FLOWERBED PROGRESS

Most of my back flowerbed is planted---YEA!  It will be a while before it looks very good though.

I planted my feathery Gem Marigolds, Pinks, Double Hollyhocks, and a Sweet Potato Vine that have been in pots waiting to be planted.  I also planted seeds of impatiens, zinnias, baby's breath, and cleome (spider flower).  I have the sprinkler going to water it--it is very dry here.

I have my table back---this is where all my plants were.  Now I just have herbs on the table.  Starting on the right and going counter clockwise I have flat leaf parsley, chives, rosemary, and thyme.  Behind the table growing in the ground I have tarragon---it is real tall.  I have mint--two kinds, chocolate, and peppermint, and some oregano in other places.  I think that's it for my herbs---oh, wait, NO, I have lemon basil here and there also.  It reseeds all over the place, and I love it. 

I love gardening.



Summer Gardening

My purple nicotiana is very fragrant, but for now you have to smell them up close.  I'm hoping that later on this summer the fragrance will really scent up the whole garden.

The antique lime nicotiana is very fragrant also.  This is what I like about ordering my seeds---I can get what I want to grow, and in the color I want.  It's very satisfying to me and well worth the effort of starting my own flowers from seed.  Rarely do I find what I want at a nursery.

The whisper mix nicotiana is very tall and a beautiful mix of soft colors, although it isn't fragrant.  My hollyhocks in this bed are going to bloom this year---they are getting very tall, and the Japanese beetles didn't do much damage to them, yet anyway.

My dahlias are starting to bloom--I started this one from seed in March.  I love this color.  I have a couple of yellow ones that are starting to bloom also.  I have some others that are blooming that I don't care for the colors of them at all.

This dahlia I planted many years ago and it is a tall variety, but it blooms all summer with tons of flowers later on.  I planted some more tall ones in purples and deep reds also, but they aren't blooming yet.  I planted tubers of those, but they are coming along somewhat.

The last part of last week I managed to get most of the back bed finished, but also manage to over do it.  I decided to take a few days off. 

Here are some of the roots I dug out of the bed. 

Mixing the compost in was fun for me but that's where I over did it.  I'm just not as young as I used to be, but occasionally I forget that.

 I'm in no hurry to get this one planted--It's a summer project just to get it cleared.  I do have some more work on the other side of the peony (at the top of the picture) to do.  I pulled weeds this morning in the front yard, but it started sprinkling  so I stopped.  I do hope we get some good rain soon.

A Garden Stroll

I took a little stroll through the garden this morning.

Now, for the front yard----

Hey!  Look at my hollyhocks and dahlias---eeeek!

Yikes!



I made a little trip to our friendly hardware store.  While I was hanging this beetle trap, a beetle flew right into my forehead.

Thirty minutes later I checked the trap and look at all the beetles already.  It works.

The bottom of the bag zips open to dump it when it gets too many in there.

GARDEN TOIL

I love this time of year when my annual flowers are blooming well.  Impatiens, and baby's breath here.

Saturday we worked real hard removing vines, my hubby and I.

We got all the underbrush cleared and some vines dug up--what a hot job working under that bush. 

We had to take another load of brush to the leaf dump, and boy was it a load.  I would say we got our $3 worth out of that trip.

The old compost bin got devined as well.

This morning I worked a couple of hours digging up this area and removing a lot of roots.

It's slow work, but I need the exercise, and this is one form of exercise that I enjoy. 

It does wear me out though.  My BP gets pretty low, and I think that slows me down.  Soon I will be able to start working the compost into the soil.

Movin' Along

I'm very pleased with the progress we've made in the back yard.

The backyard when we started working on the back flower bed.

Here's the back bed today when I finished todays work.

I got the underbrush around the peony cleared, and underneath the mock orange bush.  I do have a little more underbrush to clear, but I can't get to it until Saturday possibly.

We loaded more brush in the pickup and took it to the leaf dump.

My knight in shining armor.  He does a lot of of yard work.



June Garden

June is a beautiful month.  All kinds of flowers are blooming right now.

I made a collage of some of my flowers, but I didn't get anywhere near all of them.

Astillbe is just starting to come into bloom.

Here's where I worked today.  I removed a 15" swath of vines, then I worked under the bush removing lots of different kinds of vines--hard work under there.

Here's the big picture.  We unloaded the last of the compost which I will work into the soil later.

I also have to figure out what to do with these.

 I really enjoy doing all this hard work, and I'm so thankful I'm able to do it.

Progress on the Back Bed

My elephant ears are standing proudly.  Aren't they cute?

Here's yesterday's progress, and................

here's today's progress---clear back to the corner bushes.  It will take a few more days of work to get it all cleared.  I only worked a couple of hours on it this morning, so I wouldn't be so spent the rest of the day.

The straight on view....I don't know if you can see it or not, but I found the old railroad tie that used to be the front edge of the flower bed.  It's under the bushes now, sort of in the upper center of the picture.

Lastly, my roses are still blooming.



Lavender Time And Workday Four

June is the month for my lavender to bloom.  I would like to try to propagate some of lavender with stem cuttings, but I don't know if I will or not.  It might be fun to try.

I have a volunteer privet bush coming up in the middle of one of my lavender plants.  I will have to do something about that.

I have some hollyhocks planted nearby, but I'm not sure if they will bloom this year or not.  I started them kind of early, but I'm not sure if I started them early enough.  They are biennials so we'll see.

We have lots of baby robins in the back yard.

The birds love the bird bath.

Our neighbor's cat is keeping an eye on all the baby birds for us---that's her job.   We used to have a cat just like this one;  we loved that cat.  "Sugar" used to sit on the roof and watch us--she was so cute.  She also rang our doorbell to get us to come to the door.  Actually, I think she wanted in, but with asthmatics in the house that didn't happen very often.  She slept in the garage on cold nights.

Here's what our latest project looked like this morning before I started working on it.

I got the vines and roots dug up clear back to the bushes for about 5 ft. in length then I forked over most of that.

It was hard work that involved resting periods.  You can see where the fork is----that is where I stopped; it was time to get cleaned up and go exercise with my youngest daughter.

 Here's another view; I still have a lot of work to do.

Another days work and I'm pooped.