Late June in my Garden

June is a big month for blooms in the flower garden. Above you can see some fine blossoms on a couple of new coneflowers (Echinacea) I planted out front after the big laurel bushes were removed.

 Remember my experiment to overwinter the two hibiscus plants? I cut them way back and they even had the odd flower while in their winter exile in the downstairs guest room. My plan is to have a red white and blue show on the front porch for July 4th. The white comes from a white petunia I planted in a tub a week or so back (but forgot to photograph for you) that sits against the wall of the porch. And at the bottom of the front steps I have a row of blue ageratum - well, until I can keep the rabbit from making them the main course each time they come by.

These are backed up by a volunteer white coneflower and some blue salvia.

 Out in the back garden some blue stokesia (stokes aster) are having their 15 minutes of fame along with some white yarrow.

On the deck there is the usual angst about what to do with the cherry tomato plant which has already outgrown the  8' high tomato cage and has hit the underside of the rain gutter. With the arrival of the summer sudden storm season I have already applied the tie down and chair brace system.

 Further round by the rear patio the volunteer garden is doing well with a few tomato plants and lots of dill. I planted a bunch of basil seedlings which were overgrown and lanky in the pot when I got them too late at the garden center. This season I tried to be quite ruthless in pulling out the volunteer tomato seedlings and there are now just four. I'll be interested to see how this experiment works out - as well as seeing just what type of tomato plants I get this year.

On the side garden I have this archway which has one very determined clematis plant growing on it. This is the highest it has ever grown but the result is the flowers are all on the top side and I can't even see them.

 Below the deck the astilbe are in bloom. For protection from that darn rabbit I planted one tomato plant in behind and you can see how well it is growing.

Speaking of that rabbit...to be truthful there are at least three although it has been a few weeks since I last saw even one of them. But look carefully and you can see it is still here. When planted originally this garden plot looked beautiful with yellow heliopsis, blue Russian sage and a few white coneflowers. Over the years the rabbits have taken out most all of the heliopsis (if you click on the photo I think there might be one or two remaining) and the sage has been overwhelmed but the echinacea/coneflowers really liked the spot and have been joined by some pink cousins. The yellow finches really love this garden. To the right are blue New England asters which have their bloom time in mid Fall.

The hummingbird is an avid visitor - look carefully to the right side of the feeder.

 A couple of mornings this week I was out before 7am taking a walk and saw this pair of fawns. This photo taken right here after they trailed their mother across my back garden. Oh, aren't they lovely I thought - but within an hour I found that the deer had the same thought about the petunia plants in pots on the driveway. The difference is that I did not eat the deer whereas they, yes, they ate my petunias.

The bird family that had taken up the lease on the birdhouse towards the rear have raised their family and left the premises. No more watching the constant feeding at the birdhouse while I sat at the dinner table each night.

And to close out here is a shot around dusk this evening. See how that tomato is peeking above the handrail of the deck? It is a new variety and I am hoping it will do well right there in the garden bed as I am getting weary about having to expend so much effort to tie down the plants in pots on the deck.

Hope you enjoyed the stroll around my garden!

To do this week in my garden

It seems that this garden season I am out and about visiting garden centers with much more result than planting out what I carry home. So this weekend, when I have nothing scheduled to take me away from home, I really must make progress on my "to do" list for the garden.

 This tomato suffered a series of unfortunate events including having the main stem knocked sideways and nearly severed. I know I really should have just thrown it out but it had been growing so well and already had blossoms on it. With help from a second pair of hands we took three toothpicks and created a splint on the main stem and bound it up with a tie. Now I will have to watch it carefully - so far it seems happy enough and has made more growth and even, as you can see if you peer closely, is developing fruit.

 This poor thing was purchased at the same time but is still waiting to find a permanent spot in the garden. The leaves are an unhealthy green but it has three fruit on it and is hanging in there so it has a high priority on the weekend "to do" list to get it into a better location.

 Ah yes, the gardenia. I have been hoping for a while to be able to have a white camellia in my garden. That flower was a symbol of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand and I am currently working on a quilt project based on that topic and I have chosen to use the colors adopted by the New Zealand women. But getting back to the garden subject at hand, both camellias and gardenias are apparently pretty fussy to grow in my area. While looking for a camellia I found this new type of gardenia labelled as a frost hardy one and thought I would give it a try. But finding a spot for it in the garden has proven challenging what with it needing morning sun, shelter and certain soil requirements. I have at last found a spot just next to the deck and it can hopefully get planted this weekend. Maybe it will like the spot and thrive or maybe it will be a one season wonder. But for sure it is not going to be happy staying in the pot on the driveway all summer long.

 This is the reason I have been growing tomatoes in pots on the deck for several years. Yes, I garden with deer. But this was a delightful view on Friday, mid afternoon. There was a pair of fawns frolicking and playing in the back garden. This one in particular ran back and forth outside the window leaping in the air and seeming to have a grand time before heading out to the front and across the road. I think it was looking for the other fawn; that one tended to stay near the edge of the garden and retreated into the trees in back when I went out with my camera in the hope I might be able to get a photo. I think one of these must have been the very tiny fawn I encountered in late May and talked about in a posting then so I was very happy to see them still around despite the damage deer do to the garden.

