Those naughty plants gone wild!

I inadvertently conducted a not so scientific experiment this last summer. I neglected my plants while working on a few hard scape projects and found out which plants behaved while I wasn't looking and which ones had a party!

The ring leader of the messy situation is a toss up between the Trumpet Vine and the Lady Banks rose vine. OK, so with "vine" in the name I should have known they were troublemakers. De' Nile is not just a river in Egypt, it is also running through my back yard!


Several years ago when I first started gardening a friend insinuated that my yard wasn't "lush". Gasp! Since she was an incredible gardener that I admired,  I took her clue and "lush" became the new goal. Where to start? Wine bottles as edging? Hey, I have seen that and it looks pretty cool! But I think what she meant was I needed to add more greenery and shrubs.  Does hoarding apply to shoving too many plants into a flower bed? I knew better. I took classes and studied all the topics to become the perfect gardener. Then I proceeded to go back to my old habits of planting for what looked good "now" and not "when they reach the label size". (Note, slap self.)

I planned on moving the plants each season as needed so I could enjoy "lushness" now! Back to the vines..... 
 
The trumpet vine managed to work it's way up through a portion of yard that is probably 20' wide and over the neighbors fence. As soon as the leaves fall off I will be doing some major cutting and pulling. It really is lush and green and if you don't get too close you would never notice that it is smothering all the well behaved plants.


Then there is the rose vine, Lady Banks. It has arching stems the little birds love to land on and bounce up and down. It is kind of cute from a distance so I let it be for the summer. However, with a closer look at the base, it too has taken over some of the more well behaved plants.

Another culprit is the Euphorbia 'Fireglow'. One of my friends mentioned that it could become a bit invasive when I first picked it up and plopped it in my cart. But at the time I thought it looked so yummy that I didn't care if it took over my whole garden. Hmmm, I guess I do care. I don't like it anymore and I want it gone! It doesn't clump like most well behaved Euphorbia's, this one is all over the place and scraggly looking.  Reminder to self: "overcome the initial euphor(b)ia of plant shopping and listen to your friends!" I will next time!

A mug shot of the Euphorbia 'Fireglow' that I borrowed from the internet.

The hard scaping is still in progress rain or shine.  I will give an update when it is finished! Did you know that if you take your glove off when you are working with wet concrete and then rub it back and forth on the concrete real quick to smooth it out, that eventually your fingers will start to burn and turn black? Yes, that is what will happen! Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb! 


Tammy from Casa Mariposa , I would love to hear how your garden mosaic is coming along so we can compare war stories!


Here is a picture from Peaches world. She is obsessed with her own reflection so we got her a mirror! Notice the tongue prints!

Happy Halloween!