Thursday, May 24, 2018

Bountiful

As mentioned briefly in yesterday's posts, I did manage to the main thing on my vacation to-do list; the gardens.

Though I have a small property (maybe 25-30ft wide by maybe 60ft deep, with a townhouse smack dab in the middle of it), over the last five years, I've managed to cram a lot of gardens into that small space. I have nine garden spaces in total (the Butterfly Garden, the Butterfly Expansion Garden, the Big Bee Garden, the Little Bee Garden, the Berry Garden, the side Garden, the Front Garden, the Tree Garden and the Sidewalk garden), and they all needed to be weeded, top-soiled, and mulched.
It took me two long afternoons to tackle it all, but I managed it and I couldn't be more pleased

Weeding probably took the longest, but it was adding fresh topsoil and mulch that was the hardest part. I probably should have done it all a few weeks earlier when the plants were smaller, but oh well - it's done now and I just love how the mulch looks.
This pic shows the Little Bee garden (foreground) Butterfly and Butterfly  Expansion Gardens, (back and middle) and a bit of the Berry Garden (right). They have to most colour so far because they get the most sun. I also added a few marigolds and snapdragons to perk things up until the blooms really start coming.
The Big Bee Garden, also in the back yard, won't see blooms until mid-june. Then the daisies go crazy.  Soon after the Blue Delphinium and Purple Bachelor Buttons will bloom, followed by the Cupid's Dart, Echinacea, and Black Eyed Susans which last until Fall.
Out front, the Sidewalk Garden, still has some filling out to do. It's the newest garden (dug last year), so it's going to take a bit to catch up to the rest. This year it go a couple new Stonecrops and some Hens and Chicks at the bottom edge, but it's also got Tickseed, Coneflower, Speedwell, Columbine, Pincushion plant, a few Dianthans, Liatis and a couple roses (cream and pale yellow). Sadly, the Cardinal Flower did not pull though, but we'll start seeing real blooms in this garden in the nest month or so.
The front garden is a bit of a mix - the back half of it was well established (I put in orange daylilies the year we moved in), but I expanded it last year, nearly doubling the size. Now it has pink, peach, burgundy, purple, red and yellow daylilies as well as the orange. This year it got and Astible for the shady corner, and has a mishmash of other plants including Campanula, Dianthans and my favorite little Toad Lilies (though they don't bloom until Fall).  Come July, this will be spectacular with all those daylilies in bloom.
Last but not least* the side garden. It's another mixed bag, but a good chunk is Lily-of-the-Valley and the Black Irisies. Both have really multipliedand are putting on a good show this year. But there are Asiatic Lilies too for summer blooms, as well as a Speedwell and a little bit of Bee Balm. And Sedum for fall. But the thing I'm really excited about are the peonies. They will FINALLY bloom this year.

So that's it for the over all picture - here's a close up of some of the newest developments
 My red Iris has bloomed.
 My Oriental Wedding Poppy is finally going to bloom.
 I am not 100%, but while the Peach Dalmatian Foxglove died, I think it might have re-seeded itself. These little guys started popping up in the general vicinity, so I'm going to give them a chance and see what happens. I'll know pretty soon if it is Foxglove. If has a very distinctive leaf.
 The chives are really blooming too. I don't know why, but love chive flowers.
 My strawberry plants died off over the winter, so  I got some new ones and these one have pink flowers!
And back from the dead is the Butterfly Bush. I had given up on it and had shovel in hand to dig it up, and just as pused the end of the spade in, I noticed this little bit of green right at the base of the bush. I've read that in colder climates, they die right back, so maybe our early spring cold snap made her have to work a little harder this year. I'm glad she's still going. She really is a butterfly magnet.
 And the lilacs  are just starting to open. I love how the buds are purple, but the flower in full bloom is pure white. It adds such dimension.
And FINALLY, after three years of waiting, my Shaker's Prayer Siberian Iris has bloomed. Isn't it so pretty? And there are more blooms coming!

*I didn't show you the tree garden (though you can see a bit of it in the Sidewalk Garden picture) - it's very low maintenance, full of creeping sedums. I'll take pictures when the mini-gnomes take up residence for the summer again.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my ..........that last flower is STUNNING.

We mulched our front flower bed today and bought two hydrangeas (blue, so far), two purple petunias and an ivory petunia. Photos soon.

Araignee said...

Everything is so neat and tidy! And those blooms are gorgeous. I do love irises.

Delighted Hands said...

I love to see the gardens in your yard; it is just beautiful to see the different irises, too! You not only excel in growing the flowers, your care of them and photography is spot on!

Tired Teacher said...

Oooh, that red bearded Iris is gorgeous! Every one of those gardens will be bursting with color this summer, Enjoy

Eastside Cats said...

I see you've placed rocks as your garden edge...I like this idea! Now to convince The Hubby that we need rocks...

Judy S. said...

Love that red iris! I've never seen one like that or the Siberian one. Isn't it crazy how well and fast the weeds grow? Your gardens are awesome.

Seajaes said...

You need to get Relic a bell so bun bun can hear him coming.

pdxknitterati/MicheleLB said...

You pack a lot of pretty things into your gardens! Really lovely, especially that iris.