August Beauty

Before and After

Do you realize the impact fresh mulch makes on a garden's appearance? And it's only like $3.50 a bag! Perhaps my garden budget is roomier this year, but that seems like money WELL spent.

Before

After

I've yet to feel like any of my garden areas are completely finished-- not that the goal is to ever be truly finished, but still, sometimes you get to that place of feeling that something requires only maintenance instead of massive amounts of improvement. This week, Mike leaned this trellis here that we just bought to go elsewhere, and I suddenly had a vision, that this little area right here, is finished. I mean, once I plant something for that trellis.

After

After

And lest we forget where we have come from since purchasing the place 5 years ago:

Before

Yes, I'd say that is an improvement.


So what else is going on in the garden?

The sunflower house I'm making for the kids is taking shape. Just planted morning glory seeds between the sunflowers today. We will see how this turns out!

And as far as my perennials, this is the bed overall right now:

today

a week or so ago when penstemon 'husker red' was in bloom

a week or two before that, before things were dead-headed

 It went through a quiet time of less bloom after the big Spring show, after the peonies and irises, but before the lilies and coneflowers. I did purchase a new kind of penstemon and a foxglove for an open area in the middle, which should help bring some bloom to this down time.

I also have been learning a bit about lilies. I was a little surprised to see my lilies even taller this year. I have a few different types, and I can tell they're different, but never figured out what was what. Here is what I've learned.

Asiatic Lilies

• no fragrance
• multiply quickly
• bloom first

Oriental Lilies

• grow taller each year (!)
• bloom second
• don't multiply fast
• scented

And maybe even more importantly, don't trust that the bulb packages at the home improvement store are labeled correctly. Because these were most definitely supposed to be a beautiful light pink lily:

 

I decided the red ones could fit in, but the orange ones were relocated to a different bed containing its color family. 

Food garden-wise, we haven't done much this year in the big garden. My tomatoes are growing, I planted the cherry tomato plant just today, and we've all but given up on the peppers Mike started, and instead planted over 2 dozen, with more to be planted, of mystery peppers we found on sale. So that's exciting. Bell peppers? Jalapenos? We will find out! I do have giant pumpkins and squash plants growing. The strawberries have been a huge letdown. They are diseased and need to be ripped out, and we only got a few good strawberries before they went downhill. But the raspberries have started, blueberries are ripening as I type, the blackberries look very promising, and there are just starting to be RIPE cherries on some of Mike's trees, as well as young plum and peach fruit. So that's all great!  

The first couple Japanese beetles have been sighted, and Mike sprayed clay on the squash plants for squash bugs, on the fruit plants for fruit pests, whatever. The clay is supposed to help.

I will close with a few images of my beloved perennials from this week:

catmint and coneflower

clockwise starting at 6 o'clock: mum, new penstemon, allium, coneflower in the left corner, daisy, peony, catmint. In the center, new foxglove.

catmint, phlox, heuchera

penstemon 'husker red' in the center

my favorite heuchera with catmint

It's all such a happy sight! Happy June!

Beautiful week

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Not only did I get a couple of days to work in the garden this week, but Mike and I also got to take a trip to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum! We spent all day walking around, looking at all kinds of plants. It is such a wonderful place, and things are so well labeled, which is really helpful! The trip refreshed our vision for the gardens around our home. We didn't go with a strict plan to get ideas for specific projects, but it was so relaxing to just let our minds casually fill with plant inspiration that would work in our similar growing zone. Some of the highlight plants for me: 

 

red charm peony

weeping Norway spruce

 

 

In fact, looking at them here, these all look great together, so I could just put them all in the same garden. If only I could go back multiple times through the season to get ideas as new things bloom!

One really exciting part of this time of year, for Mike especially, is the emergence of the fruit! He is getting baby fruits on some of his trees, although there are some deer and pests to contend with as previous years. It seems that all of nature- the bugs, the birds, the deer, us- are fighting over the same little fruits. I did ask Mike to go out and buy another Honeycrisp apple tree, since his apples have been struggling and have been eaten off by deer. I also asked him to fence off the new trees, because we're wasting so much time growing trees just to have them mown down by the wildlife. A few pics from our walk around the garden this evening:

peaches, about the size of olives

strawberry just starting to pink up! the rest are still green or just flowers

blueberries!

We are also loving my early June perennial garden, as usual, since it is planted to peak this time of year. I plan to continue to do work on it, always dividing things and adding new things, taking out losers (I'm looking at you, butterfly bush) and any who just seem misplaced. Some other projects we've done:

•  added cardboard to keep down the weeds in that island bed that you see in the background below,
• planted my fancy new crabapple (like, I ordered it online from a nursery to make sure I got one that had most of the attributes I found desirable, so I consider that fancy!)
• once again laying out the bed lines for the front garden bed on the other side of the deck, which will incorporate a landscape containing the new crabapple

 My perennial bed:

looking out the window

another view out of the window, this one looking down the drive

purples and pinks in synchronized bloom

Do me a favor and picture it with different siding, maybe dark grey or a rich golden brown. See, it looks like a cute little cottage now!

these white irises finally bloomed!

Today I worked on the beds around the back deck. There's not too much to see, because the perennials aren't yet blooming, since it's planted more as a summer garden, and what I planted today was either tiny seedlings or just seeds. I'd post the pics, but they're on Mike's phone, and he is now snoring loudly over the baby monitor...

I guess that means it's time to go dream about new landscaping projects! Good night!

May progress

It's time to document what's in bloom now. Today was our first very warm day, from what I can remember. I was walking in the evening, a warm breeze came up, and I realized I was wearing shorts and a t shirt and was completely comfortable. Yay! This evening we sat outside on the deck while June bugs buzzed around us, bats flew overhead, and frogs sang their Spring songs. 

The crabapples are fading and the lilacs have just now opened. Beautiful scents are in the air! Phlox are blooming and a few tulips are still open. We are in that perfect window of time where the weeds still seem almost manageable, and we are just now able to plant the "after the last frost" stuff, so we're not behind in planting! Today, my oldest daughter and I even planted sunflower seeds in what I am calling the childrens' garden this year. A good start to the gardening season so far! 

Planting time!

Today, I planted my pots full of frost-sensitive annuals. Could we really already be past the last frost? We will see! Mike convinced me that we should go to the Amish greenhouses for flowers last weekend, and I'm glad he did. My aim was to go before things get too sparse-- I'm picky! Last year it worked great going very early in the season, and this year the timing seemed perfect now, just before the last frost in the 10 day forecast. We went to about 6 greenhouses, and I got something at each. I love to browse around and pick what I love at each greenhouse. It went pretty well with 3 little kids in tow, and we even found time to hit up the Amish bakery and dry goods store!

peach flowers- so exciting, I teared up when I saw them! Maybe Mike will finally see some fruit from all his work!

bleeding heart- looked horrible at the end of last season, but it came back as good as new this Spring!

Amish greenhouse

crabapple bloomed this year! Yay!

Mike got an afternoon to hunt for morels. Even better, he found a few in our yard when he was mowing!!

a glimpse of my perennial bed, before the pink tulips fully faded

Walking around our yard this year helps me to realize just how much I like living here. We're also making some progress on different projects we have around the house; it is really encouraging to see our vision for our home come to fruition. I'm looking forward to doing a little landscaping, focusing on some side gardens now that my perennial bed is done, and allowing Mike more time for maintenance and other projects while the vegetable garden takes a rest this year. He is still going to plant some food for our family, but not on the scale he has previously. May, the beginning of the planting season, is like the early dawn of a year of gardening. So full of excitement and hope and possibility. We are enjoying it!