I haven’t posted in over a month as I’ve been too lazy, and too busy enjoying the nice weather and watching baseball. But I hope you enjoy these late summer pics. It’s so hot today 29 C (85 F) that it still feels like summer, very unusual for early October. No leaf pics yet, as very few trees have changed, but I love when summer lingers.
I did get to the beach twice before the end of summer. There was so much sand, and very clean sand, that I could have been in the Caribbean. Quite a contrast to five years ago when there was only a narrow 12 foot stretch of pebbly beach, but the lake levels are low.
There were sailboats…
And more sailboats. In fact the days I went to the beach it was even a bit cool with a refreshing breeze coming off the water – good sailing weather.
The clematis were prolific this year especially this purple Jackmanni.
This one never blooms as much due to too much shade.
The glads did finally bloom, but one by one. I’ve dug up the bulbs and am going to try to overwinter them and then next year plant them all in the same place, instead of spaced in a row.
The zinnias were a bit of a dud too, achieving great height but not many flowers.
The dinner plate hibiscus are late as usual, they never bloom until mid-late Sept, but are only half as tall this year due to the lack of rain. The picture on the right is a previous year. They get too much shade in the spot they’re in at the side of the deck.
But the morning glories were glorious. The blue ones didn’t come up, only the fuchsia. I prefer the blue as in this old 2017 post, A Glorious September Morning.
These are as tall as the trellis at the side of the house. First time I’ve planted morning glories there as there’s not much sun, but there was a ton of greenery. These were taken this week. They are always late September bloomers too.
Of course not everything thrived. The $60 lilac tree I planted in the spring obviously didn’t – too much intense heat and not enough water. There are a few buds on it so I hope it comes back in the spring.
Time for a food break – there was cherry pie!
Or maybe you’d prefer peanut butter cookies. I found this Reese’s product, 24 cookies – great taste! Just bake as many as you want. In the refrigerated section of grocery store near the Pillsbury products.
The rest of the pictures are of plants from my July Pretty in Pink blog, but they are still hanging in there due to the warm weather. A lot of flowers get their second bloom in the fall, including the geraniums.
It makes sitting on the deck a pleasure this time of year, except for the yellow jackets.
This is the first year I have planted geraniums in the ground and they did well.
First year buying dianthus and I would do that again. Kind of scraggly mid-summer but they have revived. The Dipladenia love heat and drought so they look good all summer.
Impatiens always look better in the fall.
The knock-out roses are in their last bloom. Most of the new bushes did quite well.
But no matter how lovely everything looks so late in the season, from the soft afternoon light, we can tell fall is coming. I just hope it stays warm enough for when I have to take everything down!
PS. The Blue Jays won their first two games against New York! Go Jays go!
We’re now into August – my least favourite month of the year. When I was a kid, August meant back to school shopping, and seeing your friends so there was a sense of excitement and newness in the air, especially if you were starting to get bored with the summer. Many people still have that sense that September is the real start of a new year.
But as an adult I find August depressing. Summer is slipping away, with colder weather waiting in the wings, surely welcome this year after all this heat and humidity, but looming right behind it is winter, which is fun for awhile but tend to overstay it’s welcome. It’s getting dark earlier, 8 pm although that’s nothing compared to November’s 4:30 gloom, which many people struggle with but I find cozy because you can always light some candles and snuggle indoors.
I’ve always struggled with August – it’s my birthday month, so I’m another year older, and on top of that my mother died this time last year, four days after my birthday. I spent a lot of time with my mother, especially over the past decade since I retired, not just because it was the right and daughterly thing to do as she got older, but because she was such a nice person, and I’m missing her right now as the anniversary of her death approaches and most of the numbness and busyness has worn off. But time marches on and we must too, whether we feel like it or not.
Plus I’ve been confronted with all the things I was planning to do this summer which I didn’t, particularly true this year with all the heat and air quality and wildfire smoke warnings. You’re afraid to step outside for fear of inhaling tiny particles that will live in your lungs forever. There have been very few beach days. I’ve watched a lot of Blue Jays baseball.
