ABUNDANCE OF GARDEN CHARM

I've been a bit slow in posting this week, in part because it's that horrible just-back-from-vacation thing where you're running around and feel like nothing is getting done, but also because I took SO many photos this year that it's taking me awhile to get through them. I tell ya, Mackinac Island is heaven for a gardener. There is so much color and inspiration everywhere you turn.

I'm a nut for fences and gates. I can't explain this, but I love them, and yet I have neither in my garden! This will have to change.  But how charming are these?

And plant-lined walkways to beautiful old cottages.

Mr. Much More Patient declared the Mackinac Island Post Office the most charming post office on the planet.

And of course gorgeous views of the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron connect.

That's the prettiest lighthouse on the Great Lakes in the background: Round Island Light. It's also one end of the finish line for the sailboat race I do to the island every year.

My favorite climbing hydrangea arbor that I take a picture of every year.

 Amazing plantings in yards.

Both sides of this house had these terraced beds just brimming with color.

And of course the most incredible displays of annuals designed by Jack Barnwell, including this gorgeous container.

This is just the tip of the iceberg folks. I have so many inspiring shots to show you. Stay tuned! If you want to see more though, consider going to the Grand Garden Show in August. You'll get "backstage" tours of the most amazing private yards on the island. 

HOW THIS YEAR'S CONTAINERS CAME TOGETHER

As promised, last weekend I banged out all the container planting (save for three small containers on the front steps that I usually plant with whatever I have leftover). 

I like to show the starting point for my containers because they are all a little sparse. I think people who are new to creating container designs are disappointed if they don't look full and lush right from the get-go because that's what they see. But the average gardener doesn't have access to huge annuals. Plants are smaller and may not even have a flower on them yet. I always have to squint a little to imagine what it's going look like in a few weeks.

But that's the joy of annual containers: They start looking great quickly. In fact the challenge with containers is often keeping them from looking junglelike midway through the season (as evidenced by some of my containers in years past). 

Here's how everything turned out. I didn't include the window box in this post as I feel that deserves its own post. I also made a video of how they all came together that you can watch here or at the bottom of the post.

DECK CONTAINERS

I put less in these containers than in the past and I think that's for the best. Frankly I think I was cramming too much in there and everything was a little hampered in its growth. Everything I've been told about the Cuphea suggests that hummingbirds go nuts for that plant so I thought I'd try to encourage them to come in close. So far no sightings, but it's pretty small still.

• Mandevilla • Lemon Coral sedum • Superbena Dark Blue • Cuphea Vermillionaire

GARAGE 'TROUGH'

This is a close copy of what I did here last year, but I liked it so much I didn't want to change it too much. I did have to replace the clematis as the others didn't make it through the winter. If I lose these again I will rethink using clematis as the climbers in this pot because obviously replacing them every year is not a great option.

• Dichondra Silver Falls • Infinity White impatiens • Plectranthus Silver Shield

DRIVEWAY CONTAINERS

These pots are new this year. You may recall the pots were cheap finds at the Restoration Outlet that I stained over the winter. I'm really happy to report that the stain is holding up great and I'm loving having these. For a long time I've felt that we were missing something near the entrance of the house.

I wanted to keep these simple. Between the circle garden, the annual planting along the house, the window box and everything else going on over there, it's a riot of  color and I thought something a little simpler might be nice.

The centerpiece is a white rose that I planted bare root several weeks ago. It won't get big this year, but I hope we get to see a few blooms at least. In the meantime, the "skirt" of gray and blue around it will be the star this year.

• 'Windermere' rose • Licorice plant • Lobelia Laguna Compact Blue with Eye

GARDEN URN

I must be on a gray kick this year because there is a lot of gray foliage showing up in my containers. I loved the 'Elegant Feather' I used in a few containers last year, but I also love cardoons. They get huge (even though they are tiny when planted), so they'll fill up most of this container, but I added in a few Superbells to make a "skirt" and I threw in some Verbena bonareinsis seedlings as well. They are tiny and I don't know how they'll fair but there's no harm in trying. If they grow, they'll get tall and provide some much-needed height there.

