Sunday, November 15, 2009

Blogging Theft, More Common Than You Think

Every one, it seems, has a bed that nothing works in. I actually have two, but this is only about one. This one is in front of the house and to one side of the drive way. It gets just an hour of mottled, early morning sun and then is shaded through the rest of the morning. Some where around noon it is in the blazing sun for the rest of the day. I have planted an enormous variety of plants in it, and all to no avail. I have planned and plotted, bought and potted. I tried to do an interesting mixture of plants, something like Pam at Digging would do. She is really good at her planning and plotting. I, on the other hand, am not so good. Then I started blogging. The ideas that one can get from blogs is mind boggling. I surmised that for one to get the most out of blogging it should be all right to steal, errr, I mean to incorporate other peoples ideas into one's own garden.
Quite a few months ago, Philip, at East Side Patch, had pictures of a garden design that he had come up with for some friends. He, like Pam, seems to be good at this planning and plotting. It was comprised of only two types of plants. That's right, only two. And it looked really good, at least to me. I stole, I mean used his idea to plant my bed. I decided to use plants that I already had and that needed thinning or relocating. I looked around the gardens and picked two that were totally different in texture, color, shape and blooms, but were about the same height.

I chose Daturas and Gregg's Mist Flower. I know what your thinking, that ain't right. The broad, grey-green leaves of the Daturas and the frilly, almost chartreuse leaves of the Mist flower have plenty of contrast and look nice, even with out blooms. It started looking rather fetching early on, you know, before the summer from hell. Then it languished in misery through the summer. But in the last few months it has turned into the bed I had pictured in my feeble little mind. Most people that have come by have liked it as well. Now I am hoping the first frost will hold out until after Thanksgiving so our guests can see it as well.



9 comments:

ConsciousGardener said...

Looks nice Bob! Do you know what kind of butterfly's those are? Randy and I are coming to GeorgeTown Thursday and would like to meet for lunch and tour your garden, is that possible? Give me a buzz 459.7314...in all the hustle of the tour I can't seem to find your card! Hope to hear from you soon!

mss @ Zanthan Gardens said...

Yes Pam and Philip certainly have an eye for putting things together. I'm more like you. I dig out a space and fill it with plants that I'm dividing--ones I know can grow pretty well on their own. Like you, I've discovered that drifts of one kind of plant look better than a whole bunch of different plants thrown in together. Weaving drifts of different colors and textures together is the style I prefer.

Thanks to Diana @ Sharing Nature's Garden, my yard has filled in with datura. They sure looked droopy and unhappy in the heat but right now they're great.

Pam/Digging said...

That looks like a great combo in terms of texture and color, and you get butterflies and scented flowers to boot. Thanks for the nice words about my "plotting and planning" ability. Sometimes it works out better than others, as for any gardener. :-)

katina said...

Is this the patch area that had irises, or is it the 'grass patch'? In any case, it looks good to me.

K

Annie in Austin said...

My bloom day post had a combo I copied from Pam/Digging's former garden - guess that fits in this category, Bob?

I'd love to make a third-hand version of the Datura-Gregg's Mistflower pairing, with a passalong datura and an established Mistflower. But it's in an oval bed near the front sidewalk and we get so much school traffic that more toxic stuff is kept inside the privacy fence. Too bad because they look great together!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Bob said...

Annie, I think some Mullein would look good with some frilly leafed plany would look good as well.

Amy said...

I love that combination. I will have to remember those! very pretty

ESP said...

Hi Bob
Thanks for your nice words and the mention. Was the mass-planting you are referring to in the Patch, the bamboo muhly and yucca combination? I am curious!
Happy the image inspired you.

The two plant combination I can't wait to try out "en masse" is the Sotol and muhly. (I better get those sotols in soon - they take a while to get established) I am considering this for my Hell-Strip, when I can face picking up my pick-axe once again.

I am on the hunt now for all types of mist flowers, oh yes this is my new quest. Love this plant.

Great looking bed Bob, so much fun to get to experiment like this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...all part of the fun.

I agree steal all you can.

ESP.

Bob said...

Philip, it was a garden you designed for some one else but I think it was large leaved yuccas and a narrow leafed grass. It did appeal to me.