But last Sunday in an effort to get out of the house I picked up a friend and went to an arts and crafts fair in the waterfront park. My mother and I used to go to these all the time, as she was an artist and there were always lots of booths displaying art, and we knew many people in the art community. With names like Artscape, Art in the Park, and Art Walk, they were always good for an afternoon of strolling and visiting and eating, and occasionally buying a piece of art or jewelry.
This particular event, called Shop the Shoreline, was advertised as having 100 vendors. There were 50 at most, none of them very interesting – lots of homemade candles, tie-dye t-shirts, beaded jewelry, a lot of junk I’m at a loss to describe, and no art at all. We stopped at maybe two booths, bought nothing, saw no one. The only food was hot dogs being sold by the Rotary club. I know many activities haven’t recovered from the pre-pandemic days but where did all the vendors go….I guess they must be selling online. It was not crowded as it was so hot and humid – it was so stifling among the tents, that after a quick look through we walked back along the boardwalk to take advantage of the breeze off the water.
But all was not lost as this park has lovely flowerbeds. It must cost the city a fortune to maintain them, especially this year with the relentless heat. So please accompany me for a tour of the day’s silver lining.
There was a cruise ship docked at the bay marina, an unusual sight for our small town.They must have known pink was my favorite color.These must weigh a ton.Yellow is a sunny accent color.Marigolds – a sign of fall
It was a relief to stand near the fountain’s mist and go home to the A/C….and the ball game.
In contrast, my garden has not been quite so lush. My gladioli did not pan out – too much heat meant no bulbs for most of the glads. Not quite the vision I had in mind.
I planted these in front of the garden box so the chicken wire could serve as support.
I got three, two pink and a yellow out of this tropical color package. For the ones I planted at the front of the house, the score was 2 pink out of a package of 15 bulbs. The rest have greenery, but no flowers yet although I haven’t entirely given up hope.
Tomatoes and glads – isn’t that a sign of August!
The zinnias did not fare much better – lots of greenery – two flowers. I think next year I’ll just buy them at the farmer’s market.
Some of the geraniums have perked up a bit – all they needed was a bit of rain. It’s raining as I type this – finally, a whole inch. According to the news tonight there are 731 wildfires burning across the country, (none anywhere near me thank god), including some near popular vacation spots and cities. I can’t imagine being a firefighter in this heat. If this summer is the new norm – I’m looking forward to fall.
It started with the dishes. I saw them at Winners/Marshalls back in March and walked past them as the last thing I need is another set of dishes when I already have so many, (and now I have all of my mother’s too.) And since the pandemic I hardly ever entertain anymore….but they were plastic, perfect for the patio and they were so pretty I was envisioning a garden party with the hydrangeas all in bloom, even if we were still dealing with late winter snow storms. The next day I went back and bought them, because Winners is like that – it’s hit or miss, and if you dither whatever you had your eye on is usually gone, scooped up by some more decisive soul. The next week they had two big matching bowls which I thought would be perfect for salad or watermelon. I was sick of winter by then.
Fast forward to summer…..the actual party took over a month to organize because it involved five people with varying schedules of appointments, activities and emergencies. As I alluded to in my last blog about wanting to hold my own book club, just try asking a group of retired people what day is good for them – there are doctors appointments, grandchildren, golf, pickleball, bowling, theatre tickets etc and after we had settled on a date there was a basement flood and a cat requiring emergency dental surgery. As for me – I don’t own a cat and my life isn’t that exciting. Plus the weather had to be good, or at least not raining – it was hard to find a week here in July without rain or heat warnings, so it was impossible to plan too far ahead.
Anyway, eventually it happened, and the hydrangeas were at their peak.
Hydrangeas are no-fuss plants. These are repeat bloomers. They’re pink, but you can get blue ones by adding aluminum sulfate to acidify the soil. If you don’t add enough you get a lilac color, but they’re all nice. The lime green ones have become popular lately, but I prefer some color.
Look who dropped in for the party…
The first monarch I’ve seen in my yard in years! One of the neighbours must have planted some milkweed.
