variegated mint bush and oh I would say maybe about a month ago it was covered in purple flowers and I should have taken a photo of it and I'm just so bad at that, but if I lift this up you can just see how big the impatiens are are getting and then right here is where we took out the oleanders back in October and we planted the Wichita blue junipers and I believe it might have been maybe November that I put the snapdragons in and about a month ago I had come through and deadheaded them. You don't need to deadhead or pinch back snapdragons, it's just something that I do. I think I've only done it twice since November and I think they look really really beautiful. Behind the agapanthus are ranunculus and you can tell they're already spent. I have a few new ones coming up but I need to prune those back and I planted dahlias behind between the ranunculus and the agapanthus. Now they're not the dinner plate kind so they're not going to get as tall as those do but they're already coming up behind the agapanthus and I think that's going to be a nice flower that'll eventually come up. I don't know if the snapdragons are going to last through summer. Typically they don't, however in our park strip up front there's a tree, our Keith Davies Chinese Pistache, and I put snapdragons up there and they've been there for two years already. I am going to pull them this summer and I'm going to put zinnias there. I also have alyssum in between the snapdragons and that is doing well. Typically I don't have good luck with alyssum but I really try to stay on top of keeping it watered and maybe because for us it does better in cooler weather. Much of our garden is filled with clearance plants and this is a good example. I think this is three miniature rose bushes and I would say maybe they were this big when I bought them and I think I picked up several. I gave one to my mom, I gave one to my sister-in-law, and I planted the three in here and they looked real small when I first did it but ever since it's been a few years and it just had this big flush of blooms and it's getting ready to bud up all over again. I did have it over by the fountain but I like it right here a little bit better. Coming around on this side I picked up two Bloodgood Japanese Maples on clearance I think was it two years ago, a year and a half ago. If I'm wrong on the dates I'll make sure I put the right date on here. Anyway 75% off at Home Depot and our sprinklers came on and that's why they're wet and I planted this one here because it was protected by the afternoon sun with our oleanders. When this oleander began to die and we just chose to take them out this will be its first summer in full sun so I'm not sure how it's going to fare but we're hoping that it does okay. Boscobel Rose right here. All of the Geraniums in the Lantana I picked up on clearance and this is Bandana Yellow and I picked up last year three Butterfly Bushes at Ace Hardware over off of Champlain and then the other ones right over here and they're starting to bud up so that'll be awesome when they bloom. They were $30 each and I picked them up for $10 a piece and then right here is a Proven Winners Dianthus. I don't know all the varieties off the top of my head but if I remember I will make sure that I put them at the bottom of the screen. The Bush back here I also picked up on sale and I think you say it was Wistringia. If I'm saying that wrong I apologize and I have one in the front garden that faces west as well as this one can take our full sun. As we come oh and another Boscobel Rose. All of my roses have already bloomed for the season for spring and they're slowly starting to bud up again. Also you'll probably see a lot of places that are freshly mulched and some that still need to be mulched and that's because I'm wanting to pull some geraniums out and I'm wanting to bury some of the lines and I didn't get to all that so that's why you'll see some places that have been mulched and some that haven't. Right over here I had three Russian Sage. One didn't make it back here and this is where a good example you can see where I didn't finish mulching because I just took out a white geranium. I'm keeping all the pink ones but I would like to re-home the white geraniums. The Lamb's Ear doesn't look very happy right now. I just transplanted some from another flower bed that was beginning to overcrowd at Ogon Grass. I think if I just give it a few weeks it will come back and do just fine. That can take our full sun and our heat as well and then in front here I think I had I don't know if I had a Lantana or if maybe this is where the white geranium was but I had some extra Gomphrena and so I put that right here as well. I have two more white geraniums that I need to pull and again I'm not sure what we're going to do in its place but just about I would say late February all the geraniums were just in full bloom. You almost could hardly see any of the green foliage but they're beginning to slow down. This next week we will be experiencing 90 degree weather and you can see my roses here that I'll make sure I put in a photo of when it they were in full bloom but I need to come in and prune those back and deadhead those as well. This is a dwarf crepe myrtle and it has really taken off. I would say it wasn't even barely a foot tall when I purchased it on clearance and this is just a find that I picked up at Walmart and I think it's called confetti mix. They were $27.97 and I picked two of them up for $10 and I'm not sure where I'm planting it yet and that's why I just kind of tucked it back here in the flower bed. This is one of the changes that I want to do right here the two boxwoods. These are baby gem and they just want to splay open. I'll come in and kind of trim them up a little bit more but I don't think they're designed for what I would like right here. I do like having the boxwood structure so I might get just a different variety of boxwood. They've done well in our heat not too bad. I think they get the most damage from when chief wants to come through and mark them on the back and that's why you'll see some of these gates throughout my garden. Right here is an area back here behind the dianthus that I would love to have all pink veronica and I have been on the hunt for it. I picked these up at a garden center up north and I have not been able to find any pink veronica here locally so I am hoping I keep talking to a couple of the local