The wild garden

last year

I find myself desiring a wilder look in my garden. As some of you know, we have a tiny patch of backyard where I have attempted something along the lines of "a secret garden", and I'm pleased with what we've accomplished thus far.
The vitex have grown large, and they've recently finished their late spring bloom. It's always glorious when they're heavy with purple, lilac-scented flowers, and the pollinators flock to them in great droves. How I love seeing all of those little happy, industrious bees! I'd been pruning the vitex into tree shape, but am going to let a couple of them revert to their full bush nature. (Jinx grows hers as a bush, and has me convinced to put away my shears.)
This season I reseeded the clover lawn and it did beautifully for a time, but then a heatwave set in - and I got busy tending to needs of my elderly parents and neglected my watering duties - so it's a bit sparse in spots, where once it was full and lush. The clover does still provide the perfect habitat for lizards and our resident toad, and the bees and butterflies love it.
Have any of you sown wildflower seed in your garden, or bare spots in your lawn? I've just ordered a mix of seeds meant for dry areas, and intend to sow them when they arrive in a week or so. Maybe they'll come up, maybe they won't. But I really long for even more of a wild and jumbled vibe, and am wondering if anyone else here prefers that over a more manicured and structured garden?
I've enjoyed watching little lizards these past few days. I'm amazed at what curious creatures they are. I had one perch on a low part of the fence and move his head to watch the arc of water spraying from the hose the other day. There have also been teeny-tiny lizards in the garden this week (babies?), and today I was so amused watching one scurry to position itself directly beneath the gentle drip of water coming off the leaves of my Spanish lavender.

Featured Answer

User

last year

My wild gardens. I dug up all of the back yard just a year ago. Full of birds and bees and butterflies. Echinacea cones flowers comes from Echinos- hedgehog… enough said about that.

My Civil War bed in a bed in a bed! My lavenders are so fragrant.

My rock guy and GC drilled this huge rock for my Memory garden for our son Garett.

The back barn/ DH’s music studio.

Everyone’s gardens are so beautiful.

Comments (74)

nicole___
last year

.

