Around The Garden

We have had such terribly wet weather I am not sure it is worth going around my garden, but we'll give it a go.

The Pagoda Dogwood is beautiful again this year.  It did not bloom for the first five years and then I pruned it severely after the cicadas hit and it shocked it into glorious bloom.

Up close it is amazing!

I had Dianthus Firewitch on the south side of my home and it was not doing well.  It is supposed to take heat and drought but I guess this was too much for it.  Last fall I moved it into a back garden area and look what happened, it loves the new location!

Geranium Magnificum

I brought this geranium from my last home and it has not bloomed in six years.  I moved it last fall to a sunnier location and voila, it is blooming!

Geranium Karmina

I also brought this one with me when I moved and it has been very fussy until I found out what it wanted.  No cutting back in the spring, just neaten up after flowering or it cuts down on flower production, not much fertilizer or you just get leaves.  This is going to be its best year.

Geranium Max Frei

This is a very low growing mounding geranium, not fussy, seems to bloom no matter what.

Rockfoil

This is the plant I bought at Home Depot in early spring.  The rabbits were eating large chunks of it until I put down the granular Plantskydd.  I have four of them and the eaten ones are coming back, but what is notable is that it is non-stop blooming.

Zinnia Zahara Highlight

I grew these from seed and have not seen them in the nurseries in my area.  They are a luminescent yellow very striking!

Silver Tidal Wave Petunia

I grew this one from seed, can grow to two feet high and two feet wide, border or trailing.

This is also Silver Tidal Wave, goes through a range of orchid tinted hues.

Hosta Undulata

Hosta Thunderbolt

Astilbe Maggie Daley and Ghost Fern

Ninebark Summer Wine

I replaced the Rhrus Aromatica with three of the ninebarks by Proven Winners.  I love the dark leaves and they are ready to bloom.

Weigela Dark Horse

I put two of these in last fall in the front garden when I took out the roses.

The Veggie Garden

The lettuce loves it but the warmer season vegetables are on hold, can't even see my tomato plants in the backgrouund.

Art In The Garden

I know I wrote a post on this about a year ago, but I feel it is important to revisit this area of gardening once again. 

I said I would never put a gazing ball in my garden, but when I saw this one at Home Goods, I thought this color was perfect for a subtle effect.

I have metal artwork all along the north side of my home.  It is narrow but interesting!

Plantings are a work of art and may be enough for you, but I view my garden as an extension of my home and try to enhance it as I would a room that is indoors.  My lot is small but I have approximately four outdoor rooms.

A rusted iron bench sits in the back garden.  I actually have sat here and contemplated what I am going to do next.

This is a cedar bench on that hot south side of my home, tropical plantings and raised bed.  I do not sit here too often because of the heat.

As you can see, this is not a bench for me, the children have taken this over with my Irish pots in the background.

Seating can be merely whimsical, does not actually have to be used to create an atmosphere.

I have to constantly remind myself not to overdo all of the decor in the garden, some seating, some obelisks. trellises, fence hangings, statuary and those things we don't know how to categorize.

Like a toad house!  I receive many garden gifts from my family and I just have to find a place for them in the garden.

An obelisk can just be a work of art, does not have to support a vine.

This obelisk is in the middle of a very full garden, has a smaller clematis growing on it.

This is an old metal indoor plant stand that I bought at an antique sale, does just fine outdoors with Betty Corning clematis.

Many of us purchase trellises to hold our vines but how often do we think of the fact that the trellis will not even show once the vine has become full grown.  Sometimes you can avert this problem by purchasing a much taller trellis or a trellis that has fancy work protruding out of the sides.

This is a very tall trellis and the top is never fully covered to that pretty scroll work shows all season.

A smaller iron trellis where the scroll work peeks out on the sides

Along the fence I like trellises that blend into the background, wired two narrow ones together to form a large enough support for Duchess Of Albany.

Of course nothing would be more inviting than having some decor on the patio!



I may get rid of those daisies, don't really go with my look!

My front garden is much more formal, decor absent except for this weathered concrete birdbath.

