Statements From the Garden

I'm not dead yet.

I announced the demise of my red banana plant in my last post, but already a fresh leaf is emerging from the stump! Time will tell if this new growth is diseased or remains healthy. I am ever hopeful.

Meanwhile, here is a quick look at some late summer features in the garden that are making their own statements:

The wildflower garden is blooming. You really do love me, don't you?This hillside is a tangled mess for about eight months of the year, and I still have an urge to rip it all out and plant something more civilized. Yet when masses of flowers emerge in summer and the area buzzes with bees and butterflies, my heart softens.

Perennial verbena blooms in spring and sporadically through the summer. I recently transplanted this one to a new spot next to the patio. I thought you were crazy to transplant me in August, but I love my new home.

Speaking of the patio, this green anole lizard lives nearby and often skitters across the area when I am sitting out there. He likes to sit atop the boxwoods. Ahh, yes. It is a good spot to watch for tasty bugs or cute lady anoles.

Flowers are wonderful, but their impact is usually fleeting. Decorative elements are reliable complements to the garden. Accessories are a garden's best friend!Clockwise from above left: By the patio, Spirea 'Anthony Waterer', after blooming heavily earlier in the summer, continues to bloom sporadically in front of a pink birdhouse; A lantern hangs from a rusty post; A trio of new pots wait for their inhabitants in the front garden; A variegated ficus flourishes in its pot in the Lady Garden.

Crepe Myrtles have been blooming for several months. They give a wonderful dash of color to a mostly green landscape. Pink is powerful!

Finally, here are some views of the stamped concrete walkway I refurbished earlier this summer. This is one walkway that doesn't show its age.

 Blessings to you all!    Deborah

Comments

[Laurrie]

I like your talking garden, especially the wildflowers. Very summery. And your stamped concrete walkway really did come out nice, although what a project it was to do!

[Pauline Mulligan]

Your wildflower garden is looking very pretty and I'm sure the bees and butterflies are enjoying it. Love your lizard, he's a very handsome chap, how could a girl resist tim! So glad your banana is trying again, hope it succeeds.

[Indie]

Yay, it's alive! Hopefully your banana plant will stay that way!
I love the photos of your green anole. We have quite a few, and I always love seeing them hanging about.

[Island Threads]

hello Deb, I'm glad your red banana plant is recovering a little all is not lost, I know what you mean about becoming attached plants are living things afteral, your garden looks lovely despite your heat and I love the little green anole, your wildflowers look beautiful and I can imagine the humming that surrounds them, could you under plant with spring bulbs to give another season of interest that's what lots of people do here with wildflower areas, Frances

[Liz]

Hi Deb.

Beautiful photos - I love your wildflowers and it must look absolutely stunning!

[Karen]

I love that walkway Deb and the lizard is the cutest thing, i'm glad the banana plant has picked up a bit, if he is sprouting a new leaf he should be fine.

[Northern Shade]

You have lots of great late summer colour in your garden, and not all of it is from the plants. The handsome lizard is especially vibrant with its puffy red chest. How could the lady anoles resist?

The meadow is so lively with all of those blooms and bees. You are fortunate to have such a large property, that you can have room for the more wild meadow, as well as the more formal paved area with the clipped shrubs. It gives a lot of interest and variety to your garden.

[Karen Chapman]

Your walkway looks magnificent and worth all the time you took getting it 'just right' earlier this year.
Love that little lizard! I have a few salamanders and plenty of Pacific tree frogs but no lizards in Seattle.
Enjoy your meadow. Just squint a bit and it will look like a beautiful impressionist painting. Failing eyesight can be a GOOD thing!

[Mark and Gaz]

And blessing to you too Debs! Cross fingers for the banana, hope the new growth is a sign of recovery indeed. And that lizard is gorgeous!

[Christina]

I'm so pleased your banana is re-growing; Your wildflower meadow is so beautiful, if you have the space to keep it and it isn't in a place that you see all the time, I think you're right to let it stay. All the insects need a helping hand and the pollinators will move from the, meadow to the rest of the garden too, plus beneficial insects. Your garden is looking very clean and sharp, you must have been doing lots of tidying up. Christina

[Linda Jones]

Deb - Since your flowers are talking to you, please come hang out with me. We won't have a clue that the other one is crazy because we'll both be living in alternate universes. Your painting of the stamped concrete turned out SWELL. What is the low, spreading bush in the photo with the concrete rabbit?

[Diana of Elephant's Eye]

Good to see your red banana looks OK. Just resting before it pushed out the new season's growth?

[b-a-g]

If I had created a pathway like that, I would only allow people to walk on it if they took their shoes off first. Glad the banana has perked up.

[Donna@Gardens Eye View]

Deb how wonderful that the banana may come back after all...love the wildflowers and that walk is gorgeous...I wish we had anoles here...they are too cute

[Chris]

The wildflowers are beautiful. Your re-surfaced walkway looks wonderful. We are pruning roses this week for a fall flush of blooms. Am dreading the coming winter......

[Island Threads]

hello Deb, I think blue cornflowers would go well as a nice cool complement to the hot flowers on your wildflower hillside, I planted my river of daffodils on my wildflower slope, I am thinking of also planting some crocus this autumn, I also have the native (UK) primrose Primula vulgaris which flowers in spring could you also plant some spring flowering native plants to your area of the USA, I seem to remember you posting some nice photos of spring flowers though I can't remember any names, sorry, it's the right time of year to plan for spring flowers, good luck and I look forward to seeing your spring flowering hillside, Frances

[Linda Jones]

Deb - Thanks for stopping by. About the low spreading shrub, I should have said it was across from the rounded boxwoods. Could be the Japanese Maple you mentioned but I thought they were red. Gene the Melon Man also came by with some more advice on drying the banana peels.

[The Sage Butterfly]

I have had that happen so many times...where I thought something had died but a few weeks later there is evidence of life with a new leaf. I am glad you have life. Your garden elements are beautiful, from the lovely flowers to the exquisite wildlife to the decorative garden features.

[Alistair]

Deb, I am sure a wild flower or meadow garden would be worth holding on to. Add the fact, as someone else said, --- it talks to you, fantastic. I would like a few of those green lizards hanging about in my garden.

[Curbstone Valley Farm]

So glad your banana plant is showing signs of life. It's amazing how resilient some plants can be. By the way, that is one handsome lizard, I really wish our lizards here were as colorful!

[Lee May]

Deb, your plants are fortunate to have you lend them your ear; they communicate beautifully if given a chance. All best, and here's to the continued recovery of the I'm-not-dead-yet banana plant.

[Donna]

Love the anole. Hope he finds his honey.