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!