Front and Center

I'm pretty well a back yard gardener. In our neighborhood, we smile pleasantly at one another if we meet at the mail box but we don't socialize.

Since I'm a professional loner, this works well.

Eventually I do have to venture out in front to tweak the garden and I usually do it early while my neighbors are munching their Cheerios.
I never see them out, so they may get up before dawn, using a miner's light on their heads.

There are two gates at the back of this narrow path to the back yard.. My gate is hidden by the ornamental grass, which in turn hides the air conditioner.

The large-leafed plants are weeds, but since they look quite nice, I don't rush to pluck them out.

I use the rain barrels to hand-water the plants in front.

Another funny thing about this strip of grass--my next door neighbor carefully cuts his side, carefully leaving the few-inches strip of my grass undone..

I take pleasure in cutting the entire patch and more, feeling terribly smug and virtuous.

Another view of the side patch. Everything planted here is what I call a cultivated weed--give it an inch and it takes over the plant neighborhood.

I first put one of those pre-made straw containers in the metal basket but the straw things are never roomy enough and they shrink over time. Eventually I carefully pulled it all out and inserted burlap, then returned the straw insert. Not one of my successes, Next year I'll tidy it up a bit and add climbing plants to hide the rag-tag mess.

 

Coleus is a forgiving plant--just scootch it into place and it does its stuff. Pick a leaf and root it in a glass jar and before long  you have another one.

On the other hand, I'm for supporting the plant nurseries so let them do the rooting..

They have a tough but (to me) necessary business.