• Cardoon • Superbells Blue Moon Punch

• Verbena bonareinsis

FRONT DOOR POT

The container by the front door (which we made, by the way) got a similar treatment. It's always a big of a leap of faith putting such a small plant as the cardoon in as the centerpiece, but I've had great luck with them before. In fact I worry it may cover the Gaura, but I'll just play it by ear if that happens.

• Cardoon • Dichondra Silver Falls • Supertunia Bordeaux • Gaura Karalee Petite Pink • Ipomoea Sweet Caroline Bewitched After Dark • Verbena seedlings


Here's how they all came together.

You can be sure I'll keep you updated on how everything is looking as the season progresses. In the meantime, how are your container plantings looking?

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FRIDAY FINDS

What a crazy week here. So much that was supposed to get done, didn't. Work was nuts, the garden needs attention and there is this little voice in the back of my head that keeps whispering, "Hurry up and get on with summer."

This is standard operating procedure for this time of year for me and so many other people. There's nothing to do but to just do your best. So this week, that meant that a lot of blog posts that should have been just weren't. Hopefully next week I'll be able to catch you up on all of it. What I can guarantee you is that there will be a giveaway next week that you won't want to miss (that's me dangling a carrot).

I'm facing what is probably my busiest weekend in the garden of the entire year. Having finally amassed all of the plants I need for various containers, those will all be done (14, at last count). And then there's tons of other planting that will happen to. I'm hoping that by the end of the weekend the dozens (possibly hundreds, but I'm not about to count) of plants sitting in my driveway will be in their summer homes. In part because it just needs to happen but also because we're due for a hot weekend (80s in June here is not the norm) and I'm spending a lot of time just watering all those plants. I have some really cool ideas for plantings so I can't wait to show you.

Just some of the plants looking for homes in my garden.

It's been awhile since we've done a Friday Finds, so let's get on with it, shall we?

I have a love-hate relationship with this plant. I've decided to love its foliage but never its leaves.

Here's a roundup of some interesting outdoor dining tables. I like to eat outside as soon as the weather  and mosquitos allow it, but I just cannot get behind the idea of an outdoor dining set (which we'll use for about three months of the year) costing more than an indoor table and chairs.

I want a dutch door so badly, but someone tell me how this functions if you live in a place with bugs, because I don't get it.

I snapped a picture of the 'Guernsey Cream' clematis the other night (isn't it great that we can be in the garden until after 8:30?) and it was positively glowing.

Do yourself a favor and grab a coffee or a cocktail and spend some time reading this beautiful and well-written article. It is an amazing story of a life and a death, one that involves, a small way, the love of a garden. And grab a tissue.

Good stuff in the latest GardenFork podcast: Mushroom growing, good router info and a bit on drones (which I have a decidedly uneasy view of).

And lastly, a favor to ask of you. As you might have noticed I've been trying to do more videos. Figuring out filming them and editing them has been a huge learning curve, but if you're like me, you're forgiving of these things if there's something in the video worth watching. I've been uploading them to my YouTube channel (here's the latest one) and Facebook, but here's the deal: I can't get a "real" URL on YouTube until I get 100 subscribers. If you wouldn't mind popping over there and subscribing to my channel you could save me from the terrible multi-character-slash-random-numbers URL my channel is currently saddled with. Thank you!

What's on your agenda for the weekend? Is this an insanely busy time in the garden for you like it is for me?

FORMAL STYLE + A RIOT OF COLOR COME TOGETHER

Although it was a major topic in fall, I've not said much about the circle garden lately. To catch you up to speed here's the deal with the circle garden, which is not at all a circle, but "oval garden" is not the least bit catchy. When we bought our house it was a derelict vegetable garden that was mostly weeds with a few random shrubs thrown in. I dug it up, put in a poorly designed garden and as my love for it waned, it got worse each year. It lacked focus and was trying too hard to be all things in a very small garden. 

