The Beauty Before the Storm ⛈️ October Front Garden Tour!

Welcome, gardeners! Join me for my October Front Garden Tour today! My annuals are still in bloom, the late season perennials and shrubs and still going strong, and everything is looking beautiful for just a bit longer! Hopefully things will hold up even after this big storm coming later today! 🌧️ Enjoy!

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[Music] Hi everyone, Janie here. Welcome back to my garden and welcome to my October front garden tour. As you all know, every month I do a front garden tour and a back garden tour. Not only to show you all the progress, but to document the progress that I have made in the garden monthtomonth. And it’s always a big uh pickme up. It makes me feel so much better when I go through and I really look at all the work that I’ve done. Now, today we have a giant rainstorm. We’ve had a little bit of rain so far this year, but this is this is really the beginning of raining rainy season. It’s a little early for us. I usually don’t think of rainy season starting until after Halloween. Uh, but we have almost 2 in coming in the next 24 hours and it’s starting in just a couple hours. And I can see the storm clouds starting to creep over. Uh so I wanted to make sure I got a view, a video of the garden in October because really it’s still looking really, really gorgeous even as we come to the end of the season. So first I want to show you all my bird feeders. What a huge success these bird feeders have been. I am so so excited about them. I decided to add a whole bunch of bird feeders to my garden to attract more birds to my garden along with a fountain. I don’t know if you can see the birds in the fountain right now. I’m trying not to get too close. Oh my goodness, you guys. It has been such a success. Look at all the finches on the finch feeder. Look at that. Isn’t that amazing? And so I want to get more because it is just so wonderful seeing them in the garden. I look out the window and I see them every morning and it’s just so so great. So, I want to get bird houses. I want to get more bird feeders all throughout the garden. It they do go through the seed very, very quickly. And so, I’ve already decided to make a bird feeding wagon. So, Jason and I, we have made a uh irrigation wagon where we’ve put all our irrigation supplies into one wagon and whenever we need it, we just wheel that wagon out. And I’ve decided that I’m going to make a bird feeding wagon. So I could take out all the seeds and refill them kind of as needed. Um because it’s definitely needed. I can show you this finch feeder over here. I just noticed this morning it is completely empty. So I ended up getting these socks. These are these are Niger bird feeders. I ended up getting these socks at the store cuz I couldn’t find a Niger bird feeder or Ner. I I never pronounced that right. Um, but I want to re I did find one on Amazon that they’re on right now and I’m going to get another one of these because they obviously love it so much. So, the birds have been such a huge success. It’s brought me so much joy. I love love love having birds in the garden. It’s so nice and I want to definitely add more. Just to the right there, this is what Jason and I just did yesterday. But we moved this arch over here because we are going to be making a desire path or we’re going to be creating a pathway on that desire path right here because I always find myself traversing through the garden bed to get out here. And we are going to extend the gravel decomposed granite gravel pathway along with the metal edging kind of this way. So, I have to transplant all these plants here, and that is something that I want to get done uh this fall and winter. I had a couple of you in that uh gu in that um video yesterday say that you thought that flag stone pathway would be better, would look nicer, and I totally agree. I think that that would be really pretty, but I wouldn’t be able to take my wagon over the flagstone pathway. So, we have decided that we are going to use the same pathway, and we’re just going to extend it out here. So, that should be coming soon. I have to show you guys. This is my lemon tree. This is a Eureka lemon tree. I decided to go with Eureka lemon. And normally lemon trees like this, they don’t start producing until maybe the third or fourth year. And I’m only in my first or second year. And look at what I saw this morning. Look at that. Isn’t that exciting? My very first lemon. And it looks like a good one. It looks like it’s going to be a good one. So, this lemon tree is obviously happy. It’s going to be in a great spot. Um I I do have to kind of limb it up, but I’m waiting for all of that because I’m going to be planting underneath it. Oh, I’m just so happy to see my first lemons. Really, really exciting. Definitely early. I’m not expecting much more than one lemon from it. Um but really, really fun. Now, let me take you guys over this way. This is something that I worked on this past month, and that is transplanting all these hookra. All this hookra used to be in my secret garden and I transplanted it out here and it’s just starting to come back. I um uh took all the foliage off so that hopefully it could root in. It’s looking pretty good right now. But right behind it I have this beautiful pot that unfortunately got broken, but benefit of the broken pot, I