nurseries and I'm hoping that they will bring some in. The yellow nemesia back here I probably will take out. I think it's just gotten so heavy it's hanging down but it's done well over the winter and then this is a larkspur that's kind of on its way out. I think there's a maybe a couple blooms that I can probably get on that left. The coleus is something that I am repeating from last year because when the calla lilies go away when it begins to get warm the coleus will get almost as tall as the calla lilies and so this will create a nice bright pop of red in the garden. I am so enjoying this area since I put the three fountain grass here. There's something about a fountain grass whether it's miscanthus or any kind of variety. I'm a sucker for a grass and these do very well in our heat. The snapdragons even though some of them are colors that I probably wouldn't have picked but because I picked them up on clearance I was okay with it. I planted them I think back in October or November and they've been here ever since. I'm thinking of possibly putting white zinnias right here behind the purple lantana. We'll see how long the snapdragons last and if I can get my hands on some white perfusion zinnias. I saw them at evergreen the other day they're gone already. Luckily I put my order in for the cherry and I just purchased five flats of the perfusion cherry zinnias for our front garden so I'm really excited to show you that in a few weeks and where we're putting that. Always the front walkway but I'm going to do that and put the zinnias around our Chinese pistache up front. Flanking our fence are two nandinas. I'm not the biggest fan of nandinas but I picked up one to match this side a few years ago just because this came with the house. This is another area where I think I would like to either give them away and put something different here. Now my husband will probably disagree with me because he really likes nandina but I would like something a little bit different on each side. I just haven't figured out what I want to do. Along our pallet walkway I have a little bit of candy tuft on each side and a volvulus. The candy tuft was awesome during spring and you can see I haven't even pruned back a couple of them still but the volvulus will kind of take over and it will just be covered in blue blooms. This is a black lace elderberry that I purchased oh possibly six years ago. Not the best location for it. I put it here because I was afraid it couldn't take our sun so it wants to get really big and it already had its flush of pink blooms but I can't bear to part with it so we're keeping it here until I can figure out where to put it and it's probably going to have to be in somebody else's landscape for it to thrive the way it should because it just needs more room. These get very very big and then I have the two black pots that I had the dahlias in last year. I took the dahlias out put those in the landscape and then I had ferns that I purchased many years ago from Green Thumb Nursery in Ventura and I put one here and then over here on the other side by the red maple and this is where we put the other fern. I think when I picked them up they were maybe this big and you know what's true story let me get the saucers real quick. When I took them out of the containers that I had them in I put both ferns in these and these sat oh almost two years. I kept telling myself you got to replant them you got to repot them and I didn't and I thought oh I'm gonna lose them I know I'm gonna lose them but I'd still come through and water them and then they would sit in water. Just about a month ago I came through and cut all the dead out of them fertilized them put them in here and they actually look okay for them sitting in this for two years. Plants are far more resilient than we give them credit for and then this is a Skeeter's Broom Japanese Maple that we picked up oh I think it's been a few years we did have a green one here and it was dying and I kept putting off taking it out because I couldn't bear to part with it but I knew it was time and I really like how this is growing because it's full from the ground all the way up and it kind of buffers this corner and I like that and it also kind of gives a little bit of a privacy when you come around the corner. We don't have neighbors that can see in our yard on this side anyway but I still like the idea of it buffering the corner as you come around it. Right here in this container I a few months ago put Nemesia and Helichrysum in here and Helichrysum I really like it I have a few varieties but it's it's a bit of a beast and I can tell it's crowding out the Nemesia. I don't think Nemesia will last during the summertime but the Helichrysum will and if you just pan down here underneath that little pot of plants that are trying to come back for the first time ever I saw James Brittinia at Lowe's and it was on the clearance rack I'm trying to get out of the sun but it looked so sad. I picked up a few I cut them all back they almost nearly looked dead. I fertilized them a few times put them in there and wouldn't you know it they're all coming back so I'm excited to see how they do in that pot. I have not seen it since then but I've seen the plants on YouTube on other channels and it's such a beautiful flower and it does well in heat and sun. On both sides of the fountain I have Poet's Wife roses that are beginning to bud up again. If I have a photo I'll make sure I put that in there and then I mean you got to give it up for Lantana. This is purple trailing Lantana. I've had this here for a few years and during the winter it almost looks like it's dead because there'll almost be no leaves on it whatsoever and it just looks like a bunch of sticks and before you know it it all comes back and before too long it'll start coming all the way up to here and we'll have to trim it back. This will come all the way out to here we'll have to probably trim that as well. Right here on each side of our doghouse we had, still do on this side, Evening Rose Hibiscus from Proven Winners. Awesome plant it just blooms all the way up until I would say October and it just it never misses a beat. This area right here faces west so it is shaded probably until about noon and right about that time where the sun's straight up this area just is it's in sun until it sets and for us that's about eight o'clock eight thirty and when I took the hibiscus out here and put it in