Busy revising the plantings and transplanting

Expanding front perennial bed

Anyone who comes down our street has noticed our ever expanding shade garden of mostly perennials and seems to be waiting to see when it will reach the sidewalk. I am adding equal parts of peat moss and vermiculite over a weed barrier then adding composted soil on top. It seems to be working well. Finally the top is a layer of shredded cypress.

ruellia & salvia

 I was able to find 2 low mounding perennials that seeded well and transplanted gold dust alyssum and rock Soapwort today as they all have their 2nd leaves. I put them into groupings of 6-8 plants figuring some will make it. They take the shade and will only get about 6" tall and are supposed to spread. I also added liriope interspersed in each new area to hold the soil and provide interest until I can replace some of them with another planting. The blue and white salvia are blooming like crazy and I think all of the plumbago  are going to finally grow. I even found one of the 

mums & asters

ornamental peppers that came up from seed in the beds. The ruellia are blooming and taking hold in most of the spots. Lois tells me that they may begin to act like weeds--not for a while yet, I hope.

roses, mums & salvia

The asters,  mums, and vincas  I got at Lowe's are providing a lot of color next to my ever bearing roses. It is really pretty coming up the walk with all the blue, purple, and red rioting there. I had hoped for a bit more yellow with all the marigolds but not much of that survived the hot summer or spider-mites. The lantana looks great in pink/yellow so I guess that will do.

mum

Out back we have another section of paver walkway completed. I am not sure but we may be paving our way to Austin at this rate. I will border it with the liriope that is getting way too tight and have a nice protection when it rains to keep the soil in the adjacent beds.

Broccoli and cauliflower are taking well and liking the cool nights. I found tiny tomatoes on one of the 5 plants I have in pots. All of them are blooming and will soon be moved into the greenhouse room by the windows if it gets much cooler at night. The peppers are covered with buds but not setting any fruit that I can find. The eggplant is covered with beautiful purple blooms and lots of little fruits so I expect to pick quite a few of those. I love the oriental ones as they seem to grow better and are nearly seedless. Beets and carrots are both up. I moved some of the beets apart to give them more room. The bibb lettuce is bolting with the continued hot days but will soon be replaced with some ruffled red and more bibb as the days get cooler. I have to let the plants get a bit bigger before transplanting as the bugs are cutting them off even with collars around them. The multicolored chard are doing OK but nothing to brag about and the NZ spinach seems to be winding down but the regular spinach is not making it--bug or snail bait supreme!
I'm still considering getting the soil sampled as something is still not in sync with the plants. I am enjoying using the myfolia program to track the plants.