I have five hydrangea bushes but one has not done well this year, maybe because someone pruned it at the wrong time? It’s usually covered with blue flowers due to the neighbours overhanging cedar trees which help to acidify the soil, but this year it decided to be pink. There’s no figuring out plants sometimes – they have a mind of their own. There are many varieties of hydrangeas but most tolerate partial shade.
The day dawned sunny….it looked like a perfect day, if a bit hot and humid. I put all the cushions out.
I enjoy all the decorating party prep as I have so many placemats and tablecloths and things that I have accumulated over the years and never use. I’m too old now to be saving the good dishes and the guests seem to appreciate the extra effort. Everyone likes to be spoiled once in awhile.
Decorating doesn’t have to be expensive – these napkins and lady bugs are from the dollar store. The lady bugs were just for fun, because who doesn’t like ladybugs? These have adhesive backings so you can stick them on things. I stole the idea from a display at the library – ‘Bee a summer reader!’ which had bees stuck all over it. I bought a package of those too for September when the real bees spoil the dining alfresco.
Speaking of dining alfresco I was so excited to finally get to use my Tuscany table! The table was a curbside find during the pandemic which I painted with exterior paint to match American Decor’s chalk paint in Serene Blue. I painted a wooden chair same color, and the week before the party I found two chairs outside the St. Vincent de Paul store when I was donating clothes, and bought those for $5 each. Mismatched chairs are good with a rustic outdoor table like that, and if they’re recycled you don’t mind leaving them outside in the rain. The idea was to take advantage of the lovely southwest breezes under the trees -my deck can get too hot as it faces north and the houses block the breeze.
We had afternoon snacks under the trees and red and white peach sangria (the non-alcoholic kind), a grocery store find which was surprisingly good. I never took any photos of the food because I was so busy I forgot! The snacks were watermelon in one of the big new bowls, some perfectly ripe cherries, and a bag of Fritos, which was a big hit! There’s something about craving salt on a hot summer day, and Fritos taste salty but are not too high in salt. (The medical person in me worries about electrolytes and fluid intake and balanced nutrition.)
The main course was pizza. While I may like to entertain and bake, I do not like to cook that much, and it can be difficult these days with everyone’s food allergies/intolerances and low fat, low cholesterol diets. Not that pizza is hearty healthy but my small town has the world’s best pizza place. They’ve been in business forty years and served authentic wood smoked pizza long before it was even a thing. When they first opened, no one spoke English so what you ordered and what you got were sometimes different, but it’s everyone’s favourite choice, especially since our local Chinese restaurant closed down recently after 40 years. It was excellent too, but the owner couldn’t get anyone to buy it, and none of his kids wanted it. So pizza was the general consensus, however there was major disagreement about what toppings should go on the pizza (see section about trying to get five people to agree), so we ended up with everyone ordering their own baby pizza so they could take the leftovers home. Fine with me, as I do not think ground hamburger belongs on a pizza, and I’m not fussy on pepperoni either.
While we were waiting for the pizza I made them work for their supper…..what, you didn’t think it was going to be all fun and games! One planted the iris bulbs he had thinned out and brought with him (did I mention they were all horticultural society members, so I got some good suggestions as to what to plant around the back deck to replace the dying rose bushes – hydrangeas!) while we ladies went through the rest of the stuff from my mothers house which had been sitting in the garage taking up space for months. Only one item was left after it was all divvied up, a French press coffee maker which I decided to keep myself – no one wants a French press because it’s a pain to clean up the grounds. It’s always nice to give things away to people who want and can use them, and they had helped me out a lot last year when I was cleaning out mom’s house.
Note the party favours….
I had already set the table inside, as I knew rain was in the forecast, and by then we had lost the sun and it had become quite humid, so we moved inside and enjoyed the A/C for a couple of hours.
I made party favours out of hydrangea soap and stripped paper bags from the dollar store. Adults like to receive goody bags too!
leftover salad
As I still had lettuce growing (third crop) I made a big mandarin salad in the pretty big bowl, layering the three kinds of lettuce (Romaine, red leaf and ?) with the raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and mandarin orange slices, so the fruit didn’t all sink to the bottom. Served with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. (That was the nutrition course – it’s important to have a nutrition course.)
