Me thinks Ellie is looking for some "afternoon delight"!!

Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink!!


"Ellie C" wrote in message
...
I have a stone terrace in front of my house and I had a garden bed
constructed there. It's a stone "bed" about 2 feet high, 8 feet long and
three feet deep. I filled it with mostly sand and stone - and bits of
broken terra cotta tiles, which are everywhere here - and then put about 6
inches of bagged planting soil on top of that. This bed gets a tiny bit of
morning sun, then shade through most of the day and then a brutal session
of hot afternoon sun.

This year I planted geraniums, fuchsias and impatiens, and also put in
some nastutium seeds. THe geraniums seem very happy. The the impatiens
that get the least amount of sun are very happy, those that get more sun
in the afternoon are dramatically unhappy, and I've positioned a beach
umbrella to shade them through the worst of the hot sun. The fuchsias are
in pots and I ended up moving them from this garden because they wilted so
dramatically - it also gets hot in this garden, which has high walls on
all sides. The nasturtiums are strange - they have put out leaves that
will soon take over the whole yard, but have just started producing a few
flowers in the last week or so.

So now I'm trying to figure out what to plan for next year. The geraniums
are happy, but I'd like to have something to give a bit of variety, and
I'd rather not have to be worrying about an umbrella to shade the
impatiens at the end of the garden. Any ideas?

Also, last winter I planted pansies in this bed and they didn't flower at
all until late in the spring because the garden gets almost no sun through
the winter. (I'm in the South of France, where the winters are mild.) Any
ideas for something to give some color to the winter garden?

Thanks!