It was a visit from my garden blog friend Linda from Each Little World that spurred me to action. She mentioned that she noticed that at the time she visited (early July) there were many shades of green in my garden, but not a lot of other colors. And she was right. So I worked to come up with a way to really have a blow out of color that was still structured. 

The oval garden is a departure from the rest of my garden. Now redesigned with straight paths in an X pattern, it is far more formal in a structural sense than any other place in the garden. It is divided from other gardens by floating in the lawn near the front door, but it can't feel like a foreign place.

So the goal in designing this garden was to be a departure from the rest of the yard while not looking out of place. That's a tall order. And the only way to do that was by having a combination of informal plants in the confines of a formal design. Like all gardens, I fully expect this garden to be a work in progress and I think this first year will be largely experimental. I'm sure there will be things that work better than others. Perhaps the whole concept will be a flop. But hopefully it will be a riotous entry to the yard.

Four paths (created laboriously by me in fall) lead to a center circle and create four sections. Each section will have a small boxwood ball in the center and have three segments that radiate out from it. Each segment will be planted with a single plant. Deciding what should go in each segment was a bit like a Sudoku puzzle. I wanted each section to have a seasonal flowering aspect (such as a flowering perennial or shrub), a foliage element for texture and a flowering annual that should bloom all summer. I wanted a combination of warm and cool colors and I wanted some serious play on texture. And each segment had to play well with the segment next to it and across from it to balance the garden. Complicating the matter is the fact that although this is a smaller garden—about 30 feet long—because of the large trees that line our driveway, part of it is part sun to part shade and the other part is full sun.

There is a budget for this project. Not a specific budget, but I can't run out and buy all new plants just for this. So some of the plants need to be divisions from elsewhere in the garden or grown from seed to make it reasonable. 

So here's what I came up with. What you don't see in the diagram is the chive hedge, saved from the previous design of this garden. Each segment will be "outlined" in chives. Although there is no repetition in the plants save for the uniting ties of the boxwood balls and the chive hedges, I'm hoping repetition will come in the form of texture and color rather than actual plants. 

Moving clockwise, starting at 12 o'clock, here's what will be in each segment:

• 'Bobo' hydrangea: I've been hoping to work this diminutive hydrangea into my garden for a few years and I think this is the perfect opportunity. Its fluffy flowers will contrast well with the rest of the plants plants for this segment.
• Hakenochloa 'All Gold': This is certainly one of my favorite plants and I'm happy that it likes my yard. When I redesigned the back/side yard a few years ago I used 'All Gold' divisions from another garden there. Now those division have grown enough that I can divide them to fill this bit for free.
• New Guinea Impatiens 'Orange'

• Dahlia 'HS Flame': I'm a sucker for dahlias with dark foliage and I love the simplicity of a single flower. I chose this one to balance out the pinks from the bottom of the garden. It's also a short dahlia so I shouldn't have to worry about staking it.
• Lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis): This is probably my No. 1 go-to plant in my garden because it so good both as a foliage plant and as a long-bloomer with chartreuse flowers. It also divides easily so I'll have no problem finding plants for this section.
• Verbena bonareinsis 'Meteor Shower': I grew this for the first time last year and I'm head over heels in love with it. It grown much shorter than your usual verbena—more like 2 feet instead of 4 or 5 feet—and blooms absolutely nonstop. 

• 'The Alnwick Rose': Ordered from David Austin roses.
• Rhubarb: I relocated two rhubarb plants from the old garden and I hope to get several more crowns from my grandmother's garden. I love it for its huge leaves but obviously also for eating. It will take a bit to establish this section so I don't anticipate this part looking great this year.
• A white annual: I've shown a low-growing nicotiana here, but I may use a Profusion zinnia or something else. 

• Dahlia 'Serkan': This is another low grower so I hope to not have to stake it. I love the waterlily-type dahlias and I think the relatively simple form of this flower will contrast well with the multi-petaled rose in the segment next to it.
• Egyptian walking onion: I think this plant is one of the most interesting forms there is. I dug out and potted up several of them from the garden last fall and I'm hoping they'll overwinter well. This is a rather experimental choice, but if it works, I think it could be stunning.
• Signet marigold 'Lemon Gem': This is one of my must-have flowers that I grow from seed. It blooms like crazy, smells delicious and has the most lovely small textured leaves and flowers. The flowers are edible as well.

