August 29, 2009

Fall is on its way. The Coral Bark maple is starting to show some color.

I've replaced all the dead hydrangeas with these Hydrangea Paniculata 'Lime Light' plants. I hope they do better!

I've also added some sedums (Autumn Joy) and a short variety of golden rod along the upper part of this bed. I'm planning to interplant some pink phlox and garlic chives around the sedums -- you'll see why in the pictures below.

The winterberries are starting to color up.

See what I mean about this combination? I love it!



And here's the phlox and sedum combo.

I've started some lettuce and cauliflower in the veggie patch. You can see I still have a few plants of arugula going (on the far right).

The zinnias are VERY happy!

This is a caryopertis (sp?) that I bought mailorder and it came as a tiny plant. It's at least 3 feet x 3 feet now and I am loving the pretty blue flowers this time of year!

You can see how the garden filled in this summer. I've started planting dwarf mondo grass between the pavers - I think I'll really like it in a few years when its all filled in.

The butterflies are loving the pentas. Can you see the black and blue one there?

This is a sweet flag (a type of yellow iris) that I had in the pond but its happier living in the damp spot created by the water dripping out of hte a/c condensor.

The fire thorn (pyracanthus sp?) is getting so pretty - I cut back all the scraggly bits that don't have berries. For the holidays I plan to cut back the parts with berries that are not flush against the garage and get it under control even more.

This grass has been very pretty in the urns. I'm thinking of planting them along 10th avenue - my new "fall garden" - and putting little evergreens of some sort in the urns for the winter.

The scarlet runner beans have been pretty and lush all summer. But next year I'm going to try one with a less vivid color!

August 24, 2009

I'm thinking . . . snail eggs on the side of the pond?

August 15, 2009

The sedums are coming in well. This one is in front of the garage where it doesn't get all that much sun (behind the furniture), but it seems to like it just fine. There's a tiny purple coneflower that got swamped by some other plants -- I'm hoping it gets bigger next year b/c the purple color is pretty with the sedum as it turns pink and then burgundy.

This corner hasn't done too much after the lillies bloomed. I planted a shrub form of moon flower and its done okay, but not great. I also planted some moonflower seeds andsome morning glory - not sure which one is starting to move along the trellis, but htere are buds so we'll see soon!

Nearly all of my Endless Summer hydrangeas died this summer -- as did my big Nikko Blue (nearly) -- we had lots of rain and cool temps,so not sure what happened to them!

I transplanted this helianthus and its been very happy here!

Still love this plant, but it does'nt get the attention it deserves in this corner.

LOVING my beauty berries!!!

this japanese painted fern is also happy under the trident maple along 10th ave.

The camellia should be beautiful this winter -lots of fat buds!

If I were very ambitious, I'd try to plant the seeds that developed in this pod. . . .

Love those goldfinches!

August 13, 2009

Summer bounty!

August 3, 2009

The goldfinches have LOVED the sunflower - and so have I. Definitely need to plant them around the a/c units again, but next year, I want to try to plant a second crop so that when they get ragged looking, I can cut the old ones down and have a second prettier group coming along.

July 22, 2009

My birthday! And also the day of Dan Klepper's photo shoot in our garden - here are four of his pics, plus one showing him taking the pictures.

July 11, 2009

By mid-summer the Cleome's were getting so big that they were crowding out the coneflowers, rudbeckias and other perennials that were coming along, so they had to go. sniff! But definitely worth planting again next year. In fact, as I write this in early Sept - some little seedlings from these plants are about 10 inches high in the garden!

These are some of the fragrent lillies from White Flower Farm - I'm really happy with how they performed and expect them to do even better next year!

The new garden was really taking off!

We had to much rain this summer that eventually the petunias just petered out but they looked great while they lasted.

This is one of my old lillies that got moved in the new garden project -- I'm thinking of moving this one out of the shade and into the main garden -- it's a little in the way, but it sure was gorgeous and smelled wonderfully.

The bees are enjoying the cosmos - which I will definitely plant more of next year.

The zinnias were getting ready to go crazy.

Tomatoes are doing well - but next year - only one cherry variety and the rest should be larger fruited ones - and less bushes overall!

This bed is still struggling - although the combination of the pink phlox and the sedums is pretty.

These nigella performed well and were pretty - they just need a little more elbow room.

The Tardiv hydrangea is blooming!

The before and after of the Cleome project