I like to thrift shop and had found a set of four light blue plates and an assortment of blue glasses a few years ago, which coordinated perfectly with the new hydrangea plates.
They could be used as salad plates, but we used them for dessert and moved outside to the deck table this time. The rain had held off and although humid there was a delightful evening breeze. We had key lime pie and coffee and talked until it got dark and the fireflies came out. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many fireflies in the back yard, but then I don’t usually sit out after dark due to the mosquitos. It was quite magical, and reminds me of that song, what I call the firefly song.
After they left, and I was cleaning up, I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures of the food so I snapped a photo of the bowl of wilted lettuce! I could have left the dishes until the next day but I was wide awake so I went to bed all talked out but with a clean kitchen. The next day I got an email thanking me for the party and how much they had all enjoyed it. They must have as they stayed 8 hours (2-10pm) but that’s the way it is with old friends – time flies in good company.
Lately pink has become popular in home decor as an accent color, because it’s supposed to be calming, but it’s too trendy for me in the house. While I may admire pink kitchen cupboards in a decorating magazine I don’t want to live with them for years. Recently a house went up for sale in my neighbourhood with the original pink bathtub, sink, and toilet from the 1960’s and a younger person I know thought it was cool as all that retro stuff is back in. It was listed by the original owner, a man in his early nineties, who’d obviously never spend any money on it. It had the original wallpaper too – you could have filmed a remake of the Brady Bunch there.
But if do find pink to be cheerful outside. My garden is predominately shades of pink, which give a splash of color everywhere you look, with a bit of purple and blue. A wise gardener once told me that for maximum impact go for a single dominant color, although a variety of colors seems to more popular. I planted some of those too, with zinnias and gladioli this year.
My garden has been neglected for the past four years, but it’s starting to look in better shape now, and I actually bought some hanging baskets this year, which haven’t done too badly considering the strange weather we’ve had so far. So join me while we visit the pinks in my yard.
I bought these vibrant pink geranium baskets for the back yard, as I enjoy looking out my kitchen window in the morning and seeing this bright pop of color.
But I bought these mixed ones for the front, as I liked the idea of the two-tone color with the brighter centre and hoped it would go better with the roses, which it didn’t really, but it’s still a riot of color.
Impatiens are back in style, and seem to be more disease resistant now. I had mine in early so they’ve already spread out quite a bit. They like shade so they’re along the fence where my neighbours cedar hedge hangs overhead.
I bought these dianthus for the first time, as they looked so nice and they reminded me of carnations. The pink watering can has sun-faded over the years.
These pink peonies are my favourites.
Pink peony with visitor…
I never bring them indoors though, even if they look nice as a centrepiece, as the ants like them too!
Mosaic turtle hanging out with the peonies.
I don’t like these peonies as they’re too pale – sometimes the nursery tags can be deceiving, but they’re in and they flower, so there they will stay.
Rain soaked tree peony
A tree peony in my neighbourhood flowers in May – I tried to find one but they were out of pink and cost $60, and I’d already spent too much replacing nine of my pink Knock-Out rose bushes.
I am a Charlie Brown rose bush….
I had twenty of these at one time, but when they reach the end of their life-span of 10-12 years they get either spindly or woody in the centre. I planted gladioli behind them along the house as an experiment for some August color.
I’ve never seen the lavender bloom so early.
The bright roses came with the house, they must be over 50 years old, and are prolific bloomers. They can be fuchsia or red or sometimes both. I googled to see what causes roses to change color, and it can be a number of factors, the age, the grafting process, the soil Ph, the time of the season etc.
I tucked this pink climber repeat bloomer in behind it about ten years ago, and it has done well too.
This is a newer pink climber in the back yard, one of those end of season bargains that you think will never grow, and it has, although it’s taken awhile to get established.
But it’s doing well now.
An older John Cabot climber enjoying the early evening sunshine.
The Dipladenia has recovered from a very cold May. I saved the pink pots from a few years ago. It’s cheaper to make your own basket than to spend $40 on one, as they have become very popular the past few years due to being so drought resistant.
