Deadheading

 I enjoy deadheading flowers. Not sure why. But we have reached the stretch of late Spring / early Summer that entails deadheading the beautiful spring blooms so your eye can rest instead on the remaining spring flowers and upcoming, heat-loving summer plants. Above is a picture from today: peonies, catmint, and bleeding heart. I'm loving seeing my beautiful, unfinished garden in bloom!  

June 1st

June 15th

June saw the tulips fade, and then the blooming of the columbines, catmint, and irises, and more recently peonies and penstemon.

columbines

tulips- this is the only one of these that came up!

irises- a gift from a family member's garden

The task now is to determine how to continue planting in the gaps, what to add for summer and fall color, and what to plant more of to provide a more pleasing mass effect. 

My new Becky shasta daisy looks like it will bloom soon, and my Rozanne cranesbill looks very small and unhappy- I think he got a disease. I'd like to get another one of a different shade because they're such prolific bloomers. Others I'm looking forward to are the coneflowers, alliums, and lilies. 

It's really difficult to think ahead to what colors, shapes and sizes of plants are already in place to determine what else to add to complete a certain season's picture. It's even hard to look at what's growing right now to determine how to improve the current landscape! So here are a few photographs from today to mark the garden's progress:

Left to right: iris finishing up, catmint in full bloom and starting to sprawl, this peony bush is done, penstemon in full bloom, Becky shasta daisies are buds, no sign of allium flowers yet

the catmint is one of the best humminbird attractions right now

 

one of my nice, established clumps of garden flowers

And a few family photos from this spring:

a beetle

she was entertained for quite awhile peeling these dead daffodil bulbs that were never planted last fall

arrowhead Mike found in his garden

 

learning how to blow on dandelions; apparently difficult when you're two!

Unfortunately I only have so much time to put toward creative endeavors, and right now we're getting things ready for a new little daughter expected in September! So I'm split between gardening, getting the baby's room decorated, and finishing up the first baby's scrapbook, which leaves each project in a bit of a mess at any given time, but I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing. No reason to have an HGTV-ready home when you're actually living in it! One day, though, I think our curb appeal really will be almost HGTV worthy! We'll see.

Summer Weather!

We just returned from an over 1 week long vacation, expecting a difference in our gardens, but wow what a difference a week can make! In that time, the really warm weather arrived, hitting the 80s. Some things, like our crabapple and some tulips, bloomed and faded in the time we were gone. And, as Mike said, weeds grew like we've been gone for a month!

Here is from 1-2 weeks ago, when I was too busy to post:

tulips

still have a ways to go on projects to improve the curb appeal

violas

little girl who doesn't want her picture taken on Mother's Day

tulip

more blooms, some of which are blooming now only because they were planted this year

And here is what I came home to:

The catmint, peonies, penstemon, and irises really took off. I tried planting tulips strategically around other plants to conceal the tulip foliage as it fades, like this:

with tulips in bloom

penstemon, peonies, and catmint covering foliage

I'm excited to fill in the open spaces with more flowers, some of which I'll probably leave bare until the fall perennials come out. And now there is a little weeding and remulching to do. It is just so wonderful having flowers just pop up on nature's cue in a garden that's becoming established!