the front that is doing very well. I'm excited to see that bloom. I put it I planted it right behind the Carding Mill Rose and I'll have to show you that in a few weeks. So what I landed up doing is I purchased a another Boscobel Rose and I put that here behind the rose bush and it's probably not a good spot that I put it here but I thought well you know what I don't really know where to put all the dahlias. I put three of them here in the back and these are the dinner plate ones and I'm not sure if they'll all come back but I know one seems to be doing okay. This is where I had to take out lamb's ear because it was you can tell where it overcrowded this area when the and the Ogon grass wasn't growing on this side and then it was kind of spilling out onto the patio. So I took a bunch of that out and transplanted it over there by the geraniums. What I'm hoping for back here because I think I had not playing the blues blue suede shoe salvia. I took that out and put it on the west side of our front garden and I picked up agara because the agara that's in the front is doing so well. I thought that would be something very very pretty right here. The rest is gonfrina. Last year was the first year I planted gonfrina and it performed so well in our heat and so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how it performs again this year. And then if you come down this is I believe blue moon punch calibrachoa with some more helichrysum and these I except for this one right here in the middle and I just picked this one up but the two on the side I cut back over the winter and it was just this little scrawny plant and it came back. I did that on a few plants this year that typically should just be an annual so I'm really happy that those came back. This is another example of me cutting back the calibrachoa and it coming back as well as the helichrysum. I did that as well with this one. I don't know what variety it is. This is not blue moon punch but I know it's a proven winners one and I'll have to make sure I put it up on the screen. And these y'all are from our youngest son's college graduation a year ago. If I have a photo I'll put it up. These I cut back as well. I need to spray them and kind of give them a little bit of a haircut so they'll grow more in the middle but oh my goodness these were cut all the way back to here and they all this one came back as well as the one over there by the lilac. I thought I would end the tour right here. This has probably been one of the biggest changes that we did that I know nobody can see and they're probably not going to be able to really notice anything until next spring but we planted pink jasmine espalier behind the hydrangeas and I think we picked up four or five I forgot how many four and it is something that I have always always wanted to do and it was a bit of a booger and only because it's a little bit tight between the hydrangeas and the wall but we got it done and I thought about filming it but I'm kind of glad we didn't because it was a bit time consuming just because I was trying to not break the hydrangeas and that was very important to me. This is the blood good that I picked up 75% off and this is protected by the sun really the majority of the day. It just doesn't get a whole whole lot of sun. This whole area will get a little bit of slice of morning sun and that's about it. Approval Winners Namesia here in the baskets and I might replace these with some super bells probably at some point because I don't know if these are going to last through the summertime. I did want to touch on the lamium begonias and hydrangeas. You will notice that the lamium looks awesome all the way up until you get a little further down. Right here is an area that I have now for the third time replaced the lamium and this time I only bought two. One right here and here and that is because Chief continually marks over here and he doesn't do it anywhere over here and the lamium spilling out onto the grass and it's just it looks absolutely beautiful. The hydrangeas over here on this side these are merit supreme hydrangeas and they are looking beautiful. They're not quite all in full bloom. This is from Approval Winners. It's a terrinia plant and I thought this was going to be an annual but this has come back. I've seen a few little purple blooms but it will probably pick up on its blooming once it gets a little bit warmer but it's beginning to bud up and we have some random namesia growing in here as well and that's okay. As we get further down my older merit supreme which are these three right here do not have nearly as many blooms on them as they have in the past. I am not sure why. My guess is this year I did not fertilize my hydrangeas at all. Not the ones in the front, not the ones in the back. I only gave soil acidifier to my blue ones up front one time and a couple of them are blue and a couple of them are purple and that's okay. They get a decent amount of water. Again you can see I haven't mulched back here and that's just because we just finished the espalier and we want to run drip to each of the plants and so we're kind of in a holding pattern with that. I wanted to make sure that I came out here and and filmed this for you. Hopefully by next spring just before the hydrangeas bloom you will see more of this at least maybe up to here maybe possibly but this will be full of pink flowers and this should bloom before the hydrangeas begin to bloom and so I'm kind of excited about what the possibility is for this espalier and hats off to my husband who helped me put this all together. I wanted the espalier framed not everybody does that some people just go straight up to the top of their roof line and that looks absolutely beautiful. I just for me I just I wanted to have it framed almost like like a picture frame. I will make sure that I put photos up at dusk when everything is not so blown out by the sun and it's just it's really pretty back here when the sun's beginning to set and I'll make sure that I have more photos of that near the end of the video. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you're having a wonderful almost start to your summer. It feels like summer for us it's going to be in the 90s this next week. Summer starts very early for us and lasts all the way through October so this will be probably one of the few times that I wear a jacket. Thank you guys so much for watching and we'll see you soon. Bye!