Moonflower in Bloom!

Finally, my first Datura to bloom this summer. There should be a lot of them this year as I let them go to seed last fall and they fell helter skelter around my planter. This summer I've transplanted them around to different areas. They belong to the family, Solanaceae or Nightshade. They are often called moonflowers because they bloom at night and smell nice. The deer don't like them because they are poisonous. They are also known as Angel Trumpets. I'm looking forward to seeing a bunch of these in bloom!

Bees Doing Their Thing

Bee Balm under Mason Bee House

I tried to capture the multiple bees around the bee balm today with my phone camera, but haven't figured out how to do a close up.  Since I got stung last night by mosquitoes all over, I figured I didn't want to get too close!

These bee balm were swarming with bees!

Obsessing Since I Got Out of the Hospital

No more ginormous hostas this year

One of the things I've been able to do since I came home from the hospital is work in the garden.  I wish I had pics of when Josh was here helping out, but we were busy working, or he was.  I was still pretty wobbly.  Since then, I've been weeding, pruning a bit, and getting a few new thing in.   I even put in some nasturtium seeds, though it's way too late.  It's been hot as heck except for the past two days which have been dry as well.  Monday promises more heat and rain.  I continue to take pictures, but I need to get out to some other gardens to add more pictures and points of view.

Front bed contains Purple Cone Flower (Rudbeckia purpurea) & Moonbeam Coreopsis

Swamp milk weed in front of huge Joe Pye Weed

A Walk Around the Garden

Annabelle hydrangeas

Since I've been in the hospital for the past 10 days after a cycling accident caused me to have a concussion and some bleeding in the brain, I've been missing out on changes in my garden.  I asked my husband to take some photos of it to fill me in on what's blooming now and so I know what I will need to do when I get out.  Since I'm not quite steady on my feet yet, there's not much I can do, but I sure need to place the order which may be lost for more plants for the "rain garden," get more mulch for the beds out back, plant alyssum and nasturtiums (is it too late for seeds?), and get some flagstones or other stepping stones for areas in beds and in the yard that need them.  We've had lots of rain to go with the heat since I've been her, so things are growing just fine.  Thanks to Bev Moss  of Garden Rhythms and her crew of master gardeners for helping me get my garden in shape before my accident.  I hope to take the Master Gardener class in the winter.

Coreopsis coming in.  I need more annuals in front.  Let me out
of the hospital please!  I'm in need of color!

Border of vegetable bed.  May need to clear out more room.  
Need to see if any raspberries are in season







Herbs coming up as well as raspberry bush

Honeysuckle has just about gone and clematis in bloom

Plants on deck

West side bed is booming!

Evie napping on Rene's desk

Mid June

Things are changing very fast around here.  Here are a few photos from three weeks back before my cycling accident when things were a bit dryer, just after the peak peonies though thankfully I still had a few in the side yard though past their prime were full of color.

New England Aster

 

 Milk weed, geranium and some kind of sedum

Honeysuckle and hosta

Backyard jungle of hostas, ferns and forest pansy red bud along with shrubs 

NEW SHOVEL

My friend Lori surprised me with a beautiful new shovel as she was sitting shiva for her husband Sid.  I had helped clear the front bed a week before and her awesome neighbor Dawn who does a lot of her gardening had been sent to buy me a new tool.  This is the one Dawn picked, and it is great for transplanting!  In fact it's called a transplanter and performs " all functions of transplanter, drain spade, digging spade, and standard shovel."  It's made by Radius and I really recommend it. No more  trampling everything as I dig.  It goes down deep with absolutely no effort.  What a wonderful present!  With the new shovel I was able to dig out some of the overgrowth of perennials and make some room around different ones, good thing because the current rain has encouraged more and more growth.  Next on my tool buying list is an edger.

New photos on a stroll around the west side of the house

After an overnight and all day rain:

My attempt at a rain garden.  The grasses died over the winter, so they need too be replaced.