That concludes the pink tour, but later there will be pink hydrangeas, some phlox, and hopefully some pink glads and zinnias which I put in window boxes around the garden for later, so there will always be something in the pink.
Are you supposed to deadhead these things?
Now, you might think I am a wonderful gardener, because everything looks so bright and lovely early in the season, but later things will start to slowly die, as I lose my enthusiasm over the course of the summer and neglect to water because it’s just way to hot to go out, there are too many mosquitos at night and other assorted excuses. But for the month of June my garden always look pretty in pink!
And lastly, because one does not live by beauty alone….
One of the things I missed about blogging was that it encouraged me to focus on the positive things in life – good books, good food, new experiences and the beauty of the nature. I’ve started walking again, although my stamina isn’t what it used to be, and one of my favorite sights this spring was this expanse of wild daffodils nestled among the wooded acreage of an old mansion. Whoever planted these heirloom bulbs years ago, deserves credit for spreading such joy every spring. The video is only ten seconds, but it’s my first time uploading video so I hope it works.
These are from my garden, which has been sadly neglected over the past three years. No spring clean up going on here! I did plant 100 bulbs last fall, so I would have something to look forward to, but they barely made a dent. The daffodils were cheerful though, and the Siberian squill/wood squill/scilla bloomed at the same time. The woods above also have scilla, although they must have bloomed earlier this year. It’s always nice to have the contrast of yellow with blue or purple.
Although my grape hyacinths didn’t bloom until after the daffodils were done.
And the purple vinca later still.
These bell shaped blue flowers I bought at the horticultural society plant sale five years ago, are faithful spring arrivals.
There, I remembered how to do media. I bought a new camera in the fall of 2022, but I never really learned how to use it, so when I shot the photos in the woods, the camera setting was mistakenly on burst 4K video. So I had to figure out how to make screenshots of the video bursts and then crop the bottom play part out, which took more time than I care to admit. I hope you enjoy these early signs of spring. Stay tuned for next week, A Walk in the Spring Woods.
It’s been a bad year for gardening. I’ve done very little other than admire the flowers which survived the harsh winter, both mine and other people’s. I lost several lavender bushes, a favorite purple clematis, two older established John Cabot/David Austen rose bushes, and most of the ever-bearing strawberry plants. Other things came up looking pathetic including my hardy Knock Out Roses which did not seem as lush this year especially the ones facing north, not to mention a half dead birch tree and lilac bush. Blame it on the weird spring, with the temperatures yoyoing up and down so much.
In early May when all the hanging baskets were out for Mother’s Day, it seemed too cold to be buying plants which I would only have to bring in and out of the garage. So I waited until it got warmer. Then it was too hot, then cool again…..by then I had waited too long to buy dipladenia – all the pink ones were sold out. I was busy was other things and then it was too late for anything, although I did scoop up three Red Twig Dogwood bushes for half price to try and replace the privacy hedge the new neighbours had cut down. (Why oh why?) Otherwise my sole flower expenditure this year was a hibiscus plant, plus some lettuce seeds (I couldn’t find seedlings), one beefsteak tomato, and a new rhubarb plant. The plus side of not having any hanging baskets is not having to water, as rain has not been as plentiful either and now in mid-July the lawns are as dry as August, although we did get a glorious rain this morning.
Here’s a mini-tour of the good and the bad.
