I planted these Ebbings Silverberry plants (a hybrid Elaeagnus) to fill in the wild area on this side of the house. They will get 8-12' high and 8-12' wide. So yeah, they'll fill in.
This is a close up of the Ebbings Silverberry (Elaeagnus). Note the lighter colored ("silvery") new growth. These were planted in late March, this picture is from early May.
Jasminum Polyanthum - a climbing jasmine with tiny white flowers. I damaged it pretty badly while planting but it looks like it's going to make it.
In the front, a plant that will flower from January April. The two small plants in the ground are fig trees, and the potted plant is a Musa Banana. The figs have been there for a couple years but I cut them down to the ground last spring because I thought they were dead. I got the banana at the farmer's market in April. It's having a baby!
Adrienne bought the School Bus Stop sign about 4 years ago because the bus stops right in front of our house. We bought the bench this spring at Family Home & Garden and she finally had a reason to put out the sign. On the left is a lantana, behind the bench is a mum, and on the right is an elephant ear. It's going to have to be moved (it was there before the bench.)
The four indian hawthornes in the front have been in the ground for 3 years now. They're surviving but don't flower much and aren't growing much either. This year, I put in the fencing (powder coated cast aluminum, bought at Home Depot), and the purple flowering plants are Cat Mint (aka Catnip) - they will flower all summer long. The three larger plants in the back are Frost Proof Gardenia. They should get 3-4' high and spread 4-6', and they're supposed to start flowering sometime in mid-late May. I can't wait! They've been in the ground a few weeks now and seem to be doing very well.
One of my new raised bed gardens. From left to right you see four bean plants, 2 squash (all grown from seed), and then three rainbow mix bell peppers, and four eggplants. In the red pots, a pair of Thompson seedless grape vines - not entirely sure where I'm going to put them yet, and in the other pot I've got 5 pumpkin seeds, just planted a few days ago. I will probably thin them down to 2 plants when they start growing. Not sure if that pot will be big enough for a pumpkin plant but as long as I keep it fed and watered all summer it'll probably be fine.
This is my original banana that my friend George gave me. It barely survived the winter and has never gotten more than 2' tall. Maybe its a dwarf or something. We took it out of the ground about a month ago and put it here in this pot, and I put red and purple gladiola bulbs around it.
This is my other raised bed garden, featuring two Roma tomato plants (back left), a bunch of cucumbers (back right), 5 mesclum (back right), a kind of salad lettuce, two muskmelon (left and right front corners), a big zucchini plant, some white onion bulbs (front left) for big onions, and then in the front right (nothing visible yet), some more onion bulbs planted close together and about 3" down in the soil for green onions.
Knock-out roses that we had planted last spring. Adrienne cut them back to about 6" high a few months ago and they are doing wonderfully.
Three cuttings from my mom's dappled willow bush. I bought some "rooting powder" at home depot that will hopefully help. The leaves have all wilted, no surprise, but there is still life in the stems. I'm told it could take all summer to really get them going. I only need one of them to live.
This is our blueberry bush. We bought it about a month ago with flowers all over it. Rather than shock it by transplanting, we decided to just leave it in the pot until after its done producing blueberries. It has a LOT of berries on it right now. Just have to make sure we keep it good and watered!
Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter. It has 5 strawberry plants. I don't think its doing particularly well but it does have strawberries on it and we should be able to keep it from year to year. Note the bend in the shepherd's hook - the planter is VERY heavy!
Recently transplanted basil plants that I grew from seed.
Topsy Turvy tomato planters, with Roma tomato plants. One of them is doing better than the other, but both are currently flowering. They need to be watered twice a day on sunny days.
Canteloupe plants that I grew from seed. I'll move them when I figure out where to put them.
I have poppies and snapdragons in the seed pots. The other four little plants in the middle are birdfeeder gourds, also grown from seed. In the pot on the right there are 2 roma tomato plants and a couple of carrots (all grown from seed), and on the back right a nice strawberry plant. On the left, a couple of marigolds and a christmas cactus.