I did plant a few seeds. Red corn poppies, but they're just coming up. The columbine just bloomed, I planted those from seed. Cat mint is another. My big thang, mass plantings of Iris. I've picked them up FREE off CL. The deer don't eat them.
Ida thanked nicole___
maire_cate
last year
I've been having trouble posting photos for a few months - for some reason it worked tonight. These were taken in early spring and we still have a lot of site work to do. Obviously this isn't the place for a formal garden! DH had the landscaper arrange the rocks and in early fall when the topsoil is delivered we'll add shrubs and sow the wildflower seeds. There are 2 lonely lilies and a few holly bushes in the top photo.
Ida thanked maire_cate
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Y'all, I hate the heat and it has slowed down the fall garden a lot for sure. I am just so ready to be able to go outside in cooler weather and spend the whole day out there if I want to. The stuff I still have in seed packets in the house isn't going to grow until it is planted, is it? It isn't going to get planted until the soil cools. Our high temps this week have ranged from 101 to 106 and our heat index has been even worse, so the soil sure hasn't cooled down a lot yet and I have only gone outside for very limited times in early morning and in the evening. Hopefully the cold front that should make it this far south late this evening or early tomorrow will give us enough of a cool-down that the soil temps will drop some more and quickly at that. Larry, I have big plans for the fall garden, and even to me, my own list seems too ambitious if I look at it all at once. Luckily, it doesn't all go into the ground all at once or I'd never manage to get it done on time. Due to the nature of the plants, some were planted many weeks ago and some aren't planted yet. I can manage a big garden in lots of small spurts of activity, squeezed into whatever cool hours we have. Lately I just wave at my plants as I walk down to the mail box and back, and I promise I'll stop in and see them when it cools down. All along I intended to keep whatever summer plants were still producing (except for most of the tomato plants since I had so many) and whatever had survived the grasshoppers and blister beetles and I intended for sure to plant October beans, southern peas, summer squash and broccoli. Everything else was "iffy" depending on if it ever rained again. I ordered the seeds, though, so certainly hoped I could use them this fall instead of next spring. Being this far south and often having high temps in the 100s occasionally through the end of September, I never get to put greens in the ground very early so normally the fall garden gets planted in July/August for the warm season stuff and then late August/early September for the cool-season stuff, and often I don't get the fall greens into the ground until early October. So far, that's about the same planting track I am on right now, except I'd hoped all summer for an early cool-down so I could be ahead of my own planting schedule for once. That didn't happen. For whatever reason, the grasshoppers are still munching away on the plants that remain from spring and summer, and especially on the tomato plants (the blister beetles are helping them eat tomato plants) but haven't touched the fall plantings of southern peas and green beans. That sort of adds to my feeling that insects are more prone to attack stressed plants and leave healthier plants alone. It isn't that the heat isn't stressing the beans and southern peas, but just that they are younger, healthier and better able to handle the stress. I did keep row covers on them for a while, but the row covers have been off the southern peas for a couple of weeks now and off the green beans beginning about 3 or 4 days ago. So far, nothing has nibbled on them. The 3+" of rain that fell a couple of weeks ago saved my fall garden plans. For a while there, after I planted the southern peas and green beans, I thought that might be all I'd do for fall. Then the rain came along and perked up both the garden and the gardener, and I added fall cukes and squash, and started seeds in cups of a lot of the cool season stuff that can be grown from transplants, like the kale and lettuce. Now I'm just waiting for the weather to become more cooperative. With cooler temps, I hope to get the root crops seedied into the beds in the next few days, and I do mean "few" because our VFD's annual fundraiser is next week so I'll be spending some time on that as well. I have to wait until the soil temps drop low enough for good germination though, so you can bet I'll be out with the thermometer checking the soil temps daily. Carol, After that 3" of rain fell, our heat index just soared. I would use our own readings from our thermometers and barometer and plug them into the HPC's online Heat Index Calculator. For a few days we had a heat index between 112-116 but it has been lower the last couple of days as the insane heat has sucked up some of that moisture from the ground. I hope you get more rain and if it will cooperate and fall in lower temps then maybe your heat index won't get so high. Kim, I haven't planted salsify this late in years, but since our overall weather pattern is hotter than it used to be, I think it has a good chance. Last winter was so hot that the only really cold spell I remember was the first week in December when it was very cold for the downtown Marietta Christmas parade. We thought that was the beginning of winter, but looking back, that was just about the beginning and the end of winter weather all in the same week. Of course, since I am planting salsify and counting on fairly warm ground through at least the end of December, we'll probably have an early winter and a long, cold one just to make me crazy. That's okay. If fall salsify doesn't work, I'll plant it again in spring. Most of the more ususual seeds I get, I cannot find locally and I order them so I can have the specific varieties I want to grow. All you really can find in the stores here is the same-old-same-old hybrids with a few heirlooms and open-pollinated varieties, and I don't necessarily want to grow the standard varieties. I like a lot of the open-pollinated and heirloom varieties bred with flavor in mind rather than earliness or uniformity or shelf life. With a lot of my fall plantings, I had seeds left from summer, but for the Wild Garden seed mixes and some of the kale and root crops, I ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Bountiful Gardens. The "Wild Garden" mixes are not actually wild plants, they are just mixes of anything/everything from the breeding program at Wild Garden Farms. A few things I choose are season-specific. For example, for Spinach I choose some varieties that do better in fall and winter than in spring. In spring, we often go from 'too cold' to 'too hot' in about two days and sometimes spinach doesn't get to gtow for very long before the heat sets in, so I choose varieties that make smaller plants that mature faster. With a long, mild autumn I can grow some varieties of spinach that get larger, but which also have later DTMS and would likely be hit too hard by the spring heat. Sometimes it is a very subtle difference but it does matter. Winter Bloomsdale Spinach withstands cold and winter moisture a little differently than Bloomsdale Longstanding, which is why I choose it for fall, for example. Last year I planted a forage mixture for the deer and rabbits since there were so few native plants alive after the long hot summer and the wildlife was so starved, and it included turnips and collards that never froze all winter long, so this year I thought I'd plant more of them for us. It is not a bad wildfire year at my end of the state, and that is what determines how much of a fall garden I have most years. If the fires are bad in late summer and fall, I am too busy to plant a fall garden. Since the fires here haven't been too bad since late July, I have time for a fall garden. I just try to work with whatever the weather and real life allow me to do. Our "normal" wildfire season actually is in the winter months, but not much has been normal the last couple of yeas. Back in June and July when I was canning like a maniac, every day I hoped I could have just "one more day" without fires so I could get a bit more canning done. It used to be the fires only interfered with spring planting time, but lately they are a problem at different points year-round. Last summer, between the drought and the almost-daily wildfires I didn't can anything all summer long. This year, I canned day after day after day. I'm hoping for a quiet autumn, fire-wise, so I can work in the fall garden day after day in the same way. Ezzirah, I think it was wise to choose cool-season stuff. Now, if only the cool weather will arrive and cooperate with us. After suffering through these last two hot summers, I am determined to have a good fall garden. Having to hang out so much inside to avoid the heat all summer long for two summers has driven me crazy, because I'd much rather be in the garden. I've mostly dabbled in fall gardening in the past without getting overly serious about it, and a lot of that has been because of us being busy with fire department stuff in the fall, but there's been some major schedule changes to routine fall VFD fundraisers and community activities, so I ought to have more time free for the fall garden. Yay! I'd be remiss if I didn't add this last part for anyone considering a fall garden. Without a way to protect your plantings from wildlife, you have to share the plantings with them. Because I am surrounded by plentiful wildlife, my big garden has an 8' tall garden fence around it. Without that fence, I wouldn't even attempt a fall and winter garden because the wild animals would get it all. Even now, I have deer that come and nibble anything that I grow on the fence, but I don't mild sharing that little bit with them since they can't reach anything else, and they are hungry too. Dawn
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Ally De
last year
I bought a ceramic toad house, it's peaking out from under a hosta. I've seem my toads actually use it, and that's just too cute for words. 😆

