Mid-June Vegetable Garden

It's already heating up and the warm-weather crops are starting to come on!

Spring veggies are struggling.

 

Overview.

My daughter's garden.

Oldest son's garden.

We've been harvesting beets, spinach, and swiss chard from the kids' plots.

This oregano has since been chopped back, and the stems/leaves dehydrated.

1 1/2 quarts this time.

spinach, carrots, beets

Our unseasonably hot June has meant that these are struggling.

I did finally put down compost between the rows, which has helped some with water retention in the heat.

Potatoes looking great and starting to flower.

 

Middle Terrace:

These pole peas are also struggling.

My mini pumpkins coming up.

 

Regular pumpkins starting to get some growth, as well.

The feathery plant in the background is a self-seeded cosmo.

 

Onions, more volunteer cosmos, plus a few zinnias just starting to poke through.

 

My youngest son's garden patch:

beets, carrots, and peas, looking bushy and healthy

 

I think the cucumbers are going to love this hot weather!

They're starting to climb the trellis.

 

After getting some new seed from a friend, I finally have a few zucchini growing.

 

 

Top Terrace:

Tomatoes, basil, thyme, and marigolds.

Starting to fill out a little.

 

This is strawberry season, but I have not gotten any pictures of it.

We have not had as good a harvest as last year, but have had some.

Containers out Front

We had a new porch built this year, including some built-in platforms for flowers.

Yay!

So I rounded up some of my blue pots and got to work.

 

 

I decided to do these ones in front all the same, which is quite unlike me.

Since they're on the stairs going up, I thought it would make more of an impact to have similar plants in each one.

 

For height and color, and those awesome spoon-shaped petals, I put in Osteospermum 'Flower Power Spider Purple.'  It says it blooms spring and fall, if you cut it back late summer. I hope it won't go completely dormant in between but I guess I'll find out.

To add another punch of color, I put a dahlia in each as well, 'Dahlinova,' variegated petals, pink/purple/white.

Fuschia petunias round off the flowers.

For greenery, each container has an asparagus fern 'Sprengeri', and a purple-leaved sweet potato vine, Ipomea batatas 'Sweet Caroline Red.'

I'm already liking how they look together.

I hope this combination powers on through until fall!

 

I still need to plant my other containers for the back deck.

That will probably happen this week. 

June Bloom Day: Roses, daylilies, & salvia

 

Welcome to my little corner of the earth!

I garden in Eastern Washington state, USA, zone 5b.

We have been having an unusually warm summer so far. My flowers haven't seemed to mind!

Now to just keep them watered.

 

I'll start out back:

 

Mockorange is loaded!

I love the height these lilies have added behind it, as well.

I'm pretty sure these are 'Rosellas's Dream.'

This is their 3rd summer, and the tallest they've gotten yet.

 

Continuing the pink and white theme back here at the moment, is this rapidly growing clump of hardy geraniums. I'm impressed how they are holding their own amongst everything else.

 

English rose 'Abraham Darby.'

To say I was excited to see this one blooming would be a vast understatement.

I just put it in a few months ago, and while it's only about 18" high, it has had 6 or 7 blooms on it this year! They smell fantastic. As it continues to grow, I'm planning to train it up a trellis.

 

Moving to the back slope:

I've got a couple of these pink lupines blooming!

I didn't expect them to this first year.

I put them in to help fill in this ugly dirt patch up at the top of the vegetable garden (courtesy of last summer's wall-building project.) May their seeds spread far and wide! 

 

Pink clover and wild lupines

 

2 shades of wild purple lupines.

I wouldn't mind if the whole slope was taken over by lupines.

I let every one grow up that I can.

In fact, there are 2 growing right now in amongst my vegetable garden. I'm going to let them get big, then transplant them up.

 

Front flowerbeds: 

Salvia, English rose 'William Shakespeare' about to bloom, and daylilies in front.

This salvia bush looks like a hybrid, with 2 colors. Actually, the pink in front is a volunteer from the other side of the flowerbed.

Asiatic daylilies and salvia.

Another 'William Shakespeare,' this one blooming already.