Other plants that will play a role in the garden are the two clematis in the center circle—'Venosa Violacea', planted last year and 'Avant Garde', which I randomly ordered Sunday morning after seeing a photo of it. Around the outside of the inner circle, I'm envisioning a ring of lime thyme, which is a lovely groundcover that looks better than it tastes, in my experience. And then I'd need a more upright but still low annual inside of that to hide the ankles of the clematis. Of course, the chives (upper right corner) are a factor and I think I'll probably go with 'Green Gem' boxwood for the centers of each section.

2016 CONTAINERS

It's high time I tell you a little about the containers I planted this year. I like to show you them early in the summer if only to prove that no container looks great when it's first planted (and some look positively pathetic), unless you start with enormous plants, which few people do. It takes time for them to grow in and look their best.

This year I tried to be a little more cohesive in my plan and as always, it started with the window box. This looks positively pathetic right now but I have hopes that it will fill in nicely without getting totally overgrown and blocking the entire view out the kitchen window.

I used a palette that was at least partly dictated by the 'Autumn Sunset' climbing rose that grows on the trellis on the front of the house. Its flowers vary from yellow to apricot to peach and I wanted something that complimented that. My first thought it always blues, which is by far the color I turn to most often in the garden. I used a coral flower for the center, blue petunias, a bit of lime green and even some pink.

Here's what's planted in it (some affiliate links used):
Verbena bonariensis 'Meteor Shower'
Coleus 'Lemon Twist' (currently very small and not even really visible)
Superbells 'Coralina'
Surfina 'Heavenly Blue'
Oranmental Oregano 'Kent Beauty'
Helichrysum petiolare 'Lemon Licorice'

I repeated this color theme in the big box by the front door. I saw Eupatorium capillifolium 'Elegant Feather' in a garden for the first time last year and knew I had to have it. I found it at a local nursery I'd not been to before, but the landscaper who planted it at the place I originally spotted it called it a "Dr. Suess plant." It does have a tendency to follow the sun around. Around it I planted three purple-leafed dahlias ('Roxy', I believe), which I expect will do as much with their flowers as the dark, broad, foliage will do against the fine-textured Elegant Feather. I also repeated the blue petunia, added in a purple sweet potato vine for some drape, and a new striped Superbells in a coral-type color.

Eupatorium capillifolium 'Elegant Feather'
Superbells 'Tropical Sunrise' (A trial plant from Proven Winners available next year)
Surfina 'Heavenly Blue'
Ipomonea 'Sweet Caroline Raven'

There was more repetition in the urn in the middle of the patio garden, which makes sense as these three containers form a triangle. Again I used an Elegant Feather here and then kept it simple with just more 'Coralina' Superbells and blue lobelia.

Eupatorium capillifolium 'Elegant Feather'
Superbells 'Coralina'
Lobelia 'Laguna Sky Blue'

I did go away from the theme a little for the smaller blue pots I like to stack on the stairs to the front door. I quite like this particular geranium and I found it for a great price so it made the cut, along with the need little oxalis I found. The two square pots also got a metal rings for a little interest (scavenged from a rotted out wagon wheel on a neighbor's property).

Pelargonium 'Vancouver Centennial'
Oxalis 'Molten Lava'

Over by the garage, the boxwood planter (which spent its second winter in the unheated garage and did well) again got a skirt of white impatiens and I love how it's looking a little unkempt with it's new growth right now. It will get a trim in a couple weeks.

That planter moved between the garage doors to make room for a new planter this year, a metal trough style. The lack of interest on the garage and the pergola has been bothering me, so this bigger planter helps fill a blank space. I've also planted two clematis in it, ones that get quite tall, in hopes that they will flop over onto the pergola at some point.

