Time Flies!

6/13/15

Brunnera and grape hyacinths in the backyard garden.

     Where did spring go with its grape hyacinths, brunnera, and flowering dogwood trees?  It has been so busy in our household for the past six weeks, that I haven't had time to blog, much less appreciate what was happening in the garden.

     The flowers on so many plants and bushes have come and gone.  I would notice and quickly photograph each blooming, and then all would promptly be forgotten in the swirl of activity in the household. 

The Japanese iris blooms swiftly came and went.

As did the blossoms on the sweet woodruff.

And on the rhododendron bush.

          The following photos show what is blooming now in the yard.

Pink astilbe

Midnight salvia

Digitalis

Lavendar

Oriental fountain grass Karley Rose

          I've had some deer damage in the side yard garden on plants the deer did not touch last year and on seedlings that I planted a few weeks ago that had just pushed through the soil.  There are several other plants that are just about ready to bloom that will be in my next post. We had an unusually cool first week of June here, with one day not getting above 58 degrees.  We were tempted to turn the heat on one night when it was in the high 40's.  And this past week has been 90 or above almost every day.  It's fine with me if it stays hot from now on after the bitter and prolonged winter we had.

Been Waiting For This

5/4/14

tulip garden

     The warm weather finally arrived with May.  It has been on the cool side, with one day at the end of April where the high temperature was 49 degrees!  That is the day the flooding rains (five inches!) arrived.  We had no flooding in our neighborhood, but many streets in the area were flooded for several hours.  But the first of May, the air changed it seemed to me.  And the bitterness of the cold spring disappeared.  The sun suddenly seemed like a summer sun instead of a weak, lukewarm spring sun.  I had to get out the sunglasses and sun lotion and take the winter blankets off the beds.  Hooray!  I long for and live for this time of the year.  The trees are just coming into leaf.  But my tulip garden is in full bloom.  Here are photos of what else is blooming.

The beautiful Brunnera macrophylla plants have all bloomed.  I love their color and lacy look.

The hostas and asiatic lilies broke through the soil about a week ago and now look how big they are.

Sweet woodruff just flowered.  I have three patches of it at the edge of the backyard garden.

The azalea bush at the front of the house burst into bloom a day ago.

I planted pink whopper begonias and alyssum snow crystals along the front of the house.  The whopper begonias are very showy.  Their blossoms are two inches across when they reach their final height.

I put in some petunias and marigolds in the center of the side yard garden.  The perennials are coming up around them.

     I also planted annuals in my deck railing pots and my large tub pots on the deck.  I will show some photos of these and all the perennials that are coming up in the back and side yard gardens in another post.

The Backyard Garden Evolves

6/23/13 

backyard garden November 2012

     




     This is a photo of the backyard garden taken when we bought the house at the end of November.  There was nothing in the garden but two rose bushes. 

April 2013

 
     I threw some daffodils into the garden in December so there would be some color in the spring.

June 2013

                                      This is a photo of the garden today.

hostas

               The first plants I bought in the spring for the garden were hostas.

hostas planted

                               Here are what the hostas look like now.

hardy begonias

                   The next plants to go in the garden were hardy begonias.

Japanese anemones

                                      I added some Japanese anemones.

annuals

                 For a quick splash of color, I put in some petunias, new guinea impatiens and alyssum.

boxwoods and nandinas

     Dividing the backyard garden are five boxwood and three nandina bushes which were here when we bought the house.  Some of the boxwoods will be transplanted to other areas of the yard eventually.  Among the bushes I planted a ghost fern, some sweet woodruff and primula.  These were given to me by a gardening friend.




ghost fern

 

sweet woodruff

primula

tulips

     On the other side of the bushes there is a pink dogwood tree under which I planted tulips in the spring.

begonias

      Now a mix of red, white and pink begonias occupies the space where the tulips were.  This garden is still a work in progress.  More plants will be added in the future.