could plant succulents in it. And I am in love with this. I Sorry about the sun. I think this looks so good. I am so happy with it. I think it is going to be such a beautiful addition in this area with the bird feeders and the gazebo behind it. I just think it is absolutely gorgeous. Very, very happy with that. I’m also really happy with this area right here. I think I have finally figured out the exact plants that I want to leave in this spot underneath the star jasmine espalier. And that is platinum beauty landra and this auga right here. Is it mahogany? I’m pretty sure it’s mahogany adjuga. I am in love with this and I don’t know what my problem was. I had got it in my mind that I didn’t like adjuga. I didn’t like how it looked. I wasn’t happy with it. I remember telling my mom that I didn’t like it. I am so in love with this plant, you guys. I want more. Like I absolutely want more. I’m thinking about propagating it. I just think it is the prettiest prettiest ground cover right here. Especially up against this platinum beauty lantra. And I just think it looks so good with the star jasmine espalier. This guy is going nuts. Look at this. It’s going nuts. And I’m gonna start training it up and over that pergola right there so that the star jasmine can cover the pergola which will match the star jasmine that I have on the other side of the pergola. I’ll show you all that in a little bit. But I just have to say I am so happy with this planting here. I have tried a couple other things in this spot and I didn’t really like it. And now I can finally say, “Okay, these are the right plants for the right place.” And I’m super super happy with it. So, coming over here, my front porch isn’t looking so good. Um, I moved the pots from the front porch because I moved the trees over to uh the secret garden, and I moved the pots over to either side of the gazebo. So, I have to redo my front porch. Just last night, I was looking at new lights because I need new lights. So, I was just I was um shopping for those trying I think I found what I want. Well, I should say I think I found what I want over here. I’m not totally sure what I want for the hanging m yet. So, I’m still looking for that. And then here’s the zigzag planter in October. And it’s still looking really good. It is absolutely taken over by the sweet potato vine. I am not I am not going to be planting sweet potato vine in the zigzag planter anymore. It’s just too much, right? And I could have come in here and I could have cut it back. Um, but I just wanted to see what would happen if I didn’t cut it back. And this is what happened when I didn’t cut it back. It is. I mean, it is taking over. It is so funny. So, I have uh Superunia tiara pink underneath all the sweet potato vine. Well, it’s probably not there anymore. And I have to say, I do like the pink better than the green. I mean, the green is a look. It is a certain look. Um, but I just can’t believe how much it grew cuz it started so small and I thought the tiara pink smothered the sweet potato vine, but as soon as it got heat, it kind of just kind of just took off. So anyway, it still looks pretty. Uh, behind it, I have the totem pole grasses that are coming into their own right now. They are looking so beautiful. I love having grasses in the zigzag planter and I will be leaving these totem pole grasses and um throughout next season. I’m planting the next year’s zigzag planter with these totem pole grasses planning to stay here so that they get their maximum sixoot size. I think that they’re so pretty. They’re such a pretty kind of silvery blue color. Really gorgeous. So, we are still fertilizing on a weekly basis right now. And Jason and I have decided that we’re going to continue fertilizing until there is absolutely no point to fertilize anymore cuz we just want to see we just want to see what’s going to happen. I always stop fertilizing in early October and then end up pulling my plants in like November or something like that. I want to see how far I can push my my annuals this year and what will happen if I just continue keep taking care of them. We don’t get freezes here and we really don’t get hard frost. We only get light frost. So, I just kind of want to see what happens. Now, at a certain point, I will have to take all these out because I will be wanting to plant bulbs and I haven’t quite decided what I’m going to plant. whether I’m going to plant daffodils again or tulips. Um, but eventually I’ll have to take all this out, so I won’t be leaving it all in past probably early December or something like that. Um, but I’ll I’m going to continue the zigzag planter for basically as long as I can. So anyway, I think it looks pretty good and the sweet potato vine is looking absolutely fantastic. Um, so I have these two pots right here on either side of the gazebo that I planted up for fall. They look really good. They’re starting to grow. I’m a little worried how they’re going to do with the two inches of rain, but we’ll kind of just see kind of just see how it is. Um, and then I wanted to show you guys the the meadow over Look at how good this meadow is looking. Isn’t this looking beautiful? Oh my gosh, it’s exactly what I imagined I wanted it to look. I grew this meadow from seed. I bought a pack of seed. I think a 5B pack of seed. It’s native California native nommo. uh meadow seed and it is stunning. It is just