Art in the Garden show ready!

Are you ready? Am I ready?So you all probably already know that I save plants from the bulldozer around the hood and plonk them into my garden. Sometimes they work out and look brilliantly, sometimes they sulk and look miserably for a year or so, but they get saved and that's all that matters to me. Some of the saved plants have slowly come into their own this year and I'm so happy about that. (Some I have to still baby along...like the peonies I saved last summer, they're sulking)Yesterday evening, as I was watering the garden for probably the last time before this weekend's Art in the Garden show, I took a good look around, put away the tools and declared the garden as ready as it's ever going to be.Come have a walk around the garden with me and help me pull up a last weed or two. :DFirst up: Peonies. I'm so happy they've lasted till this weekend for people to see. I've removed the leaves from the autumn blooming crocuses and Morgan is loving her little, fragrant cave.Let's walk past the roses next. Just a few of the roses in the garden are, clockwise from top left: Cloud Ten, Lemon Fizz, Julia Child, Amadeus. The roses are spectacular this year.Here's the entrance to the shade garden on the west side. I love how the white fox gloves just happened this year. The pink rambling rose, the honeysuckle and the violet clematis I nicknamed "Bad Hair Day" are also really lush and fragrant. Our resident hummingbirds are very happy.Here's a look down the shade garden. This area needs a lot of water because of the two big maples and three rhodos. I watered with some Miracle Grow here this year to give the shade plants a bit of a boost.Some of us are remarkably calm! (Milo, pull up that grass while you're there)The irises are almost all gone now, but I'm happy that some are still blooming for the weekend. That glorious yellow iris I've had for several years, a gift from a elderly friend who sold her home and moved to an apartment, but it's never bloomed till this year! Well done little Goldilocks.The veggie and fruit gardens are coming along nicely.There's a ton of garlic plants, tomatoes, potatoes, leeks, all sorts of herbs, peas, two sorts of kale and celery root.And on the other side of the path are strawberries, blueberries and crazy huge raspberries. The raspberries are so tall that they've grown into the apple tree! Our little girls will be thrilled when they come over in a couple weeks. They love the berries from the garden.The silly circle at the back of the garden, which we are sure is meant for twirling on...you never know when you feel like twirling in the garden...has some Canterbury bells growing between the bricks. They're not bothering anyone there and so if you feel like twirling, you'll have some lovely blue bells for partners. :DOh, and I have to show you my collection of sedums on the "Tower of Power", (blame my friend Tom from Southlands Nursery, he named it that), I just love sedums and am so proud for these three pots I've planted up, more so because I've "imported" the sedums mostly as babies from all over the place (eg: San Francisco).Like I've said, some of us are remarkably calm!Oh I just love the two huge patio pots. This year I went with bronze and purple and a splash of chartreuse to bring out the bronze in the pot glazes. This might be my favourite combination in this crazy, saved garden.And, since this is MY garden, and you all know me by now, there are a couple of pots of saved trees destined for the cabin, and a waterfall on the patio.On the patio table are some of the indoor plants, including this magnificent Medinilla (Philippine orchid) which decided to bloom just in time!So there we are, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour around. As usual, loads more photos coming over the weekend and a special art surprise project which I hope will turn out to be spectacular.Some of us are going to drag our tired selves out for a little sushi, because we can't even begin to think of cooking something for supper.And then we'll come home and some of us will paint.Ok, one last photo of the most glorious saved rose from my aunt's (now destroyed) garden. The fragrance is overwhelming!Wish me luck! :D Here we go! Read more here about my gardening experience.