CANTINA GARDEN: SUMMER SUPER TROUPERS

Shortly after I posted those pictures of my porch pots, bragging about how nicely they were filling in, the deer came through and had a feast.  Not only did they chow down on all my newly planted veggies, they pretty much razed all my pots, even the ones right next to the front door, which they usually don't mess with.  Since we were fixin' to leave the country for a couple of weeks, and by the time we got back we'd be approaching triple digits, I didn't see any point in replanting.  I figured I'd just have to put up with an almost empty garden until fall, but there were a few surprises in store for me -- so many, in fact, that I will have to divide the photos up amongst at least three posts!  We'll start with a few things that the deer and the blazing heat just haven't seemed to bother this year.

I've never had a bougainvillea basket do this well -- and with no feeding, trimming, or any special care.  It had barely finished its first round of blooms when it launched into this second, even more prolific one!

The two new grasses I tried out this year are doing well, especially the striped one called Gold Band, which should winter over.  The second one had a lot more of the rosey pinks and magentas when I bought it, but has now faded to the colors of it's relative, purple fountain grass.  Sorry I don't have the proper names to give you for most of my new things, but all of the tags I had saved got lost in the shuffle of remodeling and taking off for foreign lands.

These succulents are doing well too.  The deer did a little bit of nibbling on the top one back in spring, mostly just the blooms, but haven't bothered it lately, or the second one (some call it Cow's Tongue) at all.  Not sure if it's because they don't like them, or because they're in a spot that's more difficult to reach.

Of course, there are others that I didn't photograph, such as rosemary, Texas Sage, salvia greggii, Russian Sage, muhly grass, boxwood, barberry, and the yuccas (deer love the yucca's bloom stalks, but never bother the plant itself), but these have been some of my more unusual bullet-proof stars this summer.  Next up?  Plants that took a licking, but kept on ticking!