Saturday 1 August 2015

Random Pictures of the Garden for my Mom

While my Mom was visiting we would take a tour of the yard every morning, so I wanted to post some updated pictures so she could see the progress. We would start on the upper (front yard) level looking at the flowers to the left of the drive.


I've lined the drive with alternating daylilies, irises, hostas and perennial dusty millers.


In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have hostas with daylilies as they both have spikey blooms at the same time and so my bed looks a little punk!


But the deer don't sem to care for any of those plants, so the garden is dependable and a riot of color at its peak.

As you head north toward the shed, you come to the so-called red and white garden (which also seems full of yellow and orange at times).  There are not really any white daylilies so I have to make do with pale yellow. Some are less pale than others and I think I need to replace the ones pictured here with a lighter colored version.


Down the drive to the west are more daylilies, hostas and irises, sometimes mixed with dyer's daisies (isatis tinctoris).



I've also been trying to cultivate a wildflower meadow which is a lot more work than it sounds since you have to dig up the old native plants (otherwise known as weeds and sometimes not really so native - thank you German settlers for Dandelions and buckthorn) to give room to the seeds that you want to grow there. 


The wildflowers are in the far east. My dream is to be able to look out the bedroom window at seas of color. We don't have seas yet, but there are trickles!


In the eastern section of the yard there is bee balm and more (what else!) daylilies along with sundry isolated perennials (none of which are currently in bloom.)


The south part of the yard or back yard has gardens that pretty much stay the same over the summer.
The lantern garden has its impatiens and some periwinkles.



The garden where the stump used to be has coreopsis and pansies.


And the "Garden Gate" garden modelled on the magazine recommendations has not recovered from my massive weeding efforts.

 

My Lantana is however finally blooming!


Isn't this a great shot of mowing!?


My recent focus has been the "Tier garden" behind the garage. This is where we planted my Mom's garden and while her part of the garden shone forth beautifully, the weeds in the rest of the garden looked ugly and overgrown.  I've been carefully photographing around the scraggly section so you couldn't tell what a mess it was!


Here is a detail of the part without my Mom's flowers!


I pulled out most of the weeds and added chips so it looks a bit better, although is still a bit scruffy. I added a few shade plants and now things look better.


So there it is and the weather is finally starting to be a little less humid and more pleasant, so we can actually enjoy our time outside! If only the mosquitoes would go away! ;-)

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