A Week To Remember

I can't recall a week when so many things seemed to be going on at one time.  It began last Saturday when I volunteered for the University of Illinois Extension at a demonstration farm where the food grown is donated to a local food pantry.

While I share my saga I am going to show you a few things that are in bloom in my garden.

Allium Purple Sensation has deepened in color each day with the cooler weather.

Heucherella Stoplight

I love the airy blooms on this one and it really pops in the garden.

Well, I am certainly not like I used to be out in the misting rain, temps in the high forties and just garden gloves for my hands.  We were doing square foot plantings with both plants and seeds.  Three and one half hours later I was like a frozen speciman of a person.  It took hours to get rid of the shivers and the tingling in my hands only to begin cleaning my house for the fifty-six people who showed up for my Garden Study Group that I was hosting on Monday.

Dicentra Spectablis Alba

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Saturday and Sunday the temperatures dipped into the high thirties with thirty to forty mile per hour winds.  By the time I looked outside some of my more tender annuals had been beat into submission.  In the meantime, my computer also crashed and I didn't have it hooked up to a back-up drive (I thought because it was fairly new I didn't need one - wrong).  On Monday morning I was outside with my Felco pruners cutting away all of the shriveled leaves.

Halcyon Blue Hosta

At one time the Bleeding Heart was the same height as the hosta.

Impatiens Wild Thing

This is one of the plants I began under lights, only eight out of the twenty-five seeds germinated.  I heard from many of you that this is not uncommon with impatiens.

The Garden Club presentation on Body Fitness was like a checklist of all the things I didn't do but wish I did.

Hosta Unknown Name

I purchased this last year to go out in front under my Chanticleer Pear but it began to burn up even with light sun so I moved it to the back garden where it is shaded by many other plantings.  August Moon Hosta which is also a lighter green will take some sun so I put that one in it's place out front.

Pulmonaria Raspberry Splash

Green Sheen Pachysandra

Variegated Solomon's Seal

Hosta Paul's Glory

Hosta Patriot

We got through everything, new computer, with back up drive attached (they are as small as a wallet now).  Everyone loved the garden, put in a few replacement plants today, completed the baskets and containers, mossed most of the containers and am now sitting with an ice pack on my back!

Sanvitalia

This one is supposed to do well in heat with minimum water requirements.  I am using it in my hayracks on the little garden shed.

I think it will do well with Verbena Imagination and Zahara Zinnia Highlight which I started from seed (not blooming yet).

Azalea Karen

I like how the flowers have become lighter inside as they age.

Hydrangea Let's Dance Starlight

I planted three of these last year in blue, color determined by soil or fertilizer.  I hope they will end up looking the same or it is going to be a little strange with pink on one side of the walk and blue on the other!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Something Borrowed, Something Blue

I think I am aware of every bone, muscle and joint in my whole body!  I am hosting my Garden Study Group on Monday and believe it or not, the presentation is on Body Fitness for Gardening.  I would say it comes a little late for me as I need to know what to do to repair a broken body.

I am loving the view on both sides of my home with beautiful foliage and flowers.  Even though we are in the suburbs our lots are urban in size and we love to share the spectacular flowering trees and flowers.

I believe this is a Crabapple but I am not positive, just lovely!

This is an old lilac on the other side of my home.  Both of my neighbors own 100 plus year old homes.

I usually do my own containers but every so often I see one that I cannot pass up because of the plants and they are a good deal price wise.

I bought this container at Home Depot a Proven Winners design for $16.98. I counted the number of plants and couldn't pass it up for the price.

The containers should look like they are beginning to bloom but not like the middle of summer.  So many containers are overgrown in the spring and you will spend the summer cutting back or replacing.

This one was also a Proven Winners design and full with many plants for $22.98 at Home Depot, again a good deal for the number of plantings and just beginning to fill out.

Allium Purple Sensation

Azalea Karen

Blooms later than the Rhodies, leaves stay on all year and one of the hardiest

Something blue, Intensia Blueberry Hill, just beginning to put together my containers and hope to show them to you very soon!