There's nothing like a long, pleasant spring and a bunch of garden tours to motivate and inspire. These tours always cause me to come home and look at my garden with fresh eyes. After gardening in the same spot for fifteen years, I can easily become narrow-viewed to the potential for new ideas.
While touring with my friend Pam, I mentioned not having much space left to garden and she simply replied, "oh, there's always more space." Such a matter-of-fact statement that she probably doesn't even recall saying caused me to scrutinize any available spaces.
So I came home and started ripping out grass in a skinny little strip at the drive-way's edge. The soil is beautiful after years of decomposing leaf litter. It gets morning sun and is shaded by the house during the heat of the day. In other words, this is prime gardening real estate!
Then I went in and shopped the house. This old iron piece was perfect for vertical gardening. It probably comes as no surprise that I happened to have a few plants on hand. Gulf Coast penstemon, a red passion flower vine, red salvia coccinea and fall aster (not shown) were among my choices. The name of the plant to the left rear escapes me...anyone know? **Edit: Many thanks to Steph at Rambling Wren for her id which led me in the right direction; the plant is called Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'**
The passion vine is tender here in zone 8 so I will either grow it as an annual or if it's just too happy and I love it, I'll take a cutting this fall.
So far it's happy and I love it ♥
The best part of this new found little bed is that it sits right outside the laundry room window. The transformed view is so much more inviting than the plain, worn fence ever was!