My mothers purple geraniums, with a twenty year spread.Her honeysuckle bush, which is almost too sweet smelling to me.My fuchsia clematis did well and is inching it’s way up the side arbor.The purple clematis was very prolific too at climbing the garden shed.I had better luck turning the hydrangeas blue this year due to a double dose of aluminum sulfate, which has gone way up in price, but note the dead lavender bush in front of it.The rest of the lavender was meh, although the butterflies enjoyed it.One bloom-again lilac bush did well, the other is half dead. My regular lilac bushes had very few blooms. Ignore the weeds, I did. (Note – Creeping Charlie cannot be halted without pesticides which are illegal here.) I had five of these pink dipladenia pots last year, but they sold out early as everyone now knows they are drought resistant.My solitary flower purchase – a pink hibiscus. As for the vegetable garden, I planted five packages of lettuce, all different varieties, three came up, one mixed salad variety was so strangely peppery tasting that it was inedible, even to the rabbits which snuck under the chickenwire. The hardware store sold out of chickenwire so I couldn’t even reinforce it. These bush beans are from a freebie packet the library was giving away as part of the One Tomato project. They are supposed to be purple but turn green when cooked….we shall see…. The rhubarb was thin and spindly, but at least the bunnies didn’t make a nest under it like they did last year. I haven’t harvested it yet. I bought another plant for next to it in case it’s lonely. As seen in the neighborhood – a grass-cutting robot? It wasn’t doing a very good job as it was zigzagging all over and banging into trees like a drunken soldier. I’ve never heard of such a thing so maybe it was an indoor Roomba which went rogue! (I googled – The Terra is made by the same company IRobot and retails for around $1000 – it probably needed to be set up or maybe it was giddy from escaping to the great outdoors?)And last but not least, this month’s puzzle – my kind of gardening this year!
Yellow and purple are complimentary colors Common in the first flowers of spring – like crocus and Hyacinths Which contrasts nicely with yellow daffodils Cheerful pansies in bright and pale shades Violets sprinkled across the lawn make the dandelions look sunny Bright purple vinca stands out as does the regal purple iris. And last but not least forsythia – the welcome sign of spring!
The lawn is littered with leaves from the windstorm last week. The tips of the leaves are starting to change. The sun is still warm but the air feels cooler and the days are getting shorter. Summer is over. I’ve been on a blogging hiatus for the past two months, but thought I would post some garden pictures from the last few months as a last look at the season.
We’ve had so much rain this summer that the vinca outgrew the pots….a bargain that I will definitely be buying again next year.
And the color went nicely with the pink Knock-Out roses.
The dipladenia did well too. Like it’s cousin the mandevilla, it’s a tropical plant which thrived in this year’s sauna-like weather.
I bought a blue lightweight collapsible patio hose, (in the background below), but it rained so often, that I only used it a couple of times. This was the first year I bought begonias – only because I couldn’t find pink geraniums.
Sometimes they looked okay, but sometimes they just had too much rain or not enough sun or something.
I think I prefer geraniums.
The clematis did so well, that for the first time it actually grew over the arch of the arbor.
It was lush with greenery, but not with flowers.
Sometimes seed packages can be misleading….these look blue and pink to me?
But I got deep purple morning glories and fuchsia zinnias…..
These morning glories turned out pink, but I could have sworn that package was blue too?
My neighbor’s lotus flower was only out for three hours….they have short life-spans….but it was perfection while it bloomed.
A sunny break from all that pink…
More mellow yellow….
The new lavender plants did well, the new rose bushes not so much….
As for the vegetable garden, I’ve never seen so much lettuce, all from four boxes of seedlings and two packages of seeds. I didn’t have to buy lettuce all summer and even had enough to share with the neighbors. Same with the tomatoes the whole month of August….from two seedlings, one beefsteak and one Roma, although the beefsteak were on the small side, probably from lack of sun.
I was pleased with my Brussel Sprout plant too….a new experiment for me. Fellow blogger, Dorothy, of Dorothy’s New Vintage Kitchen, (see recipe for sweet and sour brussel sprouts), advised me to prune the leaves off so it resembled a pineapple, as that helps the plant to concentrate it’s growth towards the sprouts. The few I have been able to harvest were tasty little things, but they were difficult to remove from the stem, so I think they have to mature a bit more. I hated brussel sprouts when I was a kid – the smell of these min-cabbages reminded me of my grandmother’s house – but they are full of vitamins and antioxidants, so I’ve learned to appreciate them. While the rain made everything flourish, and it was nice not to have to drag the hose around watering, the heat and humidity and mosquitoes made sitting outside unpleasant, both day and night. So much for enjoying the garden or the beauty of nature.
We’ve had very few of the sunny blue-sky, low-humidity days that I remember summer being about. I don’t mind the hot temperatures, but the humidity just saps my energy, and the gloomy skies don’t help either. I took to walking in the cool of the evening, but even then some nights the air was so thick I couldn’t walk at all.