 This week the astilbe seem to be the star bloomers in my garden.

 The lace cap hydrangeas cannot seem to figure out if the soil is acid or alkaline as the flowers are a mix of blue and pink.

 Here's a general shot of a corner of the back garden. The astilbe are out here too as well as the white yarrow. And the ever present orange flag to mark where mole bait has been set out. We just cannot seem to get rid of these critters.

And a final shot to show you the enthusiastic hummingbird who arrived this week. As I stepped off the deck looking for the deer I was buzzed by a hummer. The next day my tree service people stopped by to spray certain trees for undesirable summer bugs and as this crepe myrtle tree was one of the candidates for spraying I took down the feeder temporarily. Once the spray had dried I went back out to hang the feeder and as I was standing there putting water in the ant trap the hummer came right up and hung there like a helicopter as if to say, hurry up, I need to come in for refueling. This is one bold hummer as it flys quite close even as I pass by. This is a new arrival although I have had another one coming to the feeder for several weeks now.

Well, sitting here at the keyboard is not making any progress on the "to do" list so I better post this and get on outside.

Oh, in case you don't realize, you can click on a photo and it will enlarge it so you can see the detail better - I think it is a left click.

Two Weeks in the May Garden

Truly, I have good intentions of posting more regularly. A few comments from readers would turn those intentions into more frequent posts you know!

How does this deer look to you? I happened to glance out the window in the middle of the day on the 14th and there she was grazing in my flowerbed. Wish she had eaten the weeds! A few days later I was out back and blundered into a weedy area en route to get a load of compost from my bin when I was suddenly startled by this very loud and unusual noise. It sounded as though I had stood on a dogs squeaky toy except the noise was amplified considerably - at first I was too afraid to even look at what had made the noise but once I had moved another few feet I turned to see. Lo and behold it was a very young fawn trying to scramble to it's wobbly feet and bleating with a loud sound similar to a lamb. Then I remembered that I had heard a deer in the undergrowth on my previous visit to the compost area. So I am putting two and two together here - is the deer above the mother?

 The iris bloom season was short this year despite a cool spring.

These pale lilac aquilegia (columbines) were planted in an effort to replace some lovely yellow ones which used to be in this garden. These ones are not nearly as pretty.

Volunteer pansy and violas cluster near the hose bib next to the front porch. They are seedlings from plants I had in pots on the porch a year or two ago.

 A few of the yellow aquilegia pop up here and there.

 There was much excitement on May 21st when I looked outside and saw our first hummingbird of the season. No, I was not that quick with the camera - no hummer in this photo! But I have been patiently waiting, watching and hoping since I set the feeder out at the beginning of April.

Last year I bought a peony plant at a going out of business sale. It had been in the pot a while when I bought it and I was not sure if it would make it through the winter much less bloom. But yes indeed it did reward me. I have had fun taking photos of this plant each day to record how the blossoms have come out. At peak I think I counted 8 blooms out. Such a pity the daisies are also in full bloom at the same time as it takes attention away from the peony.

This weekend I have been busy digging the heavy clay and roots in the front garden bed - this was the one that had the large laurel bushes that were taken out back in March. I wanted to loosen the soil and amend it with several barrow loads of compost before I planted out a selection of perennials. First I had to pull out many black eyed susans that have seeded all over the place and now disrupt my desired pink, white and blue color scheme. After this photo was taken I have put in some pink coneflowers, pink salvia (in front of the clematis under the frame in the corner) and blue scabiosa (pincushion flowers). Still to come will be some annuals - maybe blue salvia and ageratum or maybe I will head back to the garden center tomorrow. And then, to the right I need to add some compost and then put in a row of white echinacea (coneflowers) behind the new small bushes (boxwood and nandina) between the hollies.

It's as well it is a long weekend.

Scene in my garden yesterday

I keep meaning to post more photos from my spring garden but somehow the posting fairy never quite makes it here. Alas, those lovely photos of the later cherry blossoms and more will stay unpublished.

 The season has made a later start this year as compared to last. But here you can see that the lilac bush is fit to burst into bloom any day now. The dogwood tree is at the closeout of bloom and there is a natural confetti covering the grass in this area.

 Last year at the plant sale our small town garden club hosts each spring I purchased five lily of the valley plants that were labelled as being pink which is not the average color (white). So I have been waiting to see what they looked like. Only three have a bloom but I imagine they will take a year or two to get settled in.

The birds have been very active. This particular house has a very energetic chickadee spending days and days creating a nest. Yesterday there was so much nesting material that it was hanging outside when I took this photo but I noticed later it had all be taken and tucked inside.

The bridal veil spirea is in full bloom and living up to its name. In the foreground are a new peony in full bud and my white daisies that are in bud throughout the garden.

 The mint is in very vigorous growth and will have to be dealt with. Of course the rosemary bush on the opposite side of the walk also needs a lot of cutting back. The hummingbird feeder has been hanging there since the first week of April but I have yet to see any birds.