so beautiful. I am absolutely in love with it. I did sew some California poppies in here, so hopefully those guys will poke through. Um I don’t see anything yet, but it’s kind of too early for it. Um the weeds are getting better. You can see I still have weeds here. They’re getting better because it’s getting thicker. But that is one thing about growing this no mo meadow is that weeds were definitely an issue and we had to come out and we had to weed it pretty consistently to make sure that the grass would grow um would grow well enough. The other issue is we were we don’t have sprinklers here. We were just using like an oscillating sprinkler from Hoseel Link right there and it was kind of well it wasn’t kind of it was really overspraying into this area. And so you can see my lion’s tail completely overwatered and it’s flopped and this poor thing. I feel really bad for it. I really should move it uh to a place where it’s not going to get as much water, but it’s just so pretty here, you guys. I just cannot get over it. So, I removed the drip irrigation to it, and I’m hoping that since we’re not establishing the meadow, I’m hoping next year it’ll it’ll um handle it a little bit better. But I’m just absolutely loving this plant. I planted this for my October blooming garden last year. Look, you can see the bee on it. And it it’s just a rock star. What a beautiful, beautiful plant except for the flopping. And that’s my fault cuz I over watered it. Okay, as I’m walking through the dry creek bed, I wanted to show off my mangave. I feel like I never show off my mangave. I kind of just pass right by it. But I have to say, I’m really enjoying it. I really like it. I have one mangave over in my long border. I’ll show you in a little bit. But I’m just really liking these little groupings of mangave because kind of like the succulents uh in the broken pot over there. It just gives a different texture, like a textural contrast to some of the other softer stuff. I think I definitely lean heavily and really enjoy the softer stuff in my garden and the annuals and the flowers and all that kind of stuff, but it’s really really nice to have some of this um like interest, right? And that’s what the mangave does is it gives really really good interest uh and contrast. Another thing I wanted to show you that I am in love with and it’s looking so good is my star of madiraa echium. Look at that. Isn’t that just beautiful and it’s going to get bigger and bigger and next year it should bloom. Let me show you a picture of what the blooms look like. I am in love with this plant. I I think it looks so pretty and I am really happy with the spot that I planted it in. I wish all these purple, beautiful purple annuals, Super Tunia Bordeaux, Super Tunia Royal Velvet, Superbena Storm Cloud. Um, the Euphoria should should overwinter. But I am going to have to replace these next year. But I am just Oh, I’m just loving it so much. I just think it’s really, really pretty. As do I think the rising sun red bud is really pretty. I mean, look how beautiful this is. Oh, everything just looks so good. Okay, so coming this way, I just recently planted blonde ambition grass over here. I think that looks really gorgeous. And it’s again another textural contrast to to other things that I have in this spot, like the leaves of my little gem magnolia that’s been so pretty. I have so many buds on here. They’re about to go crazy. Oh, here’s a little bloom right here. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the 2 in of rain that’s coming to this tree, but it’s really exciting. It’s so funny. Jason and I were just talking this morning. These trees have been in for a year, so we technically can take off some of these um stakes, which I don’t know, that makes me nervous. But you’re only supposed to leave stakes on for a year. So, we’re we’re going to go through and we’re probably going to remove some of the stakes for these trees. This guy This guy has been a pain. I we cannot get it to stand up straight. Um, so this gu is going to have to keep the the stakes on there, but that’s okay. We’ll we’ll figure it out. Um, coming over here, I have more just beautiful, beautiful annuals that again, I’m going to leave and I am trying I’m trying to get them to stay for as long as they possibly can because I just think that they look absolutely beautiful. And then more mangave over here by Monty. My big beautiful red fountain grass. Oh, it’s just looking. I just have to say it’s looking great, you guys. And it it’s probably not going to look great as of tomorrow after we get 2 in, but right now it’s looking really good. So, just yesterday, I also transplanted these uh kioa sunset gold breath of heavens. They look so beautiful underneath my El Nino chapa. And look at how tall my El Nino chapa is. I think it’s reached 10 feet. I think it’s at 10 feet now. I just think it is so so pretty. I love this plant. I know it’s a tough plant because it’s really great for my climate which is really hot and really dry. So, just know that if you’re humid or if you’re cooler, might not be the right plant for you. But for those of you who have the same climate that I have, this is this is just a great great plant. So, I did the breath of heaven underneath it. I did Helen vonstein lambs here. I have pugster um pugster blue budlia right here. And then I have the variegated orange bambino