The clematis are a bit of an experiment, as this west-facing wall gets a lot of bright light but almost no direct sun. Both of the clematis—'Perle d'Azur' and 'Alba Luxurians'—are supposed to be able to tolerate a bit of shade, but I am always wary of those reports. I had hoped to have Mr. Much More Patient build a trellis for the wall to help the clematis make the leap to the pergola, but that's on hold until later in summer when everyone has more time. For now, a couple of bamboo poles will suffice. Both of these clematis are group 3, meaning they can be cut back in late winter/early spring, which will help keep the pergola (should they ever reach it) looking tidy.

In a rather remarkable show of restraint (I have a bad habit of putting too much in a container), I keep the color palette very simple, just using white impatiens, variegated ivy and Plectranthus argentatus. Maybe there's something to this whole "keep it simple" strategy as I'm loving how this container is looking.

Clematis 'Perle d'Azur
Clematis 'Alba Luxurians'
Plectranthus argentatus
Impatiens New Guinea 'Infinity White'
Variegated English ivy

We haven't mowed the lawn in almost two weeks because, well, life. Fortunately we have patient neighbors who haven't asked what we're up to.

This doesn't count as much of a container, but the tree stump that we "planted" in the garden by the garden got a dose of hot pink this year in the form of New Guinea impatiens and I love the effect of it over there.

The final containers in my garden are the white fiberglass containers on the deck which I almost don't want to show you. I first planted these this weekend and they look pathetic. I have been desperately trying to wrap up the major work in the garden and they became just one more thing on the to-do list and they look like it. Let's hope they grow in, but I almost feel bad about what an afterthought they were this year.

Pink mandevilla vine (I don't remember exactly which one)
Euphorbia 'Diamond Delight'
Creeping Jenny
Superbells 'Hollywood Star'
Zinnia grown from seed that I lost the tag on

I have just a couple more containers to show you that I'm happy with. A neighbor down the road asked me if I could do his containers for him this year as he had been trucking them to a nearby nursery every year to plant them. The project consisted of six 6-inch terracotta pots that sit in a holder under the windowsill and two 18-inch pots at the entrance to the small entry deck. The terracotta pots had to have red geraniums in there because for the last 32 years, that's what's been there. I'm not thrilled with planting anything in a 6-inch terracotta pot that I know will dry out very, very quickly, but I'm also not going to mess with tradition. So red geraniums it was.

I took the cues for the larger planters from those geraniums and put in 'Fireworks' grass, purple sweet potato vine, Euphorbia and a red calibrachoa.

Pennisetum 'Fireworks'
Euphorbia 'Diamond Delight'
Superbells 'Pomegranate Punch'


P.S. Thank you all for your kind words and understanding about the loss of our dog Rita. It's very comforting and I'm happy we live in a world where so many other people understand the sadness of losing a beloved pet.

P.P.S. Don't forget to check out the giveaway for a Sneeboer Royal Dutch Hand Hoe and enter to win this great tool.

P.P.P.S. As part of my Saturday6 gig with Troy-Bilt I'm taking over their Instagram account this week, so make sure to check me out over there. As a disclaimer, I get paid to work with Troy-Bilt in their Saturday6 program.

WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE GARDEN

I got a message from a friend and blog reader the other day who asked, "How come you aren't blogging about planting?"

It's a fair question, this being primarily a gardening blog. The fact of the matter is that it's still really cool here and there is very little to plant. I did sow a few very small areas of peas, lettuce and argula a couple weeks ago and there's pretty much nothing to report on those.

But there are other, somewhat random things happening in the garden that I don't feel are worth a post, but maybe worth a little update.

I took my first trip to a nursery over the weekend. The whole world is out shopping at nurseries because of course Mother's Day is this weekend and people equate Mother's Day with the time to plant. That couldn't be further from the case here, but old habits die hard. I think the nurseries here push annuals and hanging baskets for Mother's Day in part because they know things will be set back by the cold and people will buy more later. Our last frost date isn't until May 10, so it's way too early to be thinking about planting annuals here.

That said, I, of course, bought a handful of annuals, because I just couldn't resist and I suffer from plant-related FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). So I grab things when I see them and nurse them along in the greenhouse until it's time to plant, usually around Memorial Day.

