A year's review of my flower bed

Wonderful NEWS for those of you who are following along this month at AEDM.  I can finally get on the internet again.  My friend Sally now has her laptop back and I am so thrilled I didn't have to buy a new router.  My friend Scott came by and checked out the problem.  Seems the ISP person I called who told me to disconnect everything before going forward, then told me it was my router, was the cause of my problems.  When I disconnected EVERYTHING, I didn't get one of the cables on the router completely back in place.  With my arthritic hands, I apparently didn't have the grip needed to put it back, although I thought it had snapped in place.  Scott found the problem within two minutes.  Bless his heart.  Now, lets get on with today's art, which is in the garden.

I've been asked to show a recap of my front flower bed from spring until the time I put it to bed this year.

We'll start in the early spring bed even before the tulips have bloomed, and right after

I laid out my gifted tiles.  This photo, taken in early April, is from the north side of my yard, looking back toward my front porch, walk, and driveway.

This photo is from my driveway looking toward where I shot the photo above.

By the beginning of May, the tiles were beginning to settle in among the dandelions.

By the end of May, the rain had helped define the spring gardens.

I created this collage the day after a hail storm in June's garden.


It seems I created another collage for the July flower bed.

The late August flower bed

gave way to a flailing mid-September garden

that was beginning to show its age.

By mid-October, I had cleared a small portion of the flower bed. 

I decided it was still too green (and wet after a very dry summer)

to remove the remainder.

At least now you can see a very well defined path again.

Toward the last week of October, I treated myself to a tri-color kalanchoe.  I was drawn to this colorful succulent because the tiny flowers look like miniature roses.  I had just finished cutting back most of my front flower bed, so I felt it was a worthy reward.

The plants that are left are along a "river" of rocks I planted years ago, or around my sunken "water feature."  I say that laughingly, because now I fear all it attracts are mosquitoes, even though I use a product called Mosquito Dunks to alleviate the mosquito problem.

I even unearthed two hostas that had been hidden during the summer months.

Rather scraggly hostas, but now that they have a bit of space to bounce back, I'm hoping they will.

I still have a few bushes and small trees to cut back or remove, but I'm pleased with the look of what will soon become the winter garden.

I'm also pleased and impressed with how lush the soil is.  By mulching the plants and leaves, I have created another great front yard that will hopefully grow strong again next spring.

Remember, I have not watered this garden for at least 12 years.  My philosophy is, if it lives, survives, and thrives, it stays.  If not, it wasn't meant to live in this genuine drought tolerant garden that was designed with Xeriscaping in mind. 

This is Day 6 ofAEDM and I mowed, mulched, and photographed my front flower bed today after getting it ready for winter.  Thanks for your continued support of this 30 day project.