Pale yellow hollyhocks...

Such a lovely colour and no rust...yet?

thankfully not yet! ...we are getting rain so it won't be long. I have a very tall peachy coloured one up by the transfer bed that is nearly ten feet tall and not a spot of rust because the creeping jenny has formed a thick mat underneath it. no splashing of soil so no rust! Yay! I love it when nature works.

Now creeping jenny i too have in abundance n use as groundcover, lovely little plant and so easy to curb when needed, good idea for rust prevention, will remember. (hopefully)
I used bindweed to get my steep slopes planted up in france, keep the soil fr falling down, n to create some sort of miniclimate as nothing but nothing i cld get to grow. Admittedly it was a desperation measure but...it worked AND managed to get rid of most of it when no longer needed!

Truly, you must have been quite desperate to tangle with bindweed! You were very lucky indeed. It is trying to establish itself in the meadow and I'm trying to resist. Used the weed whipper to remove some but I get sandblasted at the same time...not good. I'm hopeful that I can encourage other plants to set up in that area...but it seems that nature knows who lives best and encourages them no matter what I want. One good thing about this summer is the mild temps and moisture...the alfalfa in the meadow is lush and the deer are keeping it trimmed for me. Will cut it down in early August so that there is a nice succulent growth for the young animals in the autumn when their other food sources are dying down.

Apart from the deer, what else will be feeding of your alfalfa?
My philosophy behind using bindweed was that it was such concrete hard n dry soil, not even bindweed would grow if not lovingly tended, and that is saying something about the quality of the soil on those banks! After my plants were established i hacked all traces out n made sure i didnt water those areas, and they obligingly died! As i said, desperation measures.