A lot of people have asked about my greenhouse. Here's an affiliate link to it. I really love it, but it's important to keep in mind that this is a temporary structure. The plastic cover ripped quickly last year and the company sent me a replacement, but the same thing happened again this year. It's a tiny tear on a seam that I easily fixed with tape, but I think it's worth mentioning.

Oxalis 'Molten Lava'

I'd been to neither of the two nurseries I visited on Sunday, which is rather alarming as I thought I'd been to every nursery in a 50-mile radius. The first was not great, but unbeknownst to me they were holding a sale with very small, single plant hanging baskets for $5 each. There was a cop directing traffic into the parking lot! It was really no way to experience a nursery for the first time. Mostly it was just chaos.

The second nursery was amazing and I eagerly signed up for their frequent buyer program because I have a feeling I'll be going back many times. Even my husband knew about this place and it was completely unknown to me. I'm so disappointed in myself. They were still waiting for a lot of deliveries but they had a huge, clean, well organized annuals greenhouse with exceptionally well cared for plants that were not overpriced. I picked up three Oxalis 'Molten Lava', which is not new, but new to me. I love its mounding habit and orange to lime foliage.

Speaking of the greenhouse, it's starting to fill up and I'm happy to report that everything seems to be doing well despite the cool weather. The exception is the sweet peas which are looking a little anemic and I think they desperately need some feeding.

That is only about half of the dahlias. The tubers that haven't sprouted yet are still in the house. Where in the world am I going to put them all?

I worked on the garden to the north of the house this weekend for a long time and looking out the upstairs window it looks like I've made very little progress. I did, however, repaint the obelisk we built several years ago. I finally found a spray paint line with better color selection: Montana Gold. Granted, it's about twice the price of a regular can of spray paint (about $8), but the colors are worth it and the coverage is great. The old apple green faded and I gave it new life in a bright turquoise.

The new color is a bright turquoise.

The old apple green was great too.

I think this year I'll grow some climbing nasturtiums up it for some additional color. I removed the goji berries from this raised bed because they got too big and their big, thorny canes, were reaching out and grabbing me. I'll find another spot for them, but for now they are living in very large nursery containers.

That's the report from here. I've been gardening until dark, setting a goal of filling a tub trug with weeds after dinner every night that it's not raining. I'm so happy that the sun doesn't set until about 8 these days.

What's up in your garden?

GREAT NEW PLANTS FOR 2016: ANNUALS EDITION

I am a sucker for new plants. I'm also a sucker for old, tried-and-true varieties, but there is something fun about checking out all the latest and greatest that will be hitting garden centers this year. I'm doing a little series on some of the new plants I'm most excited about this year and I'm kicking it off with annuals. 

Some affiliate links used

1. Bidens Campfire: I will admit that when Proven Winners sent me this plant last summer to trial, I was less excited about this one than any other. I didn't love the colors, for one, and I wasn't sure about the smaller flowers. It probably ended up being my favorite of the new things I grew last year. It bloomed its head off from June until early October and was a lovely little charmer. I'm completely sold on it.

2. Supertunia Latte: This petunia doesn't do a lot for me on it's own, but I think it will be one of those stunning plants that really makes a container design and make the other plants shine.

3. Verbena bonariensis Meteor Shower: Of all the new plants I'm looking forward to growing, this is my No. 1 must have. I also received this plant to trial last year and my love for it is borderline inappropriate. It's much shorter than the usual Verbena bonariensis, so it is perhaps a little easier to use in containers. The information says it's less prolific as far as reseeding goes, which isn't really a good thing as far as I'm concerned because I want more, more, more. Jack Barnwell used this dotted throughout the borders at the Hotel Iroquois garden last summer and the effect was stunning.

4. Pansy Cool Wave Lemon Surprise: I find myself more and more attracted to pansies and this was seems like quite the charmer. It's a nice, soft lemon yellow and every so often a blue-purple bloom pops up.