 On the driveway I have quite a holding area of plants in pots waiting to go into the garden. There are two different clematis and they really need planting out as this one is in bloom already.

That purple clematis is earmarked to go on this new trellis that is leaning against the front wall. But first I need to try painting that nasty white pipe to see if I can get it to disappear from obvious sight. Those liriope nearest to the walkway are from the original landscaping and I am not sure if they are going to stay in that position or not. Last weekend I bought five new bushes to fill in the space between  the two hollies at each end and they also need getting into the ground. But I'm playing dominoes here right now as before I can do any of these jobs another must be done first.

So to get the game underway I will go on out now and head to the paint shop.

Hopefully the weather will allow some painting and planting to be done this Mothers Day weekend.

Bluebell Time

Towards the end of last week was reckoned to be the peak of the native bluebell season around here so we made a quick drive to take in the sights along the riverside.

 The blue is such a pretty sight in the woods where the trees are not quite leafing out yet.

There are masses and masses of these and I guess I was feeling on "overload" as to what to photograph next as I did not really take too many shots at all.

I was on the lookout for other good looking photo potentials and with the blue sky and somewhat still day I kept  trying to find something that looked good in the late afternoon sun. In this instance I liked how those white looking tree trunks show up on the far side of the river.

 This tree right by the river obviously loses a good deal of top soil every time the river is in flood stage. And yet it keeps on standing upright.

Back in my own garden I have been rewarded this season by a number of blooms on my own bluebells. These were planted in 2011 and quickly went into hibernation that season. Last year there were only two flower stalks total among the eight plants.  This year however all of the plants have flowers on them and this is the one with the most blooms. They are still nothing like the size that they are down by the river but perhaps it is a case of giving them time to settle in. And this year the spring bloom season is quite a lot later than last year with lots of cool weather (and snow even) in March.

Maybe another river walk is called for before the season is totally over.

Why we shouldn't underestimate nature

How long is the time between winter and summer? If I start the day wearing corduroy pants at what time is it reasonable to change into shorts? Whoa, this sounds like sensationalism but really it is a true reflection of what has been happening here lately.

 I may have shown you this view (above) that was the scene on my front yard on March 25 - yes, just sixteen days ago.

 And this morning, the same view. Wow.

Overnight spring arrived. Last evening as I drove down the driveway at 6.45pm I thought "darn it, I meant to take a photo of the cherry trees this afternoon" but I had not. Tuesday morning I had carefully examined both of the trees and there was not a single flower to be had but by early evening a few buds at the very top of one tree had opened up.

 When I raised the blinds this morning it was like wow, instant springtime! The two cherry trees out front were covered in fully open blossoms.

 Volunteer pansy and viola plants are happily blooming in the most unexpected places.

 Can you believe this one? Not even 1" high - I left my mug there for scale. What is keeping it alive? This afternoon I found another similar one just in front of the black iron upright post in the background.

 Out back the rhubarb plant is rapidly growing and the periwinkle is showing it's color.  The bird baths all had to get filled up and the birds started using them right away.

 One happy chore that announces the season is open is the annual first hanging of the hummingbird feeder. I have yet to see a hummer in April when, reportedly, the first sightings are made. But, in happy anticipation, I still try to hang the feeder out in the first week of April.

The spring season is easily two weeks behind what it was last year. Daffodils, cherry blossoms, periwinkle and more are behind schedule. But then there was all that snow in March.

Another less fun chore of spring is the cleaning of the electronic air filter. That is a time consuming one since they each first have to be soaked in the cleaning solution for 30 minutes, carefully hosed off and wiped down and then set out to dry for at least two hours. Once I get done with this post I need to bring them in off the front porch and re-install them so I can turn the air conditioning back on so we can sleep tonight.

Yes, it's whoa to go. The reason for the wearing of the shorts today was that the temperature got to the mid to high 80's  with more of the same promised for tomorrow.

I'll leave you with this last image of the daffodils and periwinkle taken this morning after the lawn got the second cut of the season.

Right now, at 8.36pm the outside temperature is 83 F (28 C) and I must post this and then go and re-install the air filters.

The Easter Bunny Cometh

and other assorted seasonal trivia.

 Yes, indeed, the bunny did show up in time for Easter. Look carefully now.

 With the very cool temperatures we have been having the blooms on the plum tree have been looking good for longer than usual.

 We are always slow to eat the Easter candy in our home so I thought if I made a display I could get extra mileage out of it.

 Outside some of the spring bulbs are flowering. Oddly, for the scilla (bluebells) there are very short stems this year as if the flower buds were saying "oh, I can't wait for you stems and leaves to catch up - I'm ready to bloom now without you!".

Not that you can tell from this photo but the lawn had it's first cut of the season this morning. At 7.45am when the outside temperature was not yet above freezing. Oh well. It's only grass, it will grow back.

And on the second positive note for the day that demonstrates spring is nigh I watched as a very determined chickadee spent the afternoon going in and out of the birdhouse that only ten days ago had snow on the roof. It is indeed a desirable residence.