Maire, that spot looks like heaven on earth.
Ida thanked Ally De
arcy_gw
last year
The hosta form has a thread about ripping up the front yard going with wild flower/butterfly attracting species. #1DD tore up half of her front yard aiming for a 'cottage garden'.

I can't imagine where she got that idea! HAHAHAHAHa
maire_cate
last year
Thank you Ally De - we think of it that way too. Since DH retired we've been able to spend more time here and removing the diseased and damaged trees is giving us an opportunity to add a different visual interest. The property is heavily wooded and so rocky that it's hard to plant. We used a crowbar and a mallet to plant daffodil bulbs one fall. Now that DH has created his rock garden we'll focus on that area and in the fall plant a few hardy shrubs, perennials and sow the wildflower seeds.
DLM2000-GW
last year
Trail your garden is lovely and so unique. Two questions - do you have something climbing on or protected by the woven tuteur-like objects or are they just beautiful and decorative? What is the tall white flower behind what looks like Russian sage?
User
last year
@DLM2000-GW the tall white is a Monarda , I got them last year in a pint pot! yes its a dwarf Russian Sage. i think the Monardas like their home here. I got the willow tuteur from Monticello garden shop here in VA. They each have a new clematis in them. Will train them up as the years go by. I have each staked down as the wind blew them over.
User
last year
Here are the front beds. I dug out more of the front yard to extend across the whole street side. slightly less wild but I keep adding more. Lots of varieties of sedums which i collect and many yarrows. Three serviceberry trees. more lavender and milk weed.
Ida thanked User
Ida
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
You are such enablers, but I too just bought a toad house for Thurber (and I have determined that she is a lady Gulf Coast toad). I absolutely love this ... the pink reminds me of all the sweet little cottages in Suffolk, England.

Can't believe I just spent $40 on a house for a toad, but I certainly did. 😁 Even if she doesn't use it (she may prefer a smaller opening?), I'll enjoy seeing it!
gsciencechick
last year
Love the toad houses. I keep hearing some sort of toad/frog at night, and I don’t know where it is. We are not really that close to even a small creek.

Love the flowers. I got a package of flower seeds from a local realtor who left a flyer at the door, so I planted them. There are a couple coming up in the back, but I think in the front the birds ate the seeds or the squirrel dug too much in the planter box.

Also, some finches have built nests in my front hanging baskets.
Ida thanked gsciencechick
Oakley
last year
Gscience, I bet it's a frog you're hearing. If it croaks it's a frog. I saw a small one in my flowerbed and they can jump like crazy.

