Strolling in the Mid Summer Garden

To say that this year’s garden is better than last year’s would be too easy.

Last year we were in the middle of a drought combined with mind-numbing heat. My favorite weather guy started a count of how many days in a row we had above 90 degrees.

If not being able to tolerate that kind of weather makes me a wimp, so be it.

But this year’s garden is different not just because of the milder summer. I have taken a more active role regarding the volunteer plants that are pretty but in the wrong spots.

Side view of the front garden

In the front garden I planned better for the fall in which I have always wanted to have Flowering Cabbage.  The husband picked up several plants for me and I worked it around a mum that was given to me. They are lying low in the front while the mid-section of the garden is filled with white Shasta daisies and purple cone flowers.

I love this section but plantings never seem to survive here. I have mixed in quite a few perennials as well as thrown in hundreds of seeds. Nothing comes back the following year. Early spring seedings fail. Once the season is over I might have to work over the space and have my husband or son overturn part of the space with compost.

Frenchie the dog

 

My other solution is to fill the site with statuary. This guy used to belong to  a man by the name of Frenchie. But he died and the dog went to our neighbors who sold him when they moved away. Sadly, the last set of owners managed to break off his nose and right paw. My son and his friend retrieved Frenchie from the dump for me and placed him in his new spot. At some point I must repair him.

Hollyhocks and Sunflowers

Now if you look on the west side of the house, you will see Hollyhocks  and Sunflowers co-habitating easily. Black-eyed Susans fill the lower spaces.

Four O’Clocks

But walk a few more steps at the right time of day and you will be greeted by a mass of Four O’Clocks. They prefer to bloom in the shade and get it on that side of the house during morning hours. My grandmother had these on the west side of her house but a tree gave shade in the afternoon so they burst out every day at the end of the day.

Gourd Vine

On the other side of the house is a new planting – bird house gourds. The problem is my vines are growing great but there is no fruit. I have flowers but they are not moving into fruit as one would expect. Bees have recently moved into a pillar on the front porch. I am hoping this will begin the fertilization process.

New Growth

Finally, I have made progress on the new rose bush. There are budding branches turning into growing green stuff. It is exciting to watch as this plant was delivered to me and needed planting almost immediately. I over-watered at first but then corrected myself, putting the new bush on the same schedule as the old one.

My neighbor states an old proverb about transplanting roses. The first year it survives, the second year it is live, the third year it thrives.

How is your garden growing this summer?

 

Related posts:

Working in the Spring Garden

 Working the Hosta Bed

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Discoveries in the spring garden

My Garden is really growing now. The peony bushes are standing tall and the spider wort grassy stalks are nice and thick.

I have volunteer plants coming up everyday. Some I know right off and others I am taking a guess at who they are. Now I have to decide who gets to stay and who does not!

The Obedience plant which will get a nice stalk of flowers late in the summer. It can also handle when times get dry.

Lets start with the Obedience plant. I like these in the back of the garden because they do get about three feet high. This one will get white flowers that the butterflies love. I have another grouping with darker green leaves that have a light purple flower. Mixed in all of that are the ones that have cross pollinated and have a light pink flower. It is a keeper until the plant roams to far forward.

Sunflower seedlings

Sunflowers can be a great flower. Kids love them and so do the birds.

But a weed is anything that you do not want in a specific patch and I do not want these in this spot.  When they first started coming up I was not sure what they were so I waited to see what the seedlings would be.

There had been a multiple sunflower hanging over that spot last year, so I think my guess is correct. Sometime this week, sadly, these seedlings are being given the boot.

Black Eyed Susan, heat tolerant and quite hardy.

The one corner of my garden always has these Black Eyed Susan’s. I enjoy the oval-shaped leaves that grow in  a cluster. The flowers will come in July all bright yellow with that nice black center.

Their height is only about 2 feet for the plant but the flowers soar another foot after that. I try to get Shasta Daisies in the garden so they can look good off of each other. I have not had any luck getting my Shasta daisies to come back despite mounding with compost in the fall. So in a few weeks I will be buying those and cone flowers to fill in my from periannual bed.

I have more pictures but it will have to wait another day.