5. Sedum Lemon Coral: I'm not sure why this is listed as new this year, but I have grown it for two years and it's a must-have for me. I've grown it both in containers and in the ground and it thrives in both places. You don't need to do anything for this plant. Put it in, water it when you water other stuff and stand back.

6. Zinnia Uptown Frosted Strawberry: This zinnia, which are easy to grow by nature, looks more like a dahlia than a zinnia to me. I love the ombre colors.

What new annuals do you have your eye on this year?

ANNUALS TO GROW FROM SEED

The end of the growing season might seem like a strange time to be talking about growing things from seed, but I find it to be a time to take stock in the garden. I've had a whole summer to figure out what worked and what didn't and yes, I'm already making mental lists about what I'll start from seed next year.

First, I'll just say that I feel like there are parts of the garden that look better this year than they ever have. I credit that to all of the annuals I grew from seed (for the first time). I was able to fill holes cheaply and easily and annuals just keep giving and giving. 

So here are some of the annuals you can bet I'll be growing from seed again next year.

1. SIGNET MARIGOLD

I knew I liked this little sweetheart of a plant because I'd purchased plants at our master gardener plant sale before. But growing it en masse made me fall even more in love with it. This is by far the most hands-off annual I think I've ever grown. In the areas where I kept it well watered, it needed no deadheading and when it got a little floppy, I cut if off by half and it just bloomed more. These plants are still covered in flowers and have been nonstop since sometime in June. Even better, they have a citrusy smell that makes them lovely to brush up against and unsavory to critters. And the feathery foliage is a great texture accent all on its own. It comes in yellow, orange and red and I'll grow all three next year.

2. GOMPHRENA

Gomphrena (aka globe amaranth) is that little pink lollipop-looking plant. I love how it punctuates a garden bed.

This one was tricky to start. I bet I lost more than half of the plants I started, but the ones that pulled through have me enamored enough to add this one to next year's list. This is another easy-going plant (once you get it going). The flower last all season and I've not had to deadhead a one. What I love about it is that the adorable little balls are like little punctuation marks in the garden. The one change I would make is that this year I grew a lavender colored one and it's a bit wishy-washy for me. Next year I'll look for something a little brighter.

3. NASTURTIUM

Nasturtium 'Vesuvius'

I have shouted from the rooftops about my love affair with nasturtiums before and they'll probably always be on my must-grow list. The highlight this year for me was 'Vesuvius', which has small leaves and holds its many flowers well above the foliage. You know, so you can actually see them, unlike a few of the varieties I grew this year.

4. SWEET PEAS

This was my first year growing sweet peas and I'll admit, they have diva tendencies. Frankly, anything that smells this good and looks that beautiful, probably has earned the right to be a little picky. I'll put them in the same spot as well, right off the path from the garage where they were nose and eye level for anyone passing by. I also grew a dwarf, non-climbing variety that was beautiful in containers but pretty short lived so I'm not sure if that will be on next year's list.

5. CASTOR BEAN

 No annual in my garden has made as much of a statement as castor bean. I learned a few lessons in growing it, not the least of which was the stake it early, but now that I know that, I don't think I'll be without its bold good looks.

6. NICOTIANA ALATA 'LIME GREEN'

This plant combines well with just about everything, brings a much-needed cooling effect to the garden and just keeps going and going. I love it and it was well worth the space it took up in my seed-starting scheme.


And here's an annual I'd like to try growing: Stipa tenuissima, aka Mexican feather grass (it's that lovely feathery number up in the gomphrena photo). I bought a dozen of these plants this year and I love the look of them in the garden. I'll grow it again, but I'd love to be able to save a little by starting it myself. Since it reseeds readily in warmer zones (it's listed as an invasive plant in some places), I'm thinking it may not be too difficult to start from seed.

Verbena bonariensis

One annual I won't bother to grow from seed next year, at least not by starting it inside, is Verbena bonariensis. I did two sowings and both were complete failures. A nice reader gave me a tip to try winter sowing it in a milk jug, so I may give that a shot, but I had enough reseeders in the garden last year that I should be able to spread them around if I'm careful.

Do you already know what you'll grow from seed next year?