More daylilies, salvia, and catmint in the far background.

Oh, and one little miniature rose.

The blue delphiniums in back are new this year.

I hope they survive to grow tall for me next summer.

Up on the top terrace, hardy hydrangea buds are just starting to pop.

I really like how they open a few at a time.

 

As you may have noticed, I really love pinks and purples. :)

I hope you enjoyed this little tour.

Come again soon!

To see more beautiful blooms, visit: May Dreams Gardens.

End of May Views: Irises & Peonies

 

Welcome friends!

I garden in Eastern Washington state, zone 5.

 

Usually there is a lull in my garden around this time of year: the spring bulbs have all finished and the roses have yet to start. This year has been a little different. A warm spring has brought about early roses blooming, and my poppies really stepped it up this year to fill in that gap.

 

Must have more poppies! 

 

p.s. Just heard a loud thunderclap. Guess I won't have to water tomorrow! Yes!

 

Back Flowerbed

Back bed overview, deck looking to fence.

'Yellow Topaz' rose blooming early

I love the scent of these roses, but they shatter so easily that I don't try to pick them any more.

Mockorange starting to open up.

Back bed overview, looking toward deck.

These penstemon right in front are bee magnets!

They are always humming every time I walk by.

I haven't seen any hummingbirds sipping from them, though I've heard they attractive to hummingbirds. Maybe I don't have enough planted.

The poppies always look really orange in pictures.

In person they're more of a peachy pink.

Either way I'm loving them!

 

Back Slope

For anyone new here, my back slope has terraced vegetable garden beds, then the rest is pretty much weedy grass, some wildflowers, and aspen trees.

These geraniums are not wild--I moved them from the back bed after we moved here a few years back. They are thriving in the dry shade on this side of the slope.

I don't even pick out the long weed grass that comes up between them anymore.

Or the dandelions, as you can see.

Wild daisies and lupines.

Isn't this one pretty?

I think my wild lupines back here are hybridizing.

I've never seen a bicolor like this one blooming back here before.

I just planted several pink ones, hoping that they will be able to live in the clay soil like their wild counterparts. (And also hoping to get some more hybrids!)

 

East-side Terrace

 

Ninebark blooms.

I didn't realize that this pretty little shrub would bloom. Bonus!

 

 Front Terraced Flowerbeds

Have you noticed how everything is terraced?

Welcome to my world!

 

The potentilla in front is always a pretty little accent to the stars of the show: the irises!

I added the alliums last summer, so I'm glad to see them blooming.

Not sure what variety they are, since they were a pass-along.

Peonies in back: 'Top Brass' (the white) and 'Paula Fay' (pink).

The white ones smell exquisite, while the scent of the pink is faintly reminiscent of a rotten potato.

Up front, the pink salvia is a volunteer from the other side of the flowerbed! 

The purple doesn't seem to mind so I'm leaving it for now.

 

Close-up of the 'Top Brass' peony.

This flower is sort of funny-looking, and I mean that in the nicest way.

White skirt, poofy yellow middle, then that awesomely ridiculous little fluff of pink on the very top. It's like a cupcake decorated by a 3 year old!

It makes me smile every time I see it!

Geranium 'Rozanne' (I think)

Front corner.

 

Now for those gorgeous irises!

 

 

More of the alliums I put in last summer.

I just love these flowers!

 

I'm not sure which variety of iris these little white ones are.

They were also a pass-along, so if you know, do tell!

{sigh}

Love it.

 

Street view.

'Rose Glow' barberry adding some color to this part of the terrace.

 

Columbine, wild daisies (yes, in my flowerbed!), and the sorbaria playing so well together.

 

Front Porch Bed 

 

 Last but not least, I've been enjoying the subtler colors and patterns of this little flowerbed, whenever I can tear my eyes away from the irises, that is!

 

Heuchera and euonymous

 

spirea in bloom

I like how the white on green echoes the foliage of the euonymous right now.

No, I did not get the both in the same picture.

Next time!

 

Thanks for taking a look around with me!

Check out other gardens at: The Patient Gardener

I hope to hear from you again soon!