End of Month View – June 2017

 

Some months ago I found this monthly invitational hosted by The Patient Gardener and it is a monthly chance to show off your garden. Unfortunately my garden is only worthy of show for about 6-7 months each year. I managed to get my act together and make a post to fit this monthly theme in March, but have allowed the hectic nature of life to overcome me such that I skipped the next two.

I realize I am a week past the post date and will credit trying to finish vacation preparation with the delay.

 

 

 

This is the result of our raised bed with green beans. We will be picking these beans within the next week.

We also put cucumbers in the raised bed and they seem to be thriving.

Have you ever had an entire flower bed to get out of control? We ripped out a large one on the south side of our driveway. I know it looks better because we had a neighbor stop to say how good it was looking now.

We are able to enjoy all of our perennial plants ahead of schedule due to the abnormally warm winter we enjoyed this year. I usually don’t see the first bloom on these until mid-July.

 

Our Calla lilies are also thriving this year.

We cut back on the number of tomato plants we put in our raised bed but they have done so well it is difficult to tell.

The blackberry lily in the top of the photo is one of my favorites. I intended to separate the plants this year, but unfortunately other priorities too over and so instead I get to enjoy this great display.

We have one specific dahlia that had to be tied due to its size. Some others are a little behind, but blooming.

Opposite the blackberry lilies is summer phlox and a darker day lily variety.

 

 

 

If you want to check out more End of Month View posts click here: EOMV

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Month View – March 2017

 

Some months ago I found this monthly invitational hosted by The Patient Gardener and it is a monthly chance to show off your garden. Unfortunately my garden is only worthy of show for about 6-7 months each year. Happily this is the beginning of that stretch, so I have pictures to share. YAY!!!! You do not know how much my mood lifts when I begin to see flowers blooming.

When I last posted we had just finished a new bulb bed flanking our 12 x 16 greenhouse. Due to the warmer than usual weather this “winter” (I am bracketing it in quotes because I cannot in good conscience call what we experienced a full-fledged winter), our Daffodils made an unexpected show of blooms in late February.

In this same planting we included some new tulip bulbs that are holding close to their expected bloom time in April. I am not sure if they will still have color by the end of April to include with the April EOMV, but I may just include a photo so you can see our success.

Things are hopping in the greenhouse now. We have geraniums in our window boxes, having purchased them so we can “push” them toward an early May deployment just in time for our son’s graduation/22nd birthday celebration. The weather may not be amenable to leaving them out full time on May 7th, but we at least hope to have them in place on that day. Trust me, the combination of greenhouse and the feeding regimen we have honed over 15 years will make the final product in May look amazing.

It is veggie seeding time as well. We have tomatoes seeded as well as cukes and zucchini. These are ear-marked for a new raised bed yet to be built, but guaranteed to provide critter proof growing conditions. Unless the maddening creatures have been doing pole vault training in Salt Lake City, Utah that is!

Another new addition to our gardening facilities is a 32 foot raised bed to try to allow us to grow bush beans. At one time we were able to enjoy enough beans to can 150 quarts for use throughout the year. Of course at that time we had a beagle mix named Louie who feasted on groundhogs and rabbits. Lately the only creatures getting fat on our beans have been the rodents. This year we hope to end that trend.

Up front we have creeping phlox blooming, although only one color.

Due to some sagging on our deck we are having to do some repair construction, so the long standing rails that support two Clematis have been removed. While it will not hurt the Clematis, the tendrils will likely seek something on the ground to attach to and may be a pain to re-train after we are done.

Two others already trained on trellises are also beginning to emerge from dormancy. Hopefully in 5-6 weeks they will share their gorgeous blooms.

Lastly I went out to cut off all the spent daffodils in our new bulb garden to find several tulips beginning to show color. I hadn’t noticed them due to the large number of taller daffodils that were shielding them for view. I look forward to the multiple colors of these spring beauties set to peak just around Easter.

If you want to check out more End of Moth View posts click here: EOMV

 

 

 

 

 

 

End of Month View – Oct 2016

Some months ago I found this monthly invitational hosted by The Patient Gardener and it is a monthly chance to show off your garden. Unfortunately my garden is only worthy of show for about 6-7 months each year. The last time I coordinated my blogging activites to coincide and shoot off an entry was at the end of May, so I missed much of the peak flowering I enjoyed this season. But I do have some last gasps going on that I wanted to share with you on this last day of October, when the witches, ghouls and goblins stir about.

Our window boxes are something that get a lot of work in our garden plan. When I posted my EoMV for May they held Geraniums, Wave Petunias and some vining plants. Now they are hosting the peak of our Fall Mum display.

I also shared photos of my Dahlia patch and new raised bed for tomatoes. Living near the Appalachian Mountains we have already had a couple of frosty mornings and the first big one took out both the flowers and the still living and producing tomato vines.

 

Near my wife’s hair salon we have a retaining wall that in May had some Pansies and Gerber Daisies thriving. As you know, neither of these respond well as the heat rises and this summer we set a local record for consecutive 90 degree days. We stuck some wave petunias in during this time, but now the Gerber Daisies have come back to prominence as they respond to our cooler days and nights.

In the same area we have three fall mums that are planted in pots to add more fall color to the area. By the time I took these pictures all of them were near or just past the peak of their color. Before too long there won’t be so much of a color variety here.

There is a new addition to our landscape plan, a mass planting of spring bulbs. We had discussed this for a while and finally decided to take the plunge. We chose a spot to the right of our 12 x 16 greenhouse that is in full view from the driveway of the hair salon. We ordered 100 tulips and 50 daffodils from Amazon, took the Kubota and tiller and went to work.

I was going to start this paragraph by saying one of my favorite plants has reached the end of its months long bloom cycle, but I am not sure I can limit myself to one or two favorites. Regardless the Blackberry Lily is now showing part of the reason for its name. After the blooms fade there is a seed pod that develops and eventually the pod opens to reveal what you see in the picture, a cluster of blackberry looking seeds. I took a handful of these this spring and dug into the composted mulch below my three plants from 2015 and tried to grow more. As you can see in the picture this was a rousing success. Now I need to separate these and find other places to plant.

In preparation for next year I have collected three dump trailers of wood chips to use as mulch. You cannot beat free and to top that I am giving my neighbor who has a lawn service another alternative location to drop off the chips and save a trip to the landfill and potential fees for disposal. I will let this “cook” through the winter and turn it once or twice with my Kubota to make sure most of the weed seeds are killed.

I love Clematis plants as well and I’ll bet there is not that many of you that have been able to enjoy your second bloom of Clematis on November 1st. This year I can as one of my Clematis still sports a few blooms. This guy is over ten years old and seems to be quite hardy.

This last picture shows where the garden was for this year. I am finally pretty much in agreement that we need to only try raised beds from now on. We just cannot get ahead of the varmints that want to feast on our plants and all the fences and devices in our arsenal just do not get the job done.

 

 

2015 A to Z My Favorite Plants – L – Lilies

To say I am partial to lilies is a supreme understatement. I love every kind. I have some Asiatic ones that I transplanted from my parents yard as well as some day lilies we bought to add to our beds.  These were the best choice as my offering to the weekly floral photography invitational I joined last week. it is called the Floral Friday Fotos.

This is a blackberry lily.

The Asiatic I transferred from my home place.

One of the many Calla Lilies we have planted with our Dahlias.