Last week I showed you my beloved Bugleweed.  This is the other variety I was telling you about, ‘Chocolate Chip’ Bugleweed.  I loved the color when I bought it.  Then wasn’t crazy about it when it started coming in the spring.  Now I’m liking it again.  It will be awesome when it fills in all the cracks.  I should see if I can buy some more to speed things along.  I am so impatient!

Here you can see that the Photinia I translated from my friend’s house are doing well!  Read about it here.  I think I am going to have to paint that bench turquoise.  I had a wooden turquoise one there and I really miss the color.  I’m sure my assistant would help me with that.  And by assistant I mean my 11-year-old daughter.  🙂  BTW- this is the side yard that used to be an abandon road.  If I ever stop procrastinating and write a little history of my yard, then you’d know what I was talking about.  At least I made the map.  This is garden #3.

This is a look behind the fence in the pic above.  It’s garden #4 on the map.  That’s hardy hibiscus growing out of control, in between my peonies, which are long since done for the season.  The hibiscus don’t bloom until the end of the summer.  I really need to stake those up somehow.

Still behind the same fence, but closer to the gate, is a patio hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata).  I love the bright green color.  This is the only hydrangea I have that hasn’t started blooming.  It’s summer-fall bloomer.

 More garden #3.

Another out-of-control hardy hibiscus.

They’re not all out of control.  Here’s yet another hardy hibiscus.  I keep saying “hardy” because these are not the patio hibiscus that are annuals (at least here in NJ).  I don’t throw these out or dig them up at the end of the summer.  I just cut them down and they grow back next year like other perennials.  

The path you see in the bottom corner of the pic above, is this path.  Dug out with my own two hands.  Plus hubby’s two hands, two wheelbarrows and a couple of shovels.  And yes, I built all of those retaining walls myself.  I don’t let my husband get involved with that kind of stuff.  🙂  And the stairs, I built those too.

Jumping around, this is the other side of the backyard.  My only two mixed pots are actually looking good.  I never remember to water them.

The planters sit near the back deck that I’ve been working on for way too long.  I did finish the steps yesterday.   Finally!

These are plants I planted in the wooded area behind my house.  It’s garden #5 on the map, all the way on the left side, by the path out to the woods.  This is a Hummingbird Summersweet.  It is very slow to fill in each year and I have 3 of them grouped together, so I planted the pachysandra underneath to give the area color (year-round).

Here’s a broader view.  The large plant is one of the skip laurels I had to transplant to make room for the giant photinia.  I think the skip laurel likes this spot better anyway, the sun is not so intense.

 This is a drooping leucothe.  It is evergreen and turns pretty colors, so it’s a winner for me!