You smell mah-velous!

Let's talk a walk around the garden and see what's going on.  The rabbits have yanked out and chewed up every marigold, zinnia, and salvia that I've planted this year.  I've even RE-tried planting some of those...nope.  No good.  I've found they're ignoring the small dahlias I bought and planted out in the same exposed area, so I need to make notes about what can go out there next year.

Here's the second climbing rose I put in - it went in last fall, on the opposite side of the garden arch as the rose I'd put in the year before.  This one smells great!

I decided to try planting honeysuckle as climbers in a couple areas - they're perennial, and I thought the hummingbirds were supposed to love them.  So far I haven't seen a single hummingbird checking them out, but now that the blooms are really coming on, they sure are pretty.  I have this in place to help block the view of the AC, gas, etc on the side of the house (at least from the street view).

Here's the same Stargazer lily spotlit in an earlier post - note the bumblebee really getting down in there.  The rabbits have stripped off the leaves of most of my lilies this year, so they're just scrawny stalks that aren't getting enough sunlight.  This one, however, they ignored - perhaps just because of where it is in the landscaping?  These flowers are huge, and smell great!

Close up of the volunteer sunflower - don't you feel like this could just light up a room?

I forget what these purple guys are - they might be some sort of salvia?  They're not lavender, and I don't think they're catmint.  There's also geraniums (some overwintered in a box from last year), vinca and dianthus, plus the new Meyer lemon orange tree in a pot, and some elephant ears gifted to me from one of Brett's coworkers.  I'll have to remember to dig up those elephant ear bulbs at the end of the season!

I don't know if these plants have all been ignored by the rabbits because of location (close to the house, behind the fence), or if I've finally been doing a better job of picking out plants the rabbits don't like.  I'll have to uproot all the geraniums this fall, toss them in a box, and let them just sit down in the basement over winter - that's worked great the last two years - I'd say at least 50% were putting out green sprouts from those dried up husks this spring, still in their box, no water for months.  This time around I should remember to go give them an occasional spritzing.