My Garden

I did it! I took photos of my plants - each year I puzzle over what goes where and how and when. This year I planted some duds and some glorious ones! I will remember!

In the front yard:This flower bed was my Mother's Day gift from Forrest and Earlene. I remember digging out the gravel and dumping in the dirt, arranging the border rocks and the beginning of rain that sent them off in the old pick-up. They labor their love for us - we feel it strongly!! I love the dark pink Cosmos - seeds did NOT take (only one survivor), but the flat worked. I love the Cleome - in white here (and pink in back-yard bed). Layered perfectly with Cosmos and Purple Salvia perennial on outsides and Cleome in middle. Buttercups are just red foliage now - they'll all travel to the driveway hillside next spring to do their perfect buttery blooming. Russian Sage looked cool a couple weeks ago with the bright purple onion blooms - I've started cutting them off since they are all seed now. Next spring will have to take the bulb pictures - they are a wild crew of bloomers - I rearranged a bit after they were tired early this summer, I hope they survived.

First veggies are trying to grow along the new deck-length beds. A few snapdragons and only-leafy yellow daylillies (can't see) frame the front rock-steps. Health-kick (2) and Colonial make 3 tomato plants tied to the railing. Then pole beans and one surviving Cardinal Climber vining Crocosima which will eventually bloom all over. The zinnias and sunflowers failed this year along the rest of the deck - I planted about a billion seeds. Try again next year.

New efforts along the side:
We tried to rescue the sinking side of our house with more dirt and good plants. Thank you, Mom, for these grasses! Sedgegrass and Bee Balm in front of the heat pump. Giant Peonie to be divided and scooted this fall (for the rest of the "more dirt" plan). Borrowed from the prolific antique mum to fill in by the antennae "trellis" since hollyhocks didn't take. Trying for a redbud or a lilac to fill in there late this fall or in the spring. Along the deck, orange daylillies from the profusion on our hill, Rudebeckia is hanging on (in dryest clay) and another pretty grass called ____ from Mom. Hmm, where are all the blooms here?! Need some fertilizer and some weeding. But there are gems. Lots of daylillies and sedum. Phlox in pink, hot pink and white. Rudebeckia. 2 nameless groundcovers. Loved the pink Vinca annuals. Love the purple irises.

And in the back yard where Mom and Dad toiled and scraped, there is blooming!! And here is a close up:Snapdragons are definitely coming back next year. The hostas are happy I found them some shade beneath the peach tree (which is loaded yet again - such a faithful tree). The Cleome are scraggly, struggling so. Don't know why - since they did so well in the front yard. Maybe I'll move them to the back stoop that looks so sorrowful this year. Never doing violas again - they are wimps, see:

But there are some hopeful phlox here along the back, and others (a "hibernating" columbine - might it re-seed from early June's blooms, now d-e-a-d beneath the mulch?). The purple blooms with the we-will-survive green growth are another gift from dear Mom - but nameless, I just can't remember.And here are favorite: that viny guy is cardinal climber and he is POKY this year - maybe we'll get some red blooms and some hummingbird visitors. Last year's hit, we're still hoping it'll thrive sometime before frost this year. And of course these perennials are planted too close, yes mom, they are. But I really thought that yellow guy (name?) was dead when the forget-me-not was so vigorous in that very spot! And the purple guy (name?) is so determined to keep blooming I just can't bear to dead-head - it's a buzzing inferno of mini-bees all day.