Some Garden Photos

This won't be much of a blog - just a few images to indicate the state of the garden. First however I want you to see why I can not ever get anything accomplished! This is the table where I try to work.

He knows how to be sure to keep me from accessing my books, my knitting and the television remote!

The "front yard" has a red and white garden (which has been invaded by orange flowers.)  It has been blooming beautifully over the last few weeks!

 

There are some very large stunningly beautiful orange lilies that I will probably never move out of the garden because they do so well there (and the deer are too shy to bother them there.)

 

There are daylilies and daisies interspersed with the actual lilies. 

 

In the back yard the meadow colors have begun to shift from the pinks of the early season to the yellows of composite flowers.

 

The new garden where the oak stump used to be has been doing nicely (except the deer ate the phlox that are supposed to be in the middle of the garden for a focal point.)

This garden, based on a garden I saw in a magazine, has never satisfied me. It got overgrown, so I weeded it and transplanted some of the pinks that had become overgrown with grass so that they are more central in the garden, but it still doesn't look so good to me. Maybe it will grow into a better looking garden with a little time (?)

 

The wood chips help a bit, but it is shady and just doesn't quite look groomed.

I got 24 of those mini-solar lights and put them around the drive. The area is so large that there is no good vantage point to photograph them all.

Finally the shot of the day is this little face off between a grosbeak and a woodpecker. At least they got there before the squirrels did!

Red and White Garden

There was a moment when the red and white garden actually seemed to be worthy of its name. It wasn't a floriferous abundance of scarlet and ivory, but there were blossoms and some were red and some were white.

Of course it is also full of weeds again, sigh, but the gardener has had the last ten years off.

I have to add one more picture of my beautiful calla lilies. Soon it will be time to dig them up and bring them in for the winter, but they certainly look nice next to this particular day lily!



Tomorrow I leave for my annual knitting conference. I can't wait!

Cheaper Than Heroin

But twice the fun! Well, MAYBE cheaper than heroin. I'm a little afraid to add it all up.  I'm actually starting to wonder if I have a little problem. My sister has been suggesting there might be a twelve step program somewhere I need to join.  I didn't buy any plants today, not really. Well, actually, I did buy a little one - well no, not a little one - but only one, so it doesn't count, right? (And yeah, I actually did go to a nursery - but I left EMPTY HANDED!! (Come to think of it I went to two nurseries today, but I bought mulch and concrete pavers at the second one and I only got that one teeny, tiny, little ten gallon hibiscus plant - OKAY!! It was a TREE( but.... it was on sale. )

So all that steely will power should count for something, after all, bushes and conifers were 40% off! So I was very temperate today  ... except ... sigh, I also got some plants I ordered in the mail, so I guess I'll start tomorrow over at day one.

But yes, there has been more progress in the garden. With the pavers I began to encircle the new raised circular bed. I think this garden is turning out pretty nicely.



It (Garden R on the Plan) definitely looks better with the edge around it, although as you can see I don't have enough pavers for the second row, so (GASP) I'm going to have to go back to the Garden Center. (I know you think I intentionally bought an insufficient quantity just so I could once again descend into the den of iniquity, but I honestly had no idea how many pavers I would need to complete the circle. I forgot to get batteries anyway, so I'll pick some up along with whatever trees and bushes manage to jump into my cart next time around.)

I also spent a bit of time weeding the second level of the Tier garden (Garden G). It had begun to look pretty wild and although I didn't do a terribly thorough job, I pulled out most of the grass and some of the strawberries that had jumped from the upper (3rd) level. You'll scoff, I know, when I say I didn't have enough plants to fill this tier, but I did do a fairly good job of scrounging. I transplanted some daisies from the front yard and some purple phlox that had somehow rudely shown up in the red and white garden.There's just no such thing as an exclusive club anymore, is there?

 

There were a few balsam plants that had reseeded from last year and I was able to move some of those over and then all 8 remaining annuals from my big spree went in the front area to try and add some color.  I swiped a little bit of lamb's ear from the woodland garden and will hope that these smaller specimens will fill in a bit by next year. (I also set a couple of pots of annuals in the bed to give a little height and to try and fill the void.) It isn't perfect, but it looks quite a bit better (and customer appreciation day is coming up at my local nursery, so there is always hope for a new supply of recruits!)

There were some day lilies left over from better years and as you see from this side shot the addition of mulch makes it look like a real garden. (Notice I cut off the right side of the picture where the untouched wild strawberries prowl.)

I have to admit, I think I am powerless. Grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change! Do you think I should make a list of all the plants I've harmed? I am perfectly willing to make amendments to the soil. Gosh, I'd better get back over to that nursery right away!

State of the Garden

The day lilies are really starting to look good.

The callas are coming into their own and



all is right in the garden.

Berry Good Garden

 So with all he rain we have been getting the berries are taking over. My front garden has turned into a berry patch and as much as I would like to reclaim it for the flowers, I can't see turning down good food!



It has been dry for about 10 days, so I finally had to water the side garden in the east where I planted the new trees. There is not much change here, but the annuals are sparkling things up a bit.



The other newer garden is also doing well. After they installed the geo-thermal system, this bed had to be completely redone (as they dug the area up to remove the oil tank). Of course what happened was a lot of misplaced plants ended up in this bed including four day lilies of unknown colors. It seems they are orange and red (at least thus far.)

Eventually I'll probably try to unify the colors a bit. There are some Icelandic poppies at the bottom left corner along with some marigolds and they match the day lilies nicely. I'm once again optimistic that maybe the poppies will reseed and return in a new season, but of course this has never yet happened (despite my repeated attempts to encourage them to settle in for the long term). I do very much enjoy these perky little plants (even though some of the flowers are orange!) There are cosmos  that reseeded from last year and their purplish pink will probably not go well with the brighter warm reds of the day lilies and other flowers.

The tier garden is erupting into blossom. More day lilies and the variegated false sun flower that return annually are looking good.

The front garden (that has been invaded by the berries) has been bisected by the berry bushes. The part nearer the house has some nice lilies blooming. (These are safer from the deer than lilies that are farther from the house, but sometimes I still have casualties.)

The red is yet another attempt at growing roses up here. I refuse to "tip" them in the winter, but really miss the beautiful roses we used to have in Texas. Wild roses do well, but I long for floribunda and hybrid roses, so I have bought yet one more patent rose that is reputedly appropriate for our environment. This one is idealistically named Hope for Humanity. It is gorgeous and has a sweet aroma.

Best of all it has multiple layers of petals.

So that is the current state of the garden. I leave you with another shot at hope for humanity!

Earthly Garden Delights

One of the advantages of having had such frequent rains is that the flowers are very happy this year.  Although I am at best a failed gardener. (Any beds that were already here I have managed to destroy, by not knowing what to keep and what to weed.) The attempts at smaller projects have been more successful. I planted this row of hostas, iris and day lilies along the west side of the drive.

Of course I failed to think about the fact that all the flowers are spiky and that I needed some other interest in the row, but still I have a veritable  firework display of flowers in mid to late july. (Maybe I'm secretly French and just have to have a Bastille day celebration.)

Each year I have to have at least one picture of a peeper in a flower.

This day lily looks quite nice with the wild yarrow that grows  nearby.

Unfortunately these lilies are the same color as our shed, but it does make a nice monochrome photo with shadows.

THis is the row of lilies and hostas along the west side of the drive way.  I've tried to break up the lines a bit by adding dusty miller and gazanias, but the predominant line is still up and spiky.

The day lilies seem to always face west and the dusty millers and gazanias are on the east side, so you can never see them all at the same time!