Summer in Swing

The growing season was late this year, and it's been a wet summer. It may not be working out great for farmers, but my garden is faring well. The days are so long, which is just so wonderful, and makes it hard to get the little one in bed before 10!

There's still so much to plant and tweak in this one little perennial bed, but at least things are growing and blooming! This is what it looks like currently:

allium, bleeding heart, peony, coneflower, iris, delphiniums, columbines, coral bells, catmint

it may not be finished, but it still adds curb appeal

from the porch

What's blooming:

This is my first year for lilies. They're really convenient, because they're planted in Spring and are beautiful the first summer. I'm interested to see how they do over the winter. As you can see on the left, I probably planted them too deep or something, because they are little midget lilies. And I was worried they would be too tall! I've never been much of a lily person, but they smell wonderful, and in the right colors aren't too showy, so I may try more varieties next year.

 

The coneflowers (below) are just starting to open. If you like them, I recommend planting some. You just can't go wrong with them. They're native to the midwest, keep their shape, bloom during summer when a lot of others aren't, and work well as cut flowers.  And there are some cool varieties that have been developed-- just google image search "coneflowers."

 

OK, so I admit I'm not a daisy person. But when you have a certain color scheme and are aiming for particular bloom times, you tend to branch out from your favorites. On the left is one from last year; I think it's "snow lady." It's short and sweet, a good little accent, but didn't look pretty all summer last year. On the right is "Becky" shasta daisy, which is taller and supposed to stay pretty all season. It cost a little more, but already the flowers are obviously way better for cutting, and the plant is doing awesome in its first year. 

And I'm excited for this allium to bloom. Definitely need some more. 

So, overall you can see my garden is a little bit of a test garden. Pulling it together into a cohesive look is still a work in progress; however, adding plants a few at a time makes it easier for me to balance size, colors and bloom time to give the overall effect I like. And clearly I'm not the kind of person who wants instantly balanced and attractive landscaping; I'd rather garden and work with it as it evolves!

My future plans include duplicating the plants that work well to fill in the empty spaces, adding in some Fall bloomers, and potentially, as things grow enough to divide, moving them to a separate cutting garden, so I don't have to remove all my flowers from this little one just to get a bouquet!

If you have any favorite summer bloomers, leave a note in the comments!