June

Happy vacation to me. Until almost the end of August. I'm trying to prepare for knee surgery hopefully this fall and want to get my house in order. Especially my bedroom. Declutter and get a mini fridge, ice maker, and possibly small microwave for my bedroom which should help so I don't have to keep climbing up and down steps. Never thought I'd get a knee replacement, but my quality of life has become a factor along with pain all day and night every day. Not to mention the disability that comes with arthritis. I'm still gardening.

My cabbages are actually starting to make heads. This picture was taken last week. This week the tiny heads can be seen. My containers are at my sister's house. I followed the sun since there is dappled shad in my yard. Swiss chard is planted on the side. I also sowed seeds of small round carrots but only one seedling came up. 

Four tomatoes and three hot peppers. The eggplant is my sister's seedling.

My sister's lily. Such a beautiful color.

Started out with that many cabbages but let them die. What would I have done with that many any way?

Swiss chard was planted in my yard and hasn't done well with little sun.

My peppers made it and are planted at my sister's house although I had a problem with spider mites on them. They lost all their leaves and blooms but they grew back and now are making peppers.

Shade planter out front.

My dragon wing begonia seedlings. They haven't bloomed yet.

I like the ruffled edges. Color like my chocolate mint coleus seedling without the ruffles

My chocolate mint coleus seedling.

I'm lost for words for it's name. But you know what it is. (dahlias)

 

Zinnia and nasturtium seedlings.

Bee Balm

Coreopsis

Can't remember which daisy this is.

Sunflowers are getting taller.   

Hollyhocks planted last year. What is going on with that container? Don't know. Nothing has done really well in it this spring. We had a soaking rain this morning and all the plants are dry.

The yarrow gets taller each year. This is the second year since planted.

On the porch.

Hoya and ric rac cactus are back on the porch for the summer.

What is summer without a fern.

Currently reading a few pages each day. I like it. Also bought Viola Davis's new book to read this summer.

Sorry for any blurry pictures in the yard. I have a love hate relationship with my yard. It has eaten up lots of money in plants that didn't survive dry dappled shade. Finally found a hydrangea that loves it here. Our native smooth leaf hydrangea arborescens. Ordered one last year and 2 more arrive next week. Impatiens and discounted brunnera to go in the containers on the table. I'm learning that everything won't live in dry dappled shade. It has it's advantages though. It's always cool under the shaded trees and attracts loads of birds and wild life. I've heard many new unidentified bird sounds this spring. That's been exciting. Spotted the first catbird in the yard looking for insects, hopping along. Maybe it's making all the new sounds. I won't start feeding them again until the fall but until then they're enjoying the bird bath and digging for worms and insects. The yard has lots of earth worms. This spring there were lots of robins feasting.

Lady hydrangea. Love that it can be cut to the ground in fall and it grows again in the spring. Hopefully the blooms will be as large as last years.

Flower bed needs to be dug up again and the bricks lined up. Planter on the fence needs to be replanted as the pansies have died. Two box woods need to be pruned to have a shape. And I'll add a little color with impatiens and begonias waiting on the porch.

Several plants died in my blue container since planting early this spring including foxgloves, pansies, and columbine. Hopefully columbine is only sleeping until spring. I'll get around to adding impatiens, another hardy fern, and brunnera. There are also 2 oakleaf hydrangea that are doing well but