Our Fall Flowers

Planter filled with various flowers and vines, including hybiscus...in the front of our house.

Looking from our front door out into the the courtyard with vincas on the left, and geraniums at the gate, plus a cactus! There are also some lantana, rain lilies, succulents, aloe vera, and a couple other potted plants in the courtyard.

After having so much fun with our Summer garden and getting some great veggies from it, we decided to put some plants out for a Fall garden! When Mom and Dad were here for Labor Day weekend, they helped aerate and dig up the soil.

My strawberry plant had enjoyed sending running vines all over a corner of the garden, and even out into the yard. About a month ago, Jason and I dug up all the little strawberry plants that had taken root from the runners. We dug the entire garden plot up some more, too, because it had settled somewhat since Mom and Dad worked on it. We made rows and planted the strawberries in two of them.

Fresh Basil!

Our garden area, with new little plants and seeds in the ground.

Then went to Lowe's to get baby plants for the fall planting season! We chose cauliflower, tomatoes, collard greens, and brussel sprouts. We also got seeds for rutabega, and radishes. We also got a bunch of mums to brighten our flower bed and to plant in three barrel planters for our back patio. Our car was fully loaded with plants!!

Our first task was to plant the mums in the circular flowerbed in the front yard. The summer plants had died off, and only some red and green-leafed caladiums and sprouted iris bulbs remained. We took those out so that we could save their bulbs for next year. It was a struggle to work with that small plot of soil, because it was overrun with roots!!! We were not sure if it was the crepe myrtle roots coming up or the root systems of the irises. It was a mess!! We had to dig all those roots out...urrr Jason had to dig all those roots out. It was a BIG job!! We thought that planting the mums would be quick and easy, but it turned out to be an "all afternoon" job. We finally got most of the roots out, and filled in some garden soil. Then we planted our red, yellow, and orange mums! They are doing great and look gorgeous! Although it was almost dark by the time they were in the root-free ground.

So, the veggies had to wait to be planted. We took them to the backyard and watered them. A couple days later, Jason came home from work early and started planting the cauliflower, greens, and brussel sprouts. I helped plant the tomatoes when I got home. We have not put the seeds in the ground yet, but plan to do that this week. Everything else has already doubled in size!

Jason also suprised me by bringing home three barrel planters for the backyard, and so that night we planted the rest of the mums in the planters! They look great...now we need some patio furniture so we can enjoy this wonderful cooler weather, and the new flowers and plants in our backyard.

Clown flowers in the backyard garden...they came up on their own!