Close-up of the Topsy Turvy tomato planters.
This is the newest raised bed garden, with three canteloupe plants and a Big Boy tomato, all grown from seed. At only about 5' high, I hope the trellis will be tall enough for the canteloupe.
This garden only gets about 5 hours of sunlight. The zucchini clearly doesn't seem to mind, and the onions are doing great, but the muskmelon (lower left and right corners) aren't growing real fast, nor are the roma tomatoes (upper left) and cucumbers (upper right). The mesclun lettuce did great, we harvested it last week.
From left to right, beans, squash, bell peppers, eggplant, and eggplant. Pumpkins in the planter.
I think something is eating my eggplant leaves!
The sweet corn is looking good. At the top are jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, and a Himrod grape vine.
One topsy turvy roma tomato plant is doing well...
This topsy turvy roma tomato plant is not doing so well. Hmm.
This canteloupe vine grew nearly a FOOT this weekend, from Friday night to this picture, taken Monday morning.
May 24 - This basil, planted from seed on March 21, is just about ready to start harvesting. I need to find some recipes!
May 24 - Jalapeno peppers all over the place!
May 24 - Cayenne Peppers all over the place!
May 31 - My new basil plants purchased at the Farmers Market on Friday - three Thai Basil and two Amethyst Basil.
May 31 - Another Farmers Market purchase on Friday - a Rosemary plant. Down here, Rosemary plants are hardy evergreen shrubs, often used in landscaping. It smells really nice! Reminds me of Christmas!
May 31 - Big Boy Tomato. I thinned this one to one plant - the pot is not very large.
May 31 - The other potted Big Boy tomato. I'm not sure how many are in here. Too many, I'm sure. This is sort of an experiment. I will obviously have to water it a lot.
May 31 - This topsy turvy roma is making nice progress! There are a lot of brand new fruits on it, still enclosed in the bloom cases.
May 31 - This topsy turvy roma tomato is still not doing as good as the other but looks healthier than it did. This one also has a nearly full sized (but still green) tomato on it!
May 31 - My sweet corn, cayenne and jalapeno peppers are doing very well. As the corn gets taller it will provide some shade from the hot afternoon sun for the peppers. I'm told that's a good thing.
May 31 - My cantaloupe grew so much this weekend I decided I needed to expand the trellis! The stakes on the far left and right are new, so I'll train the two vines over to the new parts of the trellis.
May 31 - This third cantaloupe was going to be "grounded" but I have two small stakes about 2 feet behind the plant that I'll let it go up so part of the plant is off the ground.
May 31 - Holy Giant Pumpkin leaves! There are two pumpkin plants in this tiny little planter. I'm sure it'll be totally root bound by September. I wonder if I should try to put them in the ground, or if they'll be okay in the pot with enough water. Maybe I'll just cut off the bottom of the planter. LOL!
May 31 - The two muskmelon vines are doing fairly well - definately very different plants from the cantaloupe, the leaves are much smaller and spaced much closer together. Maybe it's the lack of sun this bed geds (5 hours tops). The zucchini has 4-5 fruits on it now. The cucumbers are still not doing much. I'm sure they need more sun. I'm not going to move them though. I don't really like cucumbers anyway. =)
May 31 - The four eggplants on the left have grown quite a bit in the last week. They like the heat! This bed only gets 5-6 hours of sun so I don't think the bell peppers in the middle like this location much. There are beans on the beant plants on the right though, and the squash seem to be doing okay.
May 31 - Look, flowers on my gardenias!
May 31 - Herbs I seeded last Tuesday. The Sweet Basil on the right has all popped up already (it's only been 6 days), while only a few of the Sage and Chives are showing themselves.
May 31 - Also seeded 6 days ago, all 8 of the sunflowers on the left have germinated and are already reaching for the sky. A couple of the lupines have also germinated, which surprised me a bit since the package said 10-21 days for germination.
