Along our front fence line we have a great purple wisteria plant that shades the south side of our house during the summer. It has not been cooperating with my plan for it to grow up over the top of the pergola that Mark built for me last year. Instead it is trying to take over the fence line and the rest of the neighborhood along with it. I keep trimming it back hard in the hopes that it will eventually cover the pergola like it is supposed to.
We have tons of Agapanthus growing all over our yard. I am a great believer in free plants and when Mark and I decided to landscape for our wedding we had very little money to cover a huge area. I learned how to devide and propogate plants very quickly. One huge Agapanthus I devided turned into over 50 1 gallon plants. The ones pictured above will be devided this fall. They are very hardy, drought tolerant and the cut flowers last for weeks. The one thing that I hate about them is that they are snail breeding grounds. the snails love to hide between the leaves. I have been picking them off and feeding them to my chickens. The hens just adore escargot.
In the far background of this picture you can just see the pond that we will be installing later this summer. It will be surrounded by plants and have a little seating area next to it so that we can relax and enjoy it.
That is one of the best shady areas in our garden and it is rarely used. Adding the pond and seating will create a new outdoor room for us to enjoy.