Lots of little lizards here too.

Ida, look up both TX and OK wild flowers and you can grow both. DH's seeds bloomed the first year which is the picture above.

It was a few years ago when there were a zillion toads around here, everyone had them. When it got hot I kept water for them to sit in. Someone told me I was breeding more toads by doing that. I didn't care, I mean who can resist baby toads?

Except the toad that came in the backdoor a couple of weeks ago and no one's found it.
Ida thanked Oakley
Ida
Original Author
last year
Omg, omg, omg! Those bebby frawgs! 🥰🐸💚
nicole___
last year
last modified: last year
Ida....LOVE your toad house!!!!

Trail....WOW! So perfect!

Oakley....baby frogs....sooooooooooooooo adorable!

We have spadefoot toads.....haven't seen any THIS year....but it's raining every day.....soon....
Ida
Original Author
last year
Trail, your beds are so very pretty! They're a bit on the wild side, but still manage to look quite stately. It's all definitely magazine- and swoon-worthy! (Oh, and I covet your bottle tree.) Did the results come by trial and error, or are you trained in gardening? I would love to mimic the look you've created, but there does appear to be a planned rhythm to what you've done.

Maire, that's such a beautiful backdrop with the trees and rocks. You're going to create a very special spot with the plants.
User
last year
@Ida I got the bottle tree many years ago at a small shop in Opelika AL. I used to see them frequently but not much anymore. My DS and DIL had the YellowHammer Restaurant in Waverly AL back then and gave me the blue bottles after people drank the wine 😬.

Thank you for your kind words. I have zero training. It is all trial and error. The weather and soil here in VA seems to agree with me plus I have a lot of time on my hands …..

I have two neighbors also who pass along tons of plants as they thin out their beds. I love ” pass alongs”.

Last year I harvested 3 gallons of Lavender flowers and shared them. I have way more plants this year so I will be making bunches and placing the tied bouquets in a bucket on my front steps ” take two and pass along one”❤️.
Ida thanked User
maire_cate
last year
last modified: last year
Thanks Ida - we still have so much to do. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the inspiring photos that have been posted .

Trail - What a kind gesture to offer your lavender bunches. I have a few varieties planted in the border at our home. I love the color and they are a great complement underneath the red leaves on the Japanese Maple but for some reason I don't care for the scent.
Ida thanked maire_cate
Ida
Original Author
last year
That is an absolutely beautiful gesture, Trail! You're going to brighten the days of others, for sure.

❤️
Tina Marie
last year
Beautiful gardens @User. Your gardens work so well with the style of your home. I see homes sometimes where people don't take that into consideration. I love your colors too as our plantings are pink, blue/purple and white along with non flowering plants in different color foliage. I love silver foliage!! I also love lavender and it does smell good! I have long wanted to do a bottle tree, I'm not sure why I haven't! When I worked, I would drive the "back way" and there were two different houses where I admired their bottle trees. I need to do one with green bottles. I have seen them done using a large piece (branch I guess?) of a tree and have also seen the pre-formed ones you can buy. I believe they even have them on Amazon. I think I am going to go for it!!
Ida thanked Tina Marie
Ida
Original Author
last year
When we first traveled to the Big Bend area of far west Texas, I fell in love with the very strange ocotillo plant that is native to that region. When I saw an ocotillo bottle tree there on some remote property, I instantly wanted one for myself and still do!

The real plant:

Ocotillo bottle tree:
Bunny
last year
last modified: last year
Speaking of wild gardens, is anybody else dealing with teeny tiny burrs, about 1/8 inch or less? My garden doesn't have a lot of weeds, thanks to drip irrigation and mulching. However, I was out there this morning trimming this and that and my clothes were covered with those little buggers. I can't figure out where they're coming from.
Jilly
last year
Bunny, yes! NOC has been covered in them, and like you, I get them on my clothes. Never dealt with them in this yard before.
gsciencechick
last year
Another question for those of you who have lavender: I bought some to plant in containers, and one is not growing at all and the other one is maybe growing. Am I better putting these in the ground? I used fresh potting soil meant for containers and beds.
Bunny
last year
last modified: last year
Jinx, thank goodness it's not just me. Well, sorry it's you, but maybe someone else can help us figure out what and why. I've never dealt with them before this year. The other day I was with a friend who has a mid-size poodle that got huge clumps of them in her soft fur. They cling to my shoelaces and seem particularly attracted to fabric that has some percentage of synthetic fiber. I HATE THEM!!!

