Texture and Color

Doesn't the curve of this path make you want to explore? Contrasting textures and colors are what make a garden interesting. And when you walk down this path, your eye is drawn down the path by the repetition of the chartreuse color.

Hostman's Silberlocke Pine Cones

Don't you love surprises?  When you look closely, you can see the pine cones tucked in this beautiful pine. I love the way the needles curl and show off their white undersides.

Pond Plantings

To help shad the pond, this summer I added a sensitive plant. It is growing like crazy! The kids enjoy the way the leaves fold up if you move it around.

One of my water lilies is blooming.

Just added this planting near the stream. It includes some irises, ladies mantle and a tall and creeping sedum.

The view from the other side of the stream shows off a bloody dock plant (looks a bit like a beet leaf) and the purple cast of the irises.

This is a Slender Hinoki False Cypress tree. It is small, but will eventually grow to about 15 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It has a beautiful texture and an interesting growth habit.

Veggie Garden Border

The black fence surrounds the veggie garden and these borders are filled with yellows and oranges.

So excited to see butterfly weed blooming in this border!

And these orange daylilies are beautiful!

Lilies in bloom!

Hard to believe that all these pink lilies started from just a dozen bulbs.

Love the way the varigated japanese fleece flower mingles in the lilies. Look how the pink stems reflect the pink of the lilies.

Pink, pink, pink!

Hidden in the border....

There is a bit of a gap in the far edge of the border that surrounds the fairy circle and I decided to fill it this year with this little vignette.  The black plastic piece is Deer Away to prevent the deer from eating the wax begonias.

Poppy!

OK, it's confession time. Last fall when I planted this bed near the pond, I added some poppy seeds. A few weeks ago when I was weeding, I pulled out a couple of the plants, not remembering that I had planted the poppies! Luckily, I didn't pull them all out - there were two remaining plants and hopefully, they will self-seed and I will have more poppies next summer. Just love the color of the leaves (a pretty blue-green)  and the flowers!

Rock planter

This year, the rock planter has a bright pink color scheme.

Little Pink Lilies

And little pink lilies add a punch of color in this garden.

Little Yellow Lilies

These lilies add a bright spot in the east garden.

And on the west side of the house, they mingle with Max Frei hardy geranium and coral bells.

Angelica

I had no idea that this angelica plant would get this big! Planted it last year and it has a two year life cycle. It needs shade - not sure that I have enough shade to grow more than one of these guys!

Lilies

These short lilies are just a bit of a preview for the tall lilies that will be blooming later this summer!

Red, white and blue!

Didn't plan this (the daisy self-seeded), but a bit of red (yarrow), white (daisy) and blue (salvia) on display!

Sundrops and catmint

Planted these sundrops (oenethera fruticosa - not the common variety!) last summer and they have started blooming. 

They will bloom all summer. I love how big the flowers are!

In the fall, there will be triangular seed heads left behind.

Wren House

I love birds and gardening provides wonderful opportunities to be outside observing the birds. One of my garden club members, Dean, surprised us with a wren house. Beautifully made and painted a bright yellow, it looks so inviting hanging in my oak-leaved mountain ash tree. It is a bit late for nesting wrens this year, but maybe next year, it will be home to a family. Wrens are very territorial, so I've placed this a good distance away from my other bird houses. 

New planters!

I searched and searched for new planters - I wanted them to be blue and I needed a matching pair. Found these at Bachman's and filled them with yellow flowers - a canna, lantana, million bells and sweet potato vine.

Cardonna salvia and Boikovo geranium

Bouquet

Just a few peonies, roses and a stem of the japanese lilac. So fragrant! 

Spring rains

We have had plenty of rain this spring and the gardens are awash in color. Pink peonies,

pink roses and purple catmint,

and japanese lilacs.

Here is a larger view of the border, with purple sage, pink peonies, pink roses and the lavender catmint. See the bluebird house? We have some baby bluebirds this year and the parents have been busy bringing bugs to the little ones.

One of my William Baffin roses, blooming its heart out!

Siberian Iris

This is Caeser's Brother siberian iris in bloom. The flowers are such a deep purple. 

And the weeping pea shrub is growing and looking much better.

Hawthorn

I moved this Hawthorn to the pond area last spring. While it is lovely in bloom, it is also quite stinky, as the blossoms give off a scent similar to rotting flesh. (Yuck!) It is starting to take the broad shape that I love in trees. Hawthorns can suffer from a variety of diseases - glad this one is doing so well.

Irises

These irises are tucked next to the dry stream bed.

And here's another view. 

 I have three groups of irises in the front garden, circled in orange in this picture.  I divided the group on the left side last fall and wondered why the irises were so small. Figured out that a mole had been tunneling under them! (That mole also tunneled under the baby's breath plants in my rose garden and killed them.) I pushed them back down into the soil and they are doing better, but there won't be any flowers this year. This fall, I need to divide the two groups on the right side.

Peonies

I didn't realize this yellow peony has a pink cast in the center - it is so pretty!

My itoh peony is just starting to open!  Love the foliage of these types of peonies. 

These bright pink buds are ready to pop! These are Paula Fay. I highly recommend the "landscape - type" peonies - no cages or supports needed! 

Weekend Project

This project is was not on my list for this summer, but it just had to be done. I planted Pink Dragon sedum in the area between the front garden and driveway. It is a ground cover, and for a few years, it did the job of holding down the weeds pretty well. But over the last couple of years, it has gotten so thick that it is difficult - no, almost impossible - to weed. You can see there are a couple of hardy geraniums that have taken root in it as well as all sorts of grass.

Here is the section closest to the house with the sedum removed. Yes, there is brick under that sedum!  Looks much better, doesn't it?  Some of the sedum I removed will be tucked into the boulder retaining wall and around the flagstone near the pond. 

Porch Planter

I love begonias! Received a hanging basket full for Mother's Day, but didn't have a spot I could hang them. So I put them in this planter with some bright lamium, which is a perennial. I need to remember to put it in the ground in the fall.