Retro Sunday on the Patio

Back in the seventies, when I was still living in England, I really got into Macramé.  (You say it MAC-ruh-MAY, I say it Mc-RAH-me)  I made plant hangers, hanging tables, owls, wall hangings, tote bags and even a head board for the bed.

My parents loved them too and many years ago I made them some hangers for their garden room.  Just last week I went back to England for a short visit with my parents and I took some new hangers I had made for them as the old ones had deteriorated overtime.

So this weekend, as it was lovely weather and I was pottering in the garden, I decided it was time to resurrect the plant hangers I made a couple of years ago.

I love the way they look against the brick columns on our patio.  I do have to remember to take them down if it gets very windy though, as the plants can get damaged by crashing against the wall.

I got the plants in Lowe's -- the type of hanging basket that has plastic hangers and hooks attached.  I just snipped off the plastic hangers and put them in the macramé hangers.

There's another hanger to put up, but no basket to put in it yet.  Can't decide what I want :-)

Since we had cleared out and mulched the island beds, they are looking a lot better than they were, as I showed you in my last post.  But they don't have a lot of color yet.  So yesterday I bought a flat of Profusion Zinnias in apricot and yellow to add some splashes of color.  I also got some Dallas Red Lantana as I saw some photos of our garden 5 years ago where the back border was a mass of red blooms and it was lovely.

The mystery plant that appeared in the island bed and it was suggested that it might be a Pineapple Sage, hasn't bloomed at all.  It quickly grew to three feet tall and was thick and bushy, but then the leaves started yellowing and dying off from the bottom of the plant up.  I'm thinking about cutting it down.

However, there's another volunteer Pineapple Sage on the back side of the same bed, and that one is blooming.  I saw a flash of green on this yesterday, but wasn't quick enough to grab the camera and get a photo of the visiting hummingbird.

Time to get the feeders out!

I have a couple more ideas for blog posts, inspired by my trip to England to visit my parents which I will share with you soon.

Until then, have a great Sunday!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Garden in June

 In an attempt to keep my promise to blog more often than once a month, here's my second post for June!! 

Back in the 80's, I used to love making macrame plant hangers. A few years ago, I made some for our patio when we first moved in, but I have hunted high and low and been unable to find them, so I made a few more. Happily I discovered Hobby Lobby have a decent selection of cords, metal rings and beads!

We have three Crepe Myrtles in the garden, but this is the best of them.  Last year a hummingbird could be seen daily perched in the branches, keeping an eye on the feeders.

I know I planted several of this Liatris, but this is the only one that came up (or possibly the others got "weeded" before I realized what they were. It's surrounded by Salvia Greggi and Pineapple Sage.

Here's the Turk's Cap I showed in my last post, happily settling in to its new home. I noticed some volunteer Turk's Cap seedlings under the Southern Wax Myrtle that will need to come out.

Another plant that I think suffered from my early spring "weeding" was Zinnia.  Last year the flower beds were overrun with zinnia, but my vigorous hoeing this spring meant that I ended up having to buy more!

Some of the daylilies are still hanging on and shrugging off the heat now summer is here.

Lots of little joys in this island bed this year.  First, the Hamelia Patens that I thought had died actually came back and is flowering.  Plus the Cosmos and Cleome that I started from seed are doing well (no photos).  Finally, the native milkweed I planted earlier in the year are coming along nicely.  No blooms yet, and they are still small, but I hope the Monarch butterflies will be able to enjoy them for a long time to come.

Here's a long shot of the island bed -- earlier in the week I planted some Dallas Red and Pot of Gold Lantana across the front side.  They will spread and fill in the bare patches as summer draws on and the butterflies will love them in July and August.

I'm so happy I managed to bring the Rose of Sharon (via cuttings) from my previous house.  I just love it's happy blooms, and the bees and hummingbirds love it too :-)

 This next photo is rather deceptive.  Unfortunately our Sam Houston peach tree just isn't living up to its name.  First of all, the tree never properly rooted -- if it weren't for be staked up, it would fall over.  All it's roots are in the top couple of inches and none have ventured down far enough to anchor it.  Too much clay down there I guess, even though we dug a pretty big hole when we planted it.

While this looks like a nice big healthy juicy peach, it's rather small and there's a bruise/hole on the other side.  Update:  I decided to go and check on it today and there was another one near it that wasn't too beaten up so I picked it and ate it.  It was the most delicious peach I have ever eaten!  Sweet, juicy, warm from the sun.  We have to try and save this tree!

That's it for today's post - I hope my dad enjoys it after his comment on my last post!

Today I'm linking up with  the following memes:

Friday Flower Photos hosted by Nick V.
Flower Friday hosted by Aquariann
Today's Flowers hosted by Denise at An English Girl Rambles

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.