I'm not traipsing through fields and untamed areas. This is in my very small front yard full of intentional perennials.
Jilly
last year
Exactly! It’s somewhere in my lawn. How they’re living through 486 degree weather and no water is baffling, but they seem to be having a great time out there!
SEA SEA
last year
Beautiful gardens everyone! Here's a small slice of ours from a couple weeks ago...seems I haven't been the shutterbug this year with all the current events going on.

Is it burdock that is the source of the burrs? I take so much burdock in capsule form I wish I grew it myself, but then I think about how the burrs on burdock were the inspo for velco being invented.
Ida thanked SEA SEA
Bunny
last year
gsciencechick, big containers? Around here lavender is mostly planted in the ground. It likes a lot of sun. I used to have a bunch of lavenders not far from a Japanese maple, but as the tree has grown and provides more shade, the lavenders in that area have languished. They are very drought-tolerant.
roarah
last year
last modified: last year
My house is being eaten presently by my front garden. It is out of control and I am waiting to redo the steps before doing anything since we will need to start anew.

Back yard is only slightly better but it is staying. I swear that pine that is taller than the garage was not there last year.

I planted the skinny oak and maple and grape vine in my campy secret garden fire put area two years ago.

I planted a living fence of trees a while back for I wanted to feel like my small village lot was more forest like. It is very over grown and filled with birds, chimpmonks and bunnies now. None of the trees behind my pool were there seven years ago.

Side yard pretty wild too
Ida thanked roarah
gsciencechick
last year
Bunny, and others, the containers are more decorative, so no, not big containers at all, so more of a medium pot. I thought I could grow it and be able to contain it, no pun intended!
Ida
Original Author
last year
Absolutely gorgeous gardens, Sea and roarah! Wow. I'm having some pretty serious garden envy, but in a good way! Your beautiful outdoor spaces are all so inspiring.

My lavender is in a glazed pot in one of my planting beds. I've been saying it's Spanish lavender, because I'm pretty sure that's what was on its tag (it came from Lowes), but I can't be 100% positive. It does well in full sun and seems to like daily watering, but anything would here when it's been an average of 237 degrees for weeks on end it seems. It smells absolutely divine. It has, of course, a lavender scent, but there's almost a clean, soapy finish to the aroma. If I could bottle it and wear it as perfume, I would.
Bunny
last year
Ida, I think your potted plants are going to need more watering than those established in the ground on a drip. My English lavenders are fine with 2-3 waterings a week. I'm biased, but I think they smell even better than the Spanish varieties.
Ida thanked Bunny
Oakley
last year
Gscience, I stole a pot of Lavender from the greenhouse and put it in a large clay pot with a hole in the bottom. Full sun and if it's young water it and put mulch on top...per Jinx and it works. No need to fertilize. The following year I decided to move the pot and the roots went into the ground. It's thriving still after a few years. Through ice and frigid temps it still comes back.

It has to be cut back every spring.
SEA SEA
last year
I'm going to help Rorah with her garden then stay for a few days and make sure the pool is feeling loved. Beautiful.

Lavender, wish I could help with that. I've tried a few times here, in the ground, but they never were happy even though we get plenty of sun. Lavender is so special if it's happy with you.
nicole___
last year

The columbine were planted from seed. The iris is from an "Iris Society" sale last year.
Ida thanked nicole___
Ida
Original Author
last year
^^^ Ohhhh. Those delicious colors!
l pinkmountain
last year
So all you fancy "toad abode" owners out there, did you mail order? Like I said, I really want one but worried about mail ordering and then it coming broken. I'd really like a ceramic or fired clay one, not that plastic resin stuff, which degrades too fast for my taste. I've been stopping at garden centers on this road trip I'm on, but so far haven't seen either a toad abode or a gazing ball that I like. I have been looking for a specific kind, one with a mosaic on it of a cardinal. For years I was seeing them everywhere but not buying because I didn't have a spot. Now I have a spot and can't find one. The folks at the garden center said that they were getting sparse supplies of some things, and gazing balls were one of them. Probably made in China. Snapdragons have been another sparse plant. Used to see gads of them but not anymore. I think they are not popular because they bloom and then have to be cut back to rebloom so they have a period of not blooming. Pansises too.

