Design

It's been a good weekend for gardening, glorious weather here in the Southeastern U.S.  I've spent a lot of time tidying up, planting fall vegetables, and getting ready to be away, yet again. a bumblebee magnet A quick trip up to the mountains late last week had me harvesting beans and tomatoes, but more importantly, admiring the wealth of native bumblebees visiting the Sedum 'Autumn Joy' that's in the middle of our sedum bed.  In flower just for a short while, it's amazing when the flowers are open.  The flower heads were covered with bees of all sizes. Back in the Piedmont, the bank of Sedum in front of the visitor center (at the botanical garden where I work) was covered with butterflies (buckeyes, tiger swallowtails, sulfurs, etc.) Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

It's been rewarding to enjoy the changes in the sedum bed in front of our small house in the mountains over the last year. The delightful sequence of flowers has been an unforeseen addition to the colors and textures of their foliage, much of which is evergreen, too. The jewel-like foliage colors contrasting with flowers of different colors and heights are quite remarkable.

Our sedum bed continues to provide a diversity of colors and textures. It's jewel-toned in morning and evening light, and now, in mid-spring, many of them are starting to flower. Flowers are merely a bonus in a group that encompasses plants that are tough, drought-tolerant, often perennial, and which have leaf shapes of all sorts.

I like to keep something green in my containers throughout the year. Perennial herbs, herbaceous perennials with rosettes, Sedums and succulents; all of these are fun and easy to use. Of course, I also don't want to be tied to watering all the time in the summer, too, which means drought-tolerant plants. But that still leaves lots of great plants to use, creating wonderful contrasts of textures and shapes. This summer's containers aren't quite as spectacular due to our drought here in SC, but some of them are quite nice.