Siberian iris, catmint and  unknown plant

Peonies and hosta 

No Lack of Green Here

When I first thought of this blog we were coming through a very prolonged end of winter and Spring seemed like a distant dream.  Any little sign, a crocus or daffodil, and I'd proclaim, "Spring is here!" and we'd go back to cold, wet weather.  Well that weather actually helped.  In mid May we went away for a few days and came back to Michigan to find all of our daffodils gone, one set of viburnum blooms goon and another one the way.  Everything is just speeding in and out.  Spring is here and it's been cool, wet at first but not much rain recently.  I took photos, but didn't post them on time and the dates on them are wrong, but I would say end of May.   

I've been moving things around, replanted a vegetable garden this year and we'll have to see if it works.  The rabbits have already consumed the lettuce.  This photo was taken before I cleared things out, but the viburnum is in full bloom here!  I'm contemplating getting rid of the lilac bush, horrors, because it cuts out the little sun I get in this patch for veggies and raspberries.

After having dug up tons of hostas to allow access to take down a rotting crab apple, I replanted some here and still need to give more away.  I need to move these coral bells in front which were just put in and exchange them for the light orange ones for some color. Mulch is sorely needed and I keep forgetting to call for a delivery.  This bed actually looks much better than this and is in the front, center of the house.   Here you can see the last of the lilacs, which came and went in the blink of an eye.  I love looking at the tricolor beech in the right hand corner of the photo from my bedroom window.



A week or so ago my front, east bed was full of these alliums.  Now I've got pink and orange poppies and peonies.   It's definitely wild.  I have learned how to tame things.

Since everything changes so fast, I decided that after I retire at the end of this week, I'll take a walk around the house each day to see how things are progressing, and now I'll actually have time to do a bit of work too!

Spring Came in with the Crocuses

I started this as a class project way before May 8, sometime in April.  At the time the crocuses had just started popping up. This was a delight after a relatively long, cold and drab winter. It made me wish I'd planted some new crocus bulbs in the fall as well as other early blooming bulbs like aconites and snowdrops. That is now officially on my to-do list for the fall.  I also have to get other colors besides the blues and whites, so Ruby Giant Specie Crocus, a light violet, as well as some yellow ones would provide more variety and pick-me-up. 

        Despite how grungy the leaves around the flowers look, I plan to leave most of them on the beds and just cover them with compost and mulch rather than raking them up. Less work and they can benefit from the leaves. We've had so much rain this week that the trees should be very happy after last winter's dryness, but we would all love some warmth and dryness about now.  Next up, daffodils!  And here they are.  By now, May 8, they're fading.  It's amazing how fast everything comes and goes in the spring.  But every day there's something new and often you don't see it happening till you look out of your window and say, "Wow, there are leaves on that tree.  When did that happen?"

So while these first two posts are out of order, Ill try and keep things in order and up to date from  now on.

Spring Clean-up

Five days ago I finally spent my first real day in the garden.  Cleaned up several beds, pulled up some dead shrubs, a rhodie and something unidentifiable.  Everything looks so much neater.  We got rid of bags of leaves that over wintered on the vegetable bed, well it multipurpose to be sure.  Dumped most of the leaves in the compost bin and put the rest out to be picked up by the yard waste people.  The compost REALLY needs green stuff now.  Our grass clippings go on the lawn, so I don't know how we'll get enough.

Meanwhile, I've got to remember to add lots of small bulbs in front center bed in the fall.  There's nothing there.  Also the front east bed could use some more daffodils and purple hyacinths.  It doesn't have any of the latter.  I've got lots of those on the front west bed under the burgundy maple and they look great.  And we have plenty near the house.

Major work needs to be done on the east side of the house to replace rhododendrons that were sick and dug up in the fall.  Planning to put 2 trees there and to design things.  Right now it's open and chaotic.  Our crab apple in front is going down soon.  I sure hope it gets to bloom first; it's so lovely.  I plan to put in a serviceberry tree in its place, but will think about another crab apple.

With retirement 5 weeks away, I'll have so much more time to work out there!