Work completed

As all of you know from reading my previous post, I took a vacation from work so I could spend it working in my garden. Here are the results. I completed all but one of the projects, despite the tremendous amount of rain we had for the last four days. (Just my luck that this time the weatherman was right when he predicted rainy days!)

The flowerbed in the front garden turned out differently from what I had first pictured in my mind but I am happy with the finished product. The palm in the center is a date palm and it came all the way from New Jersey, a gift from my cousin. In the rest of the bed I planted two ground orchids, a couple of red star cordyline, and a crown of thorns and fire bush bromeliads from my back yard.

I also created a small flowerbed to fill in between the two larger ones, a perfect place to put my wheelbarrow planter in which I planted blue daze, finishing the look by addding marigolds in the ground around it.
I am starting over with my coleuses. I planted new plants this year after pulling out most of the old ones. In my zone 10b, coleuses can thrive for years but after awhile, they get too big and break easily and, therefore, need replacement. To give the bed more color, I also added a couple of dracaenas.

My vegetable garden is ready for planting. I am waiting for cooler weather and for my local nursery to bring in a good selection of seedlings.
The birdbath looks much better with the small border, the marigolds, and sparkling clean water(shame on me for letting it get so dirty and unsightly!). I can tell that the birds like the new location out in the open, away from hiding places where the local cats could be lurking.

And finally my Zen corner. Here all I needed it to do was some cleaning and pruning. I also moved the two chairs that looked crowded, leaving just the wood bench. From this corner I can see both my back and side gardens. This is the place where I take my morning cup of coffee before going to work and where I unwind when I get home after work. So--what does everyone think of my vacation-time project?