Even now, the end of September, the weather continues warmer than usual. We haven’t had any those brisk, frost-warning fall days yet. Usually this time of year, I’m more than ready for the change of seasons, but not this year. It’s like I’m still waiting for the real summer to happen. It was the summer that wasn’t summer. Will this be the new norm?
I don’t mean to be a whiner, in view of the many areas of the world facing drought and wildfires, but it makes me wonder if we’re ruining the earth, or maybe have already ruined it?
There’s still time for one last bonfire…..under a full moon.
And one last look at the lake…
And also time to plan for next year….
PS. I have no idea why there are two different sizes of font in this post, and some of it showed up as captions? It was all in regular font in the draft version – maybe I’ve been away too long…..
The Secret Garden (goodreads link) is a children’s book by Frances Hodgson Burnett about an orphaned girl who discovers a locked abandoned garden on her uncle’s British estate. First published in 1911, it has been made into a movie numerous times, most recently in 2020 with Colin Firth in a cameo role as the uncle. As I enjoyed re-reading Anne of Green Gablesso much I’m adding this one to my To Read list, and the movie also, as I’ve heard the cinematography is stunning, especially as there won’t be any garden tours again this summer.
After five months in lock-down we are slowly and cautiously reopening, with ten people allowed for an outdoor gathering in stage one, and the rest of the stages contingent on receiving second doses earlier than our scheduled 16 weeks apart. Although they are trying to speed things up, only 17% of the population have received two doses so far, and with the shot being only 30% effective against the Delta variant after one dose, I think my garden will be remaining secret for awhile longer. It’s a shame not to be able to share all the loveliness, so please join me for a tour of what’s new and what grew.
The weather has been weird and wacky all spring, an unseasonable hot spell the first of April, followed by a cold month, then hot and humid again in May, then cold with frost warnings at night, then hot and humid again and despite thunderclouds no rain for two weeks….and all this by mid-June! Most things in the garden bloomed earlier than usual and have already come and gone, (see Wordless Wednesday Peonies) or are past their peak. The roses (see Wordless Wednesday Roses blog) have become blowzy and even with succession planting I’m wondering what there will be left to look now that summer has officially arrived. Wilted hydrangeas perhaps?
Lots of flower buds on the ones which didn’t get tinged by frost.
Morning glories and zinnias if they survive the heat and the weed-wacker?
I liked the pink centres and they’re already up an inch along the back fence.
My lily of the valley, seen here peeking out from around the Dipladenia plant, was just starting to bloom but after being hit by frost the delicate little flowers turned brown overnight.
The daisies were particularly abundant this year and early as they are usually July flowers.
My regular Common Lilac bushes were duds flower-wise again this year, although they have lots of foliage. I was disappointed in these Bloom Again Lilacs too which I bought two years ago. The flowers are small and the bush spindly, without much greenery. They smell nice but I would not plant these again, as I do not like wimpy bushes. I like things which make a statement!
Prep Work: For me the fun is in the planning and buying, not the watering (I try) and weeding (I don’t). Whereas last year my entire garden expenditure was $8 (two tomato plants and some lettuce), this year I shopped, even if the selection was poor due to the yo-yo spring and the rationing by suppliers, the result of a lack of seasonal migrant workers due to COVID so one nursery owner informed me. I bought (but wisely) as I figured if I’m stuck at home I want pretty…….preferably in pink!
Vinca and begonias waiting to be planted. The planter box is painted in Molokai Blue.
Nice hanging baskets were scarce and expensive so I did my own pots using vinca instead of my usual geraniums and petunias. I’ve never bought vinca before but it’s heat tolerant and looked bright and cheerful. Plus at $4 a pot and two per basket, it’s a cheap alternative if you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. (I’ve found those vinyl pandemic gloves very useful for gardening – just throw them away.)
I put some in my ceramic planter, where I would normally have wave petunias, also in short supply this year.
They’ve already spread out so much I probably could have just planted one per container.
