Cherry Ong
gave us just a tiny tease of her containers in the comments on Friday--little
did you all know, she sent me in a whole big batch of photos, so I'm sharing
them today! She says, "Jeff's photos on Friday brought me to
another place so went to look back at last year's garden photos. I sent some of
Sylvia's (Cheng of Richmond, BC) backyard garden that we did a DIY makeover
several years back. Well, last year, I came and we did up all her containers as
usual and she also wanted to makeover her frontyard island. Here are some
photos of the containers during the early fall shortly before takedown. The
last few photos are the before and after photos of the island makeover in the
summer.
If you look
closely at one of the photos, her frontyard bed by the window and front door is
covered. The bed was infected by goutweed so Sylvia is attempting the
solarization method to eradicate the weed. A friend gave her some bugbane
and little did they know that the goutweed had also hitched a ride with
it.
For
containers, Sylvia calls me around spring time (usually in May) and I try to
scout around for what's on sale and reasonably priced. We save up our
perennials and switch them around in containers. We shop for annuals to
add to containers in a corner grocery in our area where they have bargain
prices. The key is to shop on the first day that the plants arrive to get the
best selection. Funny thing when we shop is that Sylvia will tell me what
she doesn't like; for example, marigolds. Well, last year, they had a huge
selection of marigolds so I ended up getting those and she says that she never
thought she would like them but she did. I must admit I have been naughty and
making a habit out of trying out the plants that she doesn't particularly
like...So call me crazy!
Garden makeover before
Garden Makeover September 2014