The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - or my gardening successes and failures

Summer is about half over already. September is usually a great month, weather wise in our area, so I usually count it as part of the summer season.

My seedlings didn't perform as anticipated this year. Here are some of the successes:

One geranium managed to do it's thing. It's bright, pretty and colorful. I like it.
















The blue salvias look great in their pot;



















The nicotiana and the datura are adding their individual bits;






I like the Teddy Bear sunflowers (left) and I'm glad I saved my dahlia tubers from last year (right);


































So the pots in the front of the house - one group on either side of the driveway;




They're looking OK. There's plenty of green foliage, but not much color. My petunias from seed are still considering blooming, the bidens were a disappointment and the daylilies and lily bulbs I keep in pots have finished blooming. I have two pots of purple millet grass which are doing well. It's an inexpensive alternative to purple fountain grass. (At least I think so.) If you click on the upper picture (with the porch) you can see it just to the left of the elephant ears.

I'm still hoping the thunbergia will bloom. They're growing well enough.



My hanging baskets are just serviceable. Nothing exciting. I planted them with nasturtiums, some pink baby's breath and a moonvine. I'm hoping to eventually receive some satisfaction from the moonvines, but that won't happen until September at least.


I've only had a couple of blooms from the nasturtiums. I never have any luck with those. I guess the best I can say is, they're green and growing.






















In the back garden the lobelias have been chewed to bits by somebody;


The phacelia are looking tatty and I'm still waiting on the dahlias from seed to bloom (they have buds). The zinnias are blooming though along with morning glories and some snapdragons.
All in all, the garden is looking well enough. Just some major disappointment with my annuals from seed. After all the tender care I gave them I expect a better return. Oh well.

I'll leave you with a couple pics of the front garden. Keep in mind, we only water this once a month during the summer. You can only see our garage from this view, the front of the house is on the right and out of sight. (click to enlarge)







We transplanted four butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) from the back garden to the front and they're doing very well.