The navy ceramic planter came with a couple of matching pails which I couldn’t pass up. Winners/Homesense had a whole gardening line of the same pattern but the thing about that discount store is if you see something buy it, as if you go home and think about it it’s always gone when you go back.
A floral pail can be a beautiful thing!
Seeing this colorful pot of pink vinca from my kitchen window every morning is a nice way to greet the day.
The mosaic bistro table was another Homesense find.
The Subject was Roses: I had to replace one dead Knock-Out Rose from last year when I couldn’t find any stock and I transplanted three others with too much dead wood, so four pink Double Knock-outs went on my list. At $25 per pot these are worth it as they are repeat bloomers and provide beauty all summer. The double pink can be hard to find although there are always plenty of red ones. The ones I moved are doing poorly from transplant shock as they had been in for ten years so I’m not sure if they will survive. (For more on Knock-outs’ check last years post – link) I wish Knock-outs had a climbing rose, but they don’t and the nurseries were all sold out of climbers. I finally located some “John Davis” ones at a pop-up nursery at $8 per pot so bought three for in front of some bare trellis. They’re small and not quite the color I wanted but the other choice was a clematis and I wasn’t happy with that selection either, although I did buy one “The First Lady” a pale lavender, also $8. One upscale nursery had Clematis for $49 per pot! The prices have really skyrocketed this year, (supply and demand), things sold out early and it’s even hard to find bags of garden soil.
The plant in the blue pot above is an Italian Bugloss, a hardy perennial which can grow to four feet, so I planted it in front of a trellis. It likes sun and attracts butterflies. It appealed to me in the nursery because of it’s bright gentian-blue color (I’m partial to blue – see The Blue Garden) so I overlooked the fact that even at $16 it appeared scraggly and half dead from lack of watering. I try and add something new every year, even if it’s something I’ve never heard of. Later I saw it on a list of easy to grow no-maintenance perennial favorites in a gardening magazine.
I’ve discovered the name of this blue plant from last year which I did not remember buying but might have been from the annual horticultural sale. It’s a Virginia Bluebell and bloomed well this year too. It likes shade and blooms in late spring.
I bought two Lavender plants ($4 each) as you can never have too much lavender, although these were an organic Blue lavender instead of my regular English type. I planted one in front of a hole under the deck hoping the smell might deter the mice and/or other creatures from establishing an empire underneath, the other went in a blue pot until I can figure out where to plant it, probably to replace something which will inevitably die.
I had good luck with Dipladenias two years ago so I bought three pink ones ($7 each) for my pink recycled plastic pots. I’m always up for a bargain especially with annuals. They’re similar to a Mandevilla, are drought resistant and repeat bloomers, and give the the deck that tropical feel, like you might be on vacation somewhere exotic instead of stuck at home. They come in red and white too.
The lavender is blooming already too.
The Russian sage/lavender/pink knock outs make a nice contrasting mix.
Of course one cannot live on flowers alone, so the vegetable garden went in early too and seems to be thriving….four kinds of lettuce, some from seed and some seedlings, carrots, cucumber and pole beans, plus the everbearing strawberry plants if the birds don’t get them first.
Already harvested and sharing the bounty with neighbours.
And for the first time I planted brussel sprouts as they are supposed to be good for you.
Wish List: for when the end of July nursery sales come on, I’m looking for a rhododendron although they are hard to grow here. I tend to scoop up my perennials on the bargain table.
What I’m Reading: My (virtual) library bookclub is currently reading The Last Garden in England,(link) a three generational story about restoring a historic British garden. A light fluffy read if you’re a garden fan, although the garden was incidental to the story and I don’t think there will be much to discuss.
And last but not least, a study in pink, one of mom’s paintings.
An heirloom rosebush which came with the house. and blooms faithfully and abundantly every year. Behind it near the trellis is a repeat pink climber planted a few years ago. They seem to live in harmony despite the close quarters and clashing colors. Another climber on the back arbor……the one on the other side died from lack of sun. An old pale pink Austen climber which gets too much shade to bloom much. And my favorite repeat bloomer the Knock-Out rose of which I now have 25!
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