This Gardening Season had my full attention as there were no significant long trips away from home and no projects that took my full attention away from garden priorities. Even my granddaughter was now six years old and fun to help around the yard!
It was a joy to wake up each morning mostly before dawn to fill the bird feeders just before the birds started singing. Of course, Bobi Kitty was fed and let outside first and I joined him with my first cup of coffee or tea. I never went outside early until the temperature was in the mid-50s so there were a few cold mornngs I stayed inside or went out with a sweater. In any case, I almost always went out in my pajamas! Shortly after daybreak, I'd walk around the yard to see what needed to be done that day in the gardens. This was the best time to water, weed, plant, harvest, and ENJOY!
There are many other photos in the previous blog posts at various times and some of specific plants. Here I gathered an overall array of my landscape beginning in mid-May and ending in mid-August.
Grab a cup of your favorite beverage and come walk with me in my gardens...
JUNE & JULY
Haney's Double Poppies
Native Coral Honeysuckle
Yarrow - yellow & red
Native Penstemon Digitalis. aka Foxglove Beardtongue
Hollyhock - dark red
Box Turtle
Yucca before bloomed
Speedwell - pink & Nigela - blue aka Love-in-a-Mist
Irish Bells
Clematis - purple behind peonies, coneflowers, sedum
Strawberries
Strawberry beds with lillies in back
Native Prickly Pear Cactus, various sedum & succulants, iris, juniper bushes
Bellflower, sedums, Haney's Poppies, four o'clocks, Irish Bells with native coral honeysuckle on trellis
Front patio area has Japanese maple tree, hostas, creeping red thyme, English ivy, sedums, various potted plants, pink & native white dogwoods, redbuds
Front patio area view of creeping red thyme, various potted plants, English ivy, sedums, pink and native white dogwoods, coral bells, upper garden area
Northside sidewalk area has hostas lillies-of-the-valley, vinca, English ivy, redbud trees, native hydrangeas leadin down to rain garden and hammock area.
Northside sidewalk area has redbud trees, sedum, lemon thyme, ajuga, hostas, native hydrangeas, lillies-of-the-valley leading up to front patio
Hammock Area & Rain Garden area has redbud trees, native violets, native pipevine, sedum, native Soloman's Seal, ferns, native hydrangea, oakleaf hydrangea, blue hydrangea, tickseed coreopsis, button bushes, lillies-of-the-valley, irises, lamb's ear, lillies, ajugas
Backyard sidewalk area has lirope, creeping Jenny, and coleus looking towards hammock & rain garden areas
Stella D'ora lillies-yellow, native blue mist, red & blue salvia, autum joy sedum, mum, irises, lirope, climbing wild roses
Native garden area with various asters, blue mist, slender mountain mist, rose verbena, chicory, speedwell, yarrows, & coneflowers
Nigella aka love-in-a-mist, sunflowers, zinnias, pumpkins, dill, with crepe myrtle & irises in back
Irises, crepe myrtles, boxwood, red & purple salvia, blue mist in background
Anything Goes Garden - mostly honeyvine milkweed and four o'clocks, various comeback plants, weeds. In the background is the gooseberry patch and a row of lilacs
AUGUST
Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly on zinnia
Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly on zinnia
Front Patio Area where I sit with my morning beverage and Bobi Kitty on my lap. Today Two-Dot turtle comes to visit.
We have at least two turtles in the yard this year; one now has a pink heart and this one was given two pink dots.
We had the street newly widened and paved in front of our house. This is the native prickly pear with various sedums & succulants along with irises, oake leaf hydrangeas, and junipers. The center oak tree is our only large tree remaining. Over the years we removed about five oaks that were not in a good location to shade the house but mostly threatening it. We have more sun gardens now.
Driveway view shows autumn sedum purple petunias, pink phlox, lavenders, and a huge morning glory covered oblisk next to the carport.
The frontyard upper garden has lirope in bloom with blue spiked flowers, pink coneflowers, salvias, peonies, oakleaf hydrangeas, clematis, phlox, autumn joy sedum, various succulants 7 sedums. The bluebird house had two broods this year. We've had 1-4 broods each year for many years.
Pink phlox, purple petunias, autumn joy sedum
Purple salvia, mum, coneflowers, sedum, lirope with juniper bushes and oakleaf hydrangeas in back
My first fairy garden is showing it's age as is the old oak tree stump
Lavender plants are new this year replacing the old ones that didn't make it last winter but I had for many years.
Front patio area has Japanese maple tree, hostas, creeping red thyme, English ivy, sedums, various potted plants, pink and native white dogwoods, redbuds
Front patio area under window
Front patio area
Front yard edge under redbud trees has ajuga ground cover and coral bells at the end of their season
The hammock area has the native pipevine, ferns, and hyacinth bean vines
Ferns around a redbud tree in the hammock area
Rain garden native hydrangea bush
Rain Garden has oakleaf hydrangea tree, blue hydrangea, tickseed coreopsis, native button bushes
Backyard corner has lemon thyme and chives
Backyard sidewalk gardens with elephant ear, purple petunias, lirope in bloom with purple spiked flowers
Back patio herb garden has sage, basil, rosemary, cilantro (self-seeding) with purple petunias in front
Back yard sidewalk area with coleous plants and creeping Jenny ground cover
Backyard sidewalk area with coleous on one side and blooming lirope on the other
The Native Garden area has the autumn joy sedum almost ready to turn pink and the blackberry lillies are about to seed
The newest raised garden is completed construction and waiting for me to add an acid soil mix to support new blueberry plants I have been growing in pots in spring. I will also add some blue hydrandgeas and likely some spring bulbs. I think there will be a concrete sidewalk in fron to join the main sidewalk. This is a work in progress!