bugenia that is so beautiful and I’m planting another one the red version of these hopefully next week. It’s I am just loving this plant. I’m just loving it. I think it’s gorgeous. It’s like I don’t have to touch it. I don’t have to do anything with it and I get this beautiful orange color. It’s just gorgeous. So every month I plant plants that um are blooming for my blooming garden. and I try and plant something that’s going to be blooming that particular month so that I have something blooming all season long. And I just wanted to say to you all, if you’re looking for an October blooming garden plant, this one, Temple of Seven Suns, Temple of Bloom, Seven Suns flower, it is so gorgeous. It’s not technically blooming. It already bloomed, but this is the month that gets these beautiful rosy pink bracks. And I know I’ve showed this to you guys a million times. I just cannot get over how beautiful it is and it just glows in the sun. It is just so so pretty. So, perfect plant for a blooming garden. I would definitely say another plant that I planted for my blooming garden is this bottle brush right here. This pink bottle brush. It’s on its second flush of blooms. Isn’t that beautiful? Especially with the plain the blue salvia behind it. Isn’t that gorgeous? So things are definitely blooming this time of year and it’s definitely looking really really good. And then you can see my Niagara Falls panacum are just they’re just stunning. They’re just gorgeous. And I’m going to be leaving those up all winter long for winter interest. And you know, I love the grasses, but the winter interest on these on these grasses like like I love the grass when it’s um you know, during the summer and stuff, but I think the seed the dried seed heads or flowers on this grass is so much more special, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. So, the you plant this grass for winter interest for sure. It is absolutely absolutely stunning. I love it. And then, if you guys have noticed, my hands are a little ripped up, and that is because of that guy. I uh had a lime tree here, and it died. And I got it in my head that I could cut it down myself, chop it down. It was fun, you know, to start off with, but then, of course, I started hurting my hands. But I did get it chopped up and I’m going to be planting a new lime tree. But now that I have that down, I am looking at some of the placement that I did in this area. And I think I want to take the opportunity to kind of move some things around a little bit. Like I have this Miss Molly butterfly bush that I should never have put right there because it’s right in front of my hose. So I think that guy needs to move. I think the white pillar rose of Sharon behind there. I think that’s getting too much shade. I think that needs to move. I think my plumbago right here is in a good spot. Um I think that’ll be fine. But there’s just some things that I just kind of want to move around a little bit here. So I’ll be moving those. And then of course planting another lime tree as well. And then coming around here into the orchard garden. It is looking really, really good. I have black mondo grass underneath the fig tree that’s looking really beautiful. My salvia lucantha, my white salvia lucantha is coming into its own. This is another plant that’s really really good for an October blooming garden. Really just gorgeous. Um my Helen Bonstein lambs. The I you guys look how look do you do you see how long this plant has been blooming for? I think it started blooming in June. This is my uh chicklet orange uh um chocolate orange tacoma. Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to say. I’m sorry. I just noticed there’s a goat over there listening to me. Um chocolate orange tacoma. This is another just like El Nino. Another fantastic fantastic plant. It is such a good plant and once it starts blooming midsummer I would say it just keeps going. It is absolutely non-stop and then with the denim and lace Russian sage in front of it. What a fabulous combination. I am so so happy with it. One spot in my garden that is not looking really great is my lavender river right here. And we are having I don’t want to say it’s watering issues. I think it’s drainage issues that we’re dealing with. We have really poor drainage over there, which is why I planted that hibiscus right there, the summer habiscus. I didn’t think we had those drainage issues right here in this area. But we obviously do because obviously the lavender got too much water. Even these guy, the vinka are getting too much water. And you can see there’s water kind of in the pathway. So Jason and I have to fix this. And sadly, I don’t know if the lavender river is going to work in this spot, which is such a bummer cuz my idea was to have this kind of swath of lavender and then plant it on either sides with the vinka. And it’s looking good in some places, but other places it’s just like I just cannot get the watering right. And you can see I just kind of gave up at a certain point because there was just nothing I could do. So, I’m going to pull this out. I’m going to try and figure out what the drainage is go, you know, what’s happening with the drainage. Um, and the watering it’s it’s hard because we get so hot and dry here that we have to water, but it, you know, in some places it’s too much because the drainage in in certain areas sucks. It’s watering