the tour: out front

The stoop! We've got a few things growing here. On the bottom step is Bunny Grass. It was always kind of ratty, but it's true, those little plumes were very fluffy and cute once they came out.

Moving up, there's the Osteospermum. It was a star all up until late July -- all flower flower flower and more flower. Deadheading just made it come back. It started getting scraggly in August, so I added a Bright Carmine, (Argranthemum frutescens), which I thought was going to make big red flowers, but they never bloomed. Sad.

Next is the Nemesia -- kind of like tiny snapdragons or something. It also got kind of dried out and sad in August, so I added a "rescue dahlia" from Lowes. The dahlia was another little failure. Cutting back the Nemesia worked, however. Try that again earlier next year!

And, then moving up there is the Gazania. I have come to hate the Gazania. The damn flowers bloom for a day and then you have to deadhead. Holy pain in the ass. It basically ends up looking like crap 75% of the time. Just say no to Gazania.

Just ignore the ratty scarlet runner bean that I half-hoped might succeed in a pot, and go straight up to the top: Pentas. Star of the show, if you will. It is in the pot that used to have the avocado that Thammie and Frangos gave to us to rescue, which well, I killed. And then most of this summer had weeds. But attractive weeds. Some of which were the quinata from Debbie up the block. I kept the quinata to wind in the railing, and of course the Pentas. Deadheading works on the Pentas, by the way. Next year I won't wait to do it.

And then there's the flowerbox, hanging off the fence by Taylor's house. In it we've got a couple little amaranth that I grew in pots because there were just so damn many of them, and also a borage, of similar provenance. And then the more successful plants, Callie Deep Yellow (Calibrachoa), and more osteospermum “vanilla symphony” (because it worked so fabulously on the stoop), and another Gazania -- this one is more colorful, not nearly as needy. I like it better.