This is not my "wild" garden, (that's still a work in progress) but a tiny little garden just by the steps leading off of our deck. It's kind of a literary homage garden so far. The first photo is a garden pun, a dragon among the snapdragons but they look "meh" right now. I should have gotten more when I could. Next year I will try and find some "dragon's breath" celosia to start from seed.

The second one is a little fairy next to my Mom's fairy rose.
Ida thanked l pinkmountain
Ally De
last year
Pink - I did a mail order for my ceramic one, many years ago.

If you are ok buying from Amazon or even Walmart, if it arrives broken they will refund/exchange it so your risk is low. I buy a lot of stuff from both places, and rarely have an issue with breakage.

However coincidentally my instant coffee from Walmart arrived smashed to smithereens just like 2 weeks ago....however a quick chat with customer service and all was right in the world again. (Normally they package breakable or leak-able stuff really well - but they really had an off day when the packaged my coffee last time.....)
Ida
Original Author
last year
last modified: last year
I ordered my toad abode from an Etsy seller. She messaged me almost immediately and said she was shipping it that day. I've ordered so many breakable things via mail (all of these dishes, for instance):

Out of all the breakable items I've ordered by mail, the amount of breakage has been insignificant. Of course, it's always painful to have it happen, but I've been successful at having payment refunded, so really don't think twice if there is something I want that's delicate. I had a teapot arrive all the way from Assis, Italy I'm pristine condition.

Your dragon and fairy are wonderful, Pink!
gsciencechick
last year
Here they are. The one in the brighter pot is older. The other one seems to be doing a little better and actually growing.
l pinkmountain
last year
Checked out some toad houses on Etsy and Amazon. They're quite expensive and nothing really rang my bell. I think I may go old-school and just bury a clay pot.
gsciencechick
last year
@Oakley, that is like what happened with our mint. It grew out the pot, put down roots, and is growing everywhere. I thought lavender did the same thing, so I’m surprised it isn’t growing. . Also, our chives spread from the pot and grow wild, but that’s a good thing because I love chives.
gsciencechick
last year
Look what else is growing in our yard. And there is another one that is super tiny. It’s a fawn nursery here. 😍
Ida
Original Author
last year
Awwww! What a dear little deer!

Our toad abode arrived, and as you can see, our toad (in her burrow next door) is not yet a convert to modern housing.
Jilly
last year
Oh COME ON. That’s too cute for words!!
HU-977136802
last year
Ida maybe you are to blame for all the really cute toad houses on Etsy being sold out. Maybe this post sparked a run on them!
Jilly
last year
Ida, have you noticed anyone setting up in the new house? Decorating, inviting friends over? 😄
OutsidePlaying
last year
Such beautiful gardens everyone.

Ida, you’ve created a beautiful space in your small backyard. Love your Vitex. We have a million toads, most the regular variety I find in pots and burrowed in the ground. I have seen a leopard frog and we have a lot of green tree frogs. I put out a toad hoise but never found a toad using it. It is fun to find the million itty bitty toads in the spring hopping around.

And Trail, I can’t say enough about your gorgeous spaces.

I have taken too many photos this year, but here is one I took a few days ago when a cloud came over.
Ida thanked OutsidePlaying
localeater
last year
Sharing some of my messy wild garden
Ida thanked localeater
party_music50
last year
Oooo, yes to messy gardens! :)

One summer I tossed handfuls of Sweet William seed into a grassy field next to the parking lot at work. The next spring it was loaded with gorgeous flowers! It looked so nice that the guys who mowed the field made a point to leave them unmowed, :)

Here are bits of my messes this year….

and for jinx, one of my NOCs :)
Ida thanked party_music50
nicole___
last year
@Ida...That toad and toad house rocks! 🐸

@localeater...& @party_music50.....WOWSER! Love ALL the flowers! 🥀🥀🥀