is a really tough thing, especially if you have drainage issues. So, if you have the same issues I have, I totally feel for you. So, this guy is going to have to be changed, replaced, I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. Um, but it’s definitely not working as well as I wanted it to work. Another area that I think I’m going to change is this area back here. I have this orange thriia and plain the blue salvia which is really pretty. But I think what would be even prettier back here is if I did like a little beastro set and could come and sit here in the shade. And I think that this is the area like we were talking about doing flag stone pathway over through the through the archway right there. I think this is the area I want to do the flag stone pathway. just flag stone stepping stones over here into a little beastro set in the shade so that when um I’m working out in the garden and it’s really hot and I just want to go sit somewhere really fast, I can kind of sit in this area. So, I think I’m going to do that this fall as well. So, I haven’t done anything yet with my trial garden. I do want to grab a couple bulbs though, like um what are they called? I think they’re called fertilaria. I want to try some really interesting bulbs in here. So I think I am going to uh get some of those and plant some of those. Then coming over here to the long border, I wanted to show off my Dalia. These are vibrant ver no vibrant violet. Oh gosh, you Why can I not say the name of this plant? Vibrant violet virtuoso dalas. There we go. They are looking really really beautiful. If you want late season color, go with these dalas. They’re not like regular dalia. Like you can see I have a regular dalia coming up right there. They’re not like those where you get like a couple of them. These are like bush dollas if that makes sense, right? Really, really beautiful. And I love this color. I just go I love this color. Now this area right here, this needs to be completely reworked. Right. We were having watering issues. We fixed the watering issues now, but all these plants had died. And so this whole corner I’m going to completely change um probably this fall as well and kind of play with it a little bit. The other tough thing about this corner is this is hands down the worst soil that I have in my garden. And I do want to test the soil cuz I have a feeling that who you know when they were doing construction or something like that they poured some concrete in here. So I think it might be a little acidic for a lot of these plants. Um so I’m going to have to figure this area out. But this area has been really, really bugging me lately. So, I definitely need to put some time and focus and energy on this area. The rest of my long border is looking absolutely gorgeous. I love it. I think it’s so beautiful. Oh, look at this cyprress. Isn’t that just I just love it. I’m so happy with it. And then, let’s see. Coming down this way. I just moved the arch that was right here over to the orchard garden. And I am going to be transplanting these two Eden climbing roses. So that’s on my list of the things I have to do. Oh, I wanted to show you the mangave over here. Isn’t that pretty? I love having that mangave here with all the other stuff. I’m really sorry about the rooster. Like this rooster is insane. He is so loud and he makes it. It’s like from 4:00 in the morning he starts screeching like that and it is just [Laughter] Anyway, I feel like Robbie Robbie has a or Robbie had or has a rooster neighbors rooster and I’m dealing with the same issues right now. This rooster is just crazy. Anyway, so over here I have more annuals that are looking really, really pretty. They’re looking gorgeous. And then finally coming up this way, I have my fall planters that are stunning. I Oh my gosh, they’re so stunning. And I have to say, as much as I don’t like the sweet potato vine in the zigzag planter, I love the sweet potato vine in these stock tanks. I think that they look so pretty. Oh, I got to come and dead head this. Pretend like you didn’t see that. Um I love them in the stock tanks cuz I think that they look so pretty. I do have to figure out what to do with the drainage behind here. Somebody made a really good suggestion in putting wood chips over here so you can’t see the the drainage. And I think that that’s probably what we need to do because this is this just doesn’t look very good. But these guys look great. All right, so that’s my garden for October. Isn’t it looking really good? I mean, for October, it’s looking really really beautiful. I have a feeling this is kind of the last front garden tour that it’s going to be looking this pretty and then the cool weather is going to set in. I mean, this rainstorm that we have later today is definitely going to do some damage to the garden, but at least I can really enjoy it for how it looks right now. So, I am going to go get the rest of the stuff rain ready. Those of us who live in dry areas, we get no rain during the summer and then all of a sudden rainy season starts and it’s like it’s like you have to completely change everything. So, Jason and I are kind of running around this morning kind of picking everything up that shouldn’t be out in the rain. So, I’m off to do that now. But I hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you all have a chance to get in your garden today. [Music]