Lots Of Growing Going On

6/1/14

side yard garden

     During the week that I was gone visiting family in Las Vegas, Nevada, my gardens were filling in nicely.  My side yard garden seemed to have a growth spurt.  It gets the most sun of any of my gardens.  The purple-blue "midnight" salvia is the star of the garden right now. In front of the salvia are the annuals I planted, yellow marigolds and pink petunias. Following are some photos of other growth that is occurring in my side yard garden.







   

coneflower

     While the coneflower plants are still growing and are  not yet at normal height, I found a small bloom beneath them all.

Japanese iris

    
     Here is one of the blooms on the Japanese iris.

oriental fountain grass

     The oriental fountain grass "Karley Rose" is finally greening up.

digitalis

     I can't wait to see the blooms on the digitalis plants.  A friend gave me three of these last fall.

butterfly bush

     My butterfly bush was damaged by the brutally cold winter.  It has a lot of dead branches, but new growth is coming up from the bottom.

zinnias

     I planted these zinnia seeds at least three weeks ago.   They have been very slow to grow because of the very cool May weather.

lavender

     The lavender is just about to burst into bloom.

     There is lots of growing going on in my electric garden and in my backyard garden which I will tell you about in another post.  Also in a future post I will show you photos of a very spectacular park we visited while in Nevada.

Zinnias and More

8/19/13

zinnias

     The zinnias I planted from seed have finally started blooming!  I am so glad I planted them on June 2, even though it was a late planting.

cosmos

     The cosmos in the back yard that I planted at the same time as the zinnias are coming along.  One bud is just appearing on the tallest stem.

hardy begonias

Japanese anemones

     Also in the back yard garden, my fall flowers, hardy begonias and Japanese anemones have started blooming.

lavender

     The lavender is in full bloom in the side garden.

marigolds

     The bees just love the marigolds.

reseeded marigolds

     When I cut some of the spent blooms off the marigolds, I threw some of them on the ground in the empty spaces in the garden.  The seeds took root and now more marigold plants are coming up.

tiger swallowtail

spicebush swallowtail

     In the last two weeks I have noticed more butterflies in the garden.  We have had such cloudy, cool, fall-like weather in the last week.  Temperatures did not get out of the 70's during the day, and at night went down in the 50's.  I want summer back for a few more weeks.

Side Garden Makeover

6/2/13

fallen tree 

     Last weekend it was so cool we had to turn the heat on, and now this weekend we are having a heat wave of 90 degree days.  The heavy rain and winds from the thunderstorm that passed through our area last Monday caused one of the trees that line the back yard to fall.  Tomorrow it will be cleared away.

     For the last two weeks I have busy planning and putting in a new side yard garden. 

side yard gardens

     This is what the side yard looked like in mid-April.  Each of the three raised beds had only one rose bush in them when we bought the house the end of November last year.  I planted the daffodils at that time.

bed edges removed

     Two weeks ago my husband removed the boards that defined the three raised beds.  They look like railroad ties.  They had huge spikes through them because they were two boards thick.  It was a big job getting them out of the ground.  He had to use a chain saw, a pry bar, and some other tool he rented to get them out.

new side garden

     I combined all three beds into one, with the rose bushes defining the left, right, and back edges of the new garden.  The grass my husband cut out between the raised beds we used as sod to bring in the edges of the former beds to the rose bushes.  I added a few plants and mulched over the whole garden.  Here are photos of the plants I added.

veronica

black-eyed Susans

coneflower

white daisies

Japanese anemone and Siberian iris

buddleia bush

lavender

plants waiting to go in the garden

     The next post will feature photos of the second round of plants pictured above that were planted in the new garden.  The last three weeks I have been in full planting mode not only on this side garden, but the back yard garden and along the front of the house.  I wanted to get most of the plants in before the cicadas arrived, but it seems our area is on the edge of the infestation and will be spared.