I was really feeling sorry for you having to leave your previous garden until I saw your present plant list! Wow, you have a lot that has survived the heat of summer. Beautiful stuff. Great informative article. I'll be coming to get some of your plants one of these days (probably under cover of darkness).

Great point! Build on success.

>> I began to find quite a few plants that were virtually uneaten or at least had the appearance of being mostly whole

You reminded me of something I stumbled into out of necessity, not really through design. I moved to the Pacific coast of WA and started gardening 3-4 years ago. Here, slugs eat almost everything I plant. Often, right down to the gorund, overnight.

Then some pretty, small white flowers survived, from a seed mix, and I didn't know what they were. Finally, I realized that slugs can't like them, so i looked for lists of slug-proof plants, and quickly found that they most be Alyssum.

Siberian Wallflowers became center stage in one bed the smae way: by surviving!

Thank you for reminding me that this is not just necessity, it's smart!

And thanks for helping the plants make it sink into my thick head: do what works!

After trying for years to grow what looks pretty on a seed packet, I'm going to rememebr to grow something that CAN live in my yard!

Why is it that simple things are hard to learn?

Tee, you have a wonderful attitude and a lot of gardener determination! That is one of the prettiest Persian Shield I've ever seen and the variegated plant (??I can't recall it's name) it gorgeous!

I loved reading about your new adventure and would like to share this with you:

Every story has an end ... but in life, every end has a new beginning

It's kind of my slogan for the season I am in right now.

Tee your article really touch me. It was so well written that it made me feel what you must have been feeling.
I loved your wonderful photos of your dog day summer plants. Now I must go out tomorrow morning and look around my garden.
Thank you so much for an uplifting/encouraging article.

Thank you for the kind comments. I thought the same thing when I looked at that list. Then when I look at the yard, I wonder where it all is?? Looks so sparse compared to my last one. (Maybe Sandi was here??) But I really am enjoying the challenge of a new climate zone ... most of the time. What I don't enjoy is all the roots from 45 year old trees. Sheesh. So what plants actually do thrive when planted in tree roots?

Rick Corey, I appreciated the "pretty on a seed packet" comment. Hardest gardening lesson to learn for me was that pictures seldom translate into my garden. Just doesn't seem to look quite the same, does it? I should probably just plant the seed packets. BTW, my Siberian Wallflowers quickly went pfffft this year.

So true, Becky. So true.

Lynn, my photography isn't professional, but I do enjoy seeing what people have in their yards. Yours appears to be beautiful, I must say.

Tee, I can soooo relate to your story, as you may know I too had to give up my gardens in AZ and start over here in Colorado. What a change! But, like you, I am learning as I go. Isn't life grand... and BTW, learning helps keep us young! p.s. I have to say that most times I am encouraged by how most things want to live! Sometimes it just takes me figuring out what it needs...

That's so true, Brenda. It doesn't even have to be moving across country or to another state. Sometimes it's a local move that forces us to give up a beloved garden.

Isn't it wonderful that things do try to help us along by wanting to live. ♥ I need all the help I can get.

Wonderful story Tee

It reminds me of the saying back in the 70's was it?? Bloom Where You Are Planted

Yes, I remember that one. I just read a wonderful quote in the current edition of Country Living:

A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest ... wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his image.
~ Joan Didion

I think I get that.

Oh, I love that....

Thanks, Tee. I always save my seed packets, so that, after the slugs eat all the seedlings, i can still look and tell myself what it WOULD have looked like.

>> BTW, my Siberian Wallflowers quickly went pfffft this year

Wow! Those are almost the only thing that comes back and spreads whether I want it or not. Every climate and soil has its own favorite plants.

OK, and English Ivy.

And those four kinds of ever-invasive weeds.

I was surprised at the Wallflowers too, but we've had a scorching and dry summer. And I think they also got shaded out by other things.

What a great, uplifting story, Tee!

Here is a tip I'll be submitting to Trish that might work for you, if you're having problems gardening under trees: Buy several bags of potting soil and position them to your liking under the tree. Slit holes in the bags for the plants. Plant them and then cover the whole thing with mulch. Nobody will ever know!

Larry, that is a fantastic tip! Why didn't I think of it? I'm going to do it asap. I really didn't want any more pots right now so your tip should work perfectly for my situation here. Thank you.

Absolutely great tip, Larry!!!
Wow. And duh. Why didn't i think of that?

I live in a southeastern coastal community with many new retirees relocating to the area. At our local Master Gardeners booth at the Farmers Market, the most commonly asked questions always begin with "We have just moved here from ____, just fill in the blank, and we don't know what grows here." I love your idea for making a list. I usually suggest people drive around their neighborhood and note what is doing well and the conditions under which it is growing.

I love Larry's suggestion too but I would add - be sure to keep those bags a good 3' from the trunk of your older trees, you don't want to cover the root flare.

Smacking hand on forehead! What a GREAT idea!

Thanks, Alice, I'll keep that in mind.

Me too, Vicki. I've even planted things directly in bags of soil so I have no excuse. Why I never thought of covering them with something like mulch ... well, now I will.

Brilliant, Larry!

Thanks, all. I forgot to add that you do need to make some drainage holes in the bottoms of the bags.