Too Hot to Garden

I took a little break from gardening over the 4th and just kept extending my break because it is so crazy hot here!  I couldn't help but notice I've got a second flush of the dwarf gardenia flowers - how delightful!  

The impatiens are still quite lush considering they're out front and get the harsh afternoon light.  They're under the date palm and the fronds hang over them a bit so at least they're getting a little shade.

I've got several pots of impatien starts crammed under the front walkway bench.  I always try to have some fresh ones growing so I can keep them going in the summer in all the shady parts of the yard.  They look so tropical and add such bright color.

A couple of years ago I tried the New Guinea Impatiens - wow, did they look gorgeous in their nursery pots!  I'm still not sure what I did wrong, but they didn't make it and I've never tried this kind again.  But they sure were pretty while they lasted.

Well, when we first moved here about five years ago, this is how the front beds looked - WOW, right?  The house had sat abandoned for a year.  Somebody mowed the grass, but left everything else.

So we yanked everything out except the palms.  That "British teeth edging" isn't my favorite, but we left it for the time being.  (And it's still there of course!)  My apologies to my English friends and anyone else for using such an unflattering cliche about the dental hygiene of the British - I'm sorry, but it did make me think of that and made me grin.  Of course, I truly don't think their teeth look like that!  

So now when I look out the front windows, we're back to having the jungle around the palm in the front bed.  I've really got to give it some shape out there.  Although I like the free-form look, it's gotten way out-of-control, even for a naturalist like me.  I'll post a "full frontal" pic later on when I get it looking sharp enough for photographing!  

We had ripped out a lot of Ti plants and I wish we would've kept them.  That was back when I really didn't care much for how they looked.

Now I think they are so pretty with the hot pink, maroon and lighter pinks against all the different colors of green.

I am such a hot pink fiend :)

And they look kind of cool with the sun shining through them too.

I'm still waiting for the hummingbirds to show up.  I faithfully change my feeder syrup every other day and I haven't seen any since I started hanging this out last fall.  They were showing up in this area, near the Ixora after being at the neighbors Firebush, so I thought this would be a good place, but I haven't had any visits that I know of.  Guess I need to plant some Firebush on this side of the yard!