Today we’re visiting Brandy’s garden.
I garden in Zone 9b in the sunny state of Florida. Gardening is my favorite hobby. If I am not in my garden I’m visiting gardens, watching garden television, or teaching others how to garden.
This has been the most challenging and fun year, as I am currently changing all my beds out. We gained a lot of shade in the last ten years. I’m quickly learning what will work and what will not. I’m mostly planting perennials and shrubs that provide interest at different times of the year. My favorite plants are the ones that slowly multiply, because they help me fill in my garden’s nooks and crannies.
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium, Zones 3–9) has to be one of the most adaptable plants out there, thriving in the coldest of gardens and all the way down in Florida. The clusters of flowers are favorites of a wide range of pollinators as well.
White cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus, annual) is welcome in any garden. Here it is mingling with tomato foliage.
In a container, the unusual blooms of a bottlebrush plant (Callistemon, Zones 9–11) make a beautiful centerpiece.
Brandy is a great vegetable grower, as evidenced by this colorful harvest of beets.
I love the way this white osteospermum (Osteospermum hybrid, usually grown as an annual) echoes the white variegation on the shrub behind it.
Pink roses and hydrangeas bloom behind a cloud of yellow daisies.
Bigleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla, Zones 5–11) are popular in gardens in many different climates and are always beautiful.
Shrimp plant (Justica brandegeeana, Zones 9–11) makes showy clusters of reddish bracts for an unusual and long-lasting display. More-northern gardeners may know this as a houseplant.
And speaking of things I’m used to seeing grown as houseplants, check out this enormous philodendron! I think it is the split-leaf philodendron, Philodendron bipinnatifidum.
If you want to see more of Brandy’s garden, check out her Instagram: @easylivinggardens
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