Garden.. what garden??

Okay, so I never actually did get any pictures of my patio garden on here ths summer. Wanna know why that is? It's cause my plants did fare out so well this year. It was my first year doing a little garden and I was super excited.

I spent a good deal of money buying some beautiful pots - I managed to find a couple glazed ones in the perfect shade of robin's egg blue ( 1 big one and 2 little ones) to go along with the 2 little black urn shaped ones I had.

Then I picked up the following: 1 silvery-blue juniper evergreen shrub, 1 tiger lily (which was in bloom right away and then yielded no new blooms :(; also a rose bush that unfortunately never bloomed, a hybrid sunflower (that died after the first week since it got a little cold, some beautiful little pink and raspberry flowers (both hanging pot and little table pot did well and still have a couple blooms each) in the black urns I combined a pansies with dark and light peach gerbera daisies (still getting new gerbs), and in little pots I did combos of pansies and azaleas/impatients that are there, but looking a little weak.

My mom also brought over little pots featuring: a lily that has yet to get a bud, some weird branchy thing that also ended up being filled with violas to liven the pot up!!, last week two pots with what should be Irises and one pot with this beautiful, tall pink flower from her garden that is about to die :(

What on earth?? Why are my plants not doing so well? We are east facing so I know they get scorched in the morning/early afternoon, so I think that has alot to do with it. I water them plenty and am always weeding and dead-heading them!! Unfortunately, my patio does not look as beautiful as some across the alleyway from me. Those ladies filled planters with cheaper beddng plants, mixing so many different colors of geraniums and marigolds, and petunias (all which I hate cause they smell funny). Their pots are so sunny and bright, while mine looks like shit.

Oh well, now I have a couple of perennials that will come with me to any new location we end up. Plus, I know that next year, I should spend the majority of my money on shrubs and tons of cheap bedding annuals, that will afford me bright flowers that last the entire summer.