This is my excess plant garden where I plant a variety of bulbs when I have little ones left over from thinning out the main beds. On the left is a full area of suprise lillies aka naked ladies. The blooms are mostly done now but it is fun to see what comes up from early spring to late summer!
The crepe myrtles are close to reaching their peak blooming time and add some bright color to the back yard
The Anything Goes Garden is getting filled in with whatever but the honeyvine milkweed dominates as planned when I trained emerging volunteer vines on the fence. Also have some volunteer red salvia and marigolds.
The zinnias have taken over this garden as the pumpkim struggles to stay alive and the dill is in its last days after providing a lot for my cooking and canning needs. The crepe myrtle and boxwood behind are looking at their best now.
Viewof gardens from the shed at the lower end of the back yard shows the hot sun has come up early this morning as we expect the hottest week of the summer mid-August. The gardens were terraced to optimize the position of the sun during these summer months. Now all I have to do is water, water, water! I love that we have a 5 water faucets at the end of the major gardens as well as in the middle of the backyard sidewalk and the front yard corner. We also mulch a lot.
Vegetable Garden #3 has a variety of peppers. Lantana is a favorite hot summer blooming plant in a rainbow of colors.
Not sure the name of the green mound here along the sidewalk by the vegetable gardens and my native garden. It does grow spectacular yellow flowers early in the spring and it's likely some kind of sedum. We have only needed the live trap a couple times this year.
My Native Garden has mostly Missouri native plants but also some cultivers that are especially showy like the yarrow in red and yellow. There's slender mountain mist, blue mist, rose verbena, New England aster, smooth aster, coneflowers, sunflowers, blue salvia, and a mystery melon vine!
Vegetable Garden #2 is half tomatoes and then cucumbers, chard and the early crop area which had lettuces, spinach, radish, onions but now grows zinnias and a marrigold for the center area.
My strawberry gardens are doing well as I just filled in the rows with new babies. The top garden produces early in the season and the lower garden is for late season fruit.
This area next to my garden swing below the carport has an area for Bobi Kitty's cat grass and catnip. It is also the place for a gnome home garden on an old oak stump next to the swing by the native pink hibiscus. Towering over it all up to the carport height are sunflowers!
My Garden Swing area is covered by a trellis with the native coral honeysuckle. The hill next to it is covered with daylillies that have lemon balm at the edges, suprise lillies aka naked ladies, allium, and clematis coming up at different times. Much of the ground is covered with vinca which has purple and white flower blooms in the sporing before everything else comes up.
This step area is next to the lily hill and swing area. it is also covered with the vinca and lillies on one side...
...and hostas on the other side. At the bottome of the steps is the compost area over the wall which is an easy to get to out of the way area we use most every day. For many years this trellis was cover with a highly scented white flower vine. It died this year as a strong wind did it in when it took out some of the trellis.
We call this the Lower Driveway. It was gravel but I include it in my mowing chore now. This year I took a big metal pan and filled it with good dirt to see if I could grow pumpkins in this location. So far it's looking pretty good! On the swing trellis grows a very established native coral honeysuckle which is my first indicator of when the hummingbirds will arrive. I also like to grow some purple hyacinth bean which have some very showy purple flowers late in the season.
This is the view of the driveway gardens from the lower driveway area. The bright pink plants are four 'clocks which are self seeding. I like having it grow in a place where I can mow what I don't want as it is very prolific! I changed up these gardens over the years and like a variety. I will be adding some mums this fall.
The driveway gardens have sedum and a little evergreen low around the mailbox with some blue ballon flowers and a different yellow sedum up front. Then I like some colorful annuals such as zinnias and marigolds which grow after the pink Haney's poppies are done. I have a few calla lillies remaining in the lower garden and added some lantana and speedwell this year as well as several gazanias in mixed colors. I've also added some more perennials this year such as shasta daisies and the mums should last a few years. Then there's the show piece oblisk which is now covered with morning glories and a few hyacinths bean vines.
The driveway gardens are ready for a few colorful mums soon!
On the back deck above the new terraced garden project are the blueberry plants I started growing earlier in the spring. I hope to transplant them this fall. They have special soil needs.
Below are different overall views of the landscape and gardens taken from the deck...
Last but not least is a picture of my biggest problem this season...BLISTER BEETLES! It only happened once and it was in the first week of August when I noticed hundreds of these insects moving along the top of the front patio rock wall consuming only the English ivy. I don't know why they didn't like all the potted plants along the way or the sedum. But I followed them along the wall loaded with a garden dust called "Eight Insect Control" that contains Permethrin. In a short time the blister beetles either died or ran onto the concrete driveway where I was waiting for them and smashed every one!
Afterwards I washed the wall down with the water hose and was happy to not see any more of this blister beetle!
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