Sometimes a little mess is good.

Our backyard is, objectively, a mess. There’s no getting around it. When we moved in, it was full of lawn, surrounded by small beds full of annuals.

Here’s the thing: I’m not a fan of annuals in large quantities (they’re lovely in seasonal pots and accent beds, I’ll admit, but I’d rather invest in shrubs and perennials — that’s a personal preference); the garden plot was as far away from the house is it could be, and covered in black plastic; and grass just doesn’t like to grow on this plot of land without significant infusions of water, fertilizer and herbicides.

So it has been — and continues to be — an education. We’ve widened the beds. We moved the garden beds so they’re closer to the back door (and water supply), and the consequence of that is that we’ve eliminated a significant chunk of lawn. We’ve expanded the patio so we have a place to sit and relax *AND* a place to eat when we’re outside. We’re converting the west side of the yard into perennial and flower beds.

In that effort, we have some help from our neighbors, who have some vining plants that take over half of the fence. There’s some Virginia Creeper, and…

*The bricks are left over from the old patio, and will be used to delineate new beds. The bare dirt is left over from patio excavation — we’ll likely put a layer of mulch over it for the winter.*

… a clematis, species unknown. We pruned all of this back — hard — early this spring. I was concerned that we had killed it off, but as you can see, that’s not an issue.

These aren’t the huge, showy clematis flowers I’m used to. They bloom in late summer. They’re small and yellow, and produce puffy seed balls.

The best thing about this clematis is that the bees ADORE it. All the bees: honey, bumble, mason, along with other pollinating insects. It’s a lovely, lovely thing.