Calling all green thumbs.....

[tidytaurus]

Tidytaurus I think your problem might be the cabbage butterfly caterpillers. If you have little white or pale yellow butterflies over your patch that might be your culpret.They lay their eggs and the little blighters happily munch on your brassicas. I use soapy water(dishsoap) and pour it over my cabbages and the little green worms just fall off. you can also net them with an old sheer curtain or mosquito netting. hope this helps.

Thanks I will try the soapy water. We are totally infested with ants, so far none inside but when I go outside I see ant holes everywhere from in the garden to all over my lawn. I put out ant traps and put the dust around the entire house and have even put it into the holes I find on the lawn but the little buggers are everywhere. I don't want to put this onto the edibles I have tried chilies, chili powder, cayenne.

[Natalka]

Thanks Natalka, the white snowballs are Annabelle Hydrangeas, lots of show for your money and the purple vine is my clematis which is on the other side of the fence and grows right over.

Oh, I've never seen hydrangeas growing like that - they are absolutely gorgeous. And the clematis is incredible - I was thinking that might be it, but it looks so LUSH!
I think I mentioned last summer that our neighbour across the street has a clematis, so I usually enjoy watching it grow through the season. As of now, the lattice is empty - just the plant at ground level. It's been our odd weather...

[Natalka]

I have nothing to show - flowers barely staying alive here, sheesh.
Would love to see how your gardens are progressing!

[Patty Smyth]

Mine has taken a beating lately. Not much sun and lots of humidity, but no rain to speak of. Bushes and grasses are doing great but annuals need some sun!

[freeplease]

A lot of my stuff has died off, to much heat and not enough water... I can't keep up! My balloon flowers look great and my rose of sharon has just started to bloom. I will try and get some pics later!

[Patty Smyth]

Well you can't win every year but I am very happy with this red fountain grass. I hope I can get it next year also. Some of my annuals are just crap though. The hanging geraniums have zero flowers on them right now. We need a good week of sun. We have had no rain for a week but it was over cast for about 6 days in a row. Very weird. Here are some shots from today.

[anisa]

Patty, good Lord, your oasis just keeps on getting more and more lush!

i have the tiniest backyard, that the previous owner bricked ENTIRELY.
i have been scratching my head this summer trying to decide what to do to gussy it up a bit

love the pics

[Natalka]

Amazing, Patty! - in the pic with the petunias and the fountain grass - what is the setup there with pots, e.g. how many plants? Are they on stands?
It looks SO cool! Quite the showstopper!

[Andit]

Beautiful pics, Patty! & your model is adorable.

Anisa, I'd be one of those crazy people that would brick a back yard, only cause I'm allergic to grass (I cough & choke & my eyes get so watery I can't see a thing if I go anywhere near freshly cut grass). One of my neighbours moved to a tiny townhouse in downtown Toronto & her backyard was all brickwork, but it was gorgeous. She had tall grasses in cast iron (real or faux?) planters along the fence & a cast iron patio set that matched. She had a bit of an overhang by the back door & had hanging baskets full of geraniums. Her yard wasn't much bigger than most condo balconies, but it was very pretty.

[Patty Smyth]

Patty, good Lord, your oasis just keeps on getting more and more lush!

i have the tiniest backyard, that the previous owner bricked ENTIRELY.
i have been scratching my head this summer trying to decide what to do to gussy it up a bit

love the pics

Pots and boxes are great for an all brick yard. I have quite a few. We built them ourselves. Now is also a good time to find pots on clearance. BIG pots make a huge statement.

[Patty Smyth]

Amazing, Patty! - in the pic with the petunias and the fountain grass - what is the setup there with pots, e.g. how many plants? Are they on stands?
It looks SO cool! Quite the showstopper!

Under all those petunias is our homemade box 2 ft by 2 ft with aprox. 14 inches of soil. I made the boxes shallower than they could be because they would really weigh a ton if I went right to the bottom with the dirt. Here is a pic from May this year. The one on the left is the one Kiera is standing in front of. I put one grass plant in the middle towards the back. 2 petuinias one in each front corner and 6 snapdragons which are not in bloom right now because there is no sun but they have tons of buids on them so hopefully with the sun this week they will come out but in hindsight I really should have left it with just the grass and petunias, it would have been enough.

[Patty Smyth]

This grass comes in a 6 inch pot which was $4.97. Picked them up in early May. The ones on either side of the pool ladder are in big ceramic pots 2 feet across by 2 feet deep and I put 1 plant in it. They seem to like to be alone in the pots because these 2 are the biggest with no competition for root space.

[Patty Smyth]

Here it is the first week I planted it., LOL Sorry it's fuzzy I had to crop the pic.

[Natalka]

Patty, thanks for taking the time to explain - very kind of you! My gosh, then those are truly super-supertunias if there are only two of them there - they are massive!

[Natalka]

Ok, plants here are a total bust - container plants are nothing to speak of, petunias are barely staying alive and they are usually the hardiest. Asters are struggling to bloom. Pansies just couldn't hack it (and that's sad, because they are my fave!).
We just had a horrid year here!

Pretty please, show off your beautiful flowers, veggies - anything blooming and growing wonderfully!