While my neighbours have the typical huge American "yards" (compared to the equally stereotypical British garden) consisting of manicured lawns and large flower beds, I have two buildings on my lot so the opportunities for horticultural expression become a bit more constrained.

I took the lesson from when I lived in Aldershot; the area given over for flowering things here is only a couple feet wide following along the edge of the concrete in front of the workshop. Following that example, I built a rose-arch for a wisteria that has grown there now for twenty years, the iron fencing the Morning Glory climbs all over, and several bishop's-crooks for her to hang pots of flowers on. Some large earthen pots on the ground add more opportunities. The whole inspired by the memory of the efficient use of what area was available in my old haunt.

In the springtime she does the bed and the collection of large pots up with various plantings bought when she and several of her friends go for a shop at the local garden centres. The hanging baskets are next, traditionally bought as Mother's Day gifts. Then, the tidy array starts filling in as my Morning Glory starts in.

By end-of-July its one big mass of colour pretty much through October until the first frost causes it to go brown (and most importantly go to seed). She then redoes the pots and bed with autumn flowers (another trip to the garden centre), choosing reds and yellows to actually make the brown background of the vines look good as they start dropping seeds for next year's return.

In mid to late November the seeding is pretty well done and I'll finally pull the old vines down to the ground and we wait 'til Spring.