Putting the garden to sleep

I like to keep the garden all disheveled for Halloween; add an unkempt flavor to the decorations. Right after Halloween, we had a frost, and all the tender plants died. It was time to cut everything back for the winter.

Here are the front beds trimmed down.






I looked online for tips on how to trim the buddleia and hibiscus.
Everything said that they were happy to take a hard pruning. Given that they had grown from nothing to huge over the summer, I figured down low was the best strategy.
We will see next year how that played out.

The other two things that I pruned down low with uncertainty were the society garlic (I think is what it is) and the Del Oro lilly.

Those garlics are driving me NUTS! they make tiny seeds, and last year I let them go to seed, so we have zillions of little garlics like unwanted hair all over the beds. I contemplate taking the poison to them. See the mess on the wood edging? that's garlic.

Anyway... this is probably the end of 2012 gardening.

Next year I hope that we have a more predictable season.

My new addition plans include:
Hollyhocks
Lavendar
and maybe a Jasmine

we will see...