Late Summer Blooms

There are still quite a few things blooming in the gardens. The weather has been hot and humid with little rain the last month, so many of the usual plants are looking rather parched. We don't water our gardens much preferring for the plants to develop good deep roots, which generally hold them well enough through these dry spells.

The Sedum is pretty close to it's full bloom.

This miniature rose is doing well and has been blooming most of the summer.

The variegated Butterfly Bush is in full bloom right now. At one point today, I saw three Monarch butterflies enjoying the flowers.

Another miniature rose. I love how this blossom hasn't completely opened yet.

We will still have a few weeks before the first frost and the perennial garden will continue to provide color well into the fall.

Early June Blooms

Make a Smilebox slideshow

A Few Blooms From Our Gardens

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Late April Blooms in the Garden

I took these photos throughout the week last week. The garden is starting to green up nicely. I am so relieved to have spring upon us.

Finally Some Spring

Friday finally brought us a bit of warmer weather...still a bit chilly, but nicer (Don't let the children fool you with their short-sleeved shirts...it was still cool.).

Brian dragged the grill out of the garage and we had our first grilling of the season. Nothing says spring like the smell of the bbq.

The children enjoyed all sorts of activities from riding their bikes and playing in the sandbox and with the chalkboard to exploring the woods and finding a cache of old bottles. Some looked quite old and I confiscated these for myself!

Brian, Bess and I did some garden work. We raked off the house perennial garden and cut back all the dead stalks. This of course should probably have been done in the fall, but winter seemed to come upon us quite quickly last year.

There are a few things blooming or close to blooming in the garden. Each year it is so encouraging to see how much of the garden is indeed coming back. With our severe weather, one is never quite sure what to expect.

A few things in the Garden

This is as very nice Buddleia called "Santana". I love the variegated leaves.

The Naked Ladies have bloomed. This plant is very interesting in that the leaves come up in the spring, die back and then the flowers come up on long stems in the late summer. I often don't even notice them until the flowers open.

We had a nice crop of plums on one of our plum trees this summer. Not a ton, maybe 20 or so, but they were very sweet. We are hoping to start a small orchard next summer and add more fruit trees and bushes.

Last Phase of Arbor Garden

We finished up the last part of the arbor garden (at least we think it is the last step).

This involved removing all the sod from in front of the fence and amending the soil a bit. I'm not sure what will be planted here next year, but this fall, I am planting lots of spring bulbs.

Come springtime, this area will be washed in color.

We have enjoyed a wonderful bounty from our garden this summer. Our main goal was to get the new garden built and plant a few things. We have been so pleased with how much produce we have gotten. Next year should be even better.

One of our all time favorite summer crop is corn on the cob and we had a good crop this year.

Yummmmy!

We planted one heritage variety that Brian got from a friend at work. He apparently grows a lot of heritage plants. The corn plants were at least ten feet tall.

I'll be posting more pictures from our garden soon.

In and Around the Garden

Here are a few blooms, bugs and birds from the yard and garden.

This and That in the Garden

Here is the after picture of the fence and arbor freshly painted. I really loved how this came out. I am going to plant annuals in front of the fence as this area gets a beating in the winter with the snowblowing.

Brian put the new trellis up on the back of the garage. This area is a new garden and has plenty of room for new plants, a gardeners dream. I planted two Clematis vines in front of the new trellis.

Centaurea macrocephala
Gaillardia "Fanfare"
Hollyhock