Busy Busy Busy - Garden Update - Back Patio

Are you tired of my green alphabet?  Only four more letters and I'll have it wrapped up.  Though I have to decide whether or not to stitch the charted green border.  Any thoughts?

Jami is once again graciously hosting a Tuesday Garden Party.  Let's join in the fun. 

Last week I showed off the Front Porch. Today I've moved to the Back Patio.  As you can see it is a pretty expansive area. From left to right - my sister's Kitchen Garden, three large green pots, a shaded nook, my salvias & agastaches, my sedum theater, mudroom nook, mudroom flowerbed.

Let's take a closer look.

Here are my three large green pots and my birch tree.  The birch needs to be replanted. In a month or so these pots will be hummingbird hangouts with lots of fuchsias and verbena.

At the edge of my sister's Kitchen Garden I've staged a series of strawberry pots on the steps.

Most of them have sedums and succulents tucked in the 'pockets'. 

I love the green glaze on this pot.

This is the first year I've planted anything it this pot. I went for a reddish/silver tone to the plants and included a begonia and a cuphea for the hummers. 

See the hummer? He's just finished with the cuphea.

The pots to the front, left, and back are salvias and agastaches. On the right I have my Mom's dianthus collection.  

Some of the salvias are already blooming...

...including this one - and the hummingbirds have noticed.

It seems like it is really summer when the hummers are working in the flowers.

In this shaded nook I've got mimulus, fuchsias, primroses, and some rather ratty looking pansies. The pansies had a hard time of it while the painters were working outside, but I haven't the heart to toss them as of yet.  

Close up of primrose - pansies on the bottom.

Here are the mimulus (also called monkey flowers) and fuchsias. 

I thought this was a jamming nasturtium with its cut-edged frilly blossom.

My Mom's agave collection resides on on corner of the Back Patio.  They make for great Deer Proof plants.  

Up against the house I put together my Chicken Collection.

I over-wintered this ice plant and it looks great!

Here's my sedum / succulent display.

I like the different colors and textures. 

I have even more - a couple of sets of eight plants. 

Mom's New Zealand flax and my lavender and salvias.

I know, more sedums and succulents.

I've never had anyone attempt to use the decorative birdhouses.

Simple clay pots and interesting textural plants. 

This is in part my Plant Nursery.  I over-wintered the ones in the back row, but they aren't terribly happy. Here they can recover or ...not.

I counted 230 pots on the Back Patio!  Again I water using a hose and a wand attachment so it goes pretty quickly and easily.  

Finally our mudroom flowerbed.  Lots of salvias, agastaches, and cone-flowers - all of which are pretty deer proof.  The lilies in the back did get munched. I have a couple of annual vines too. Most everything came through our hard, hard winter without missing a beat. 

And I'm not the only one who gets carried away with pots of plants.  My sister starts all her dahlias in one gallon pots so while she prepares garden, mowing and tilling and the like, the plants are growing.  She then sets them out in her garden when they are 4"-6" tall.  If my math is correct she has a new record this year of 278!   

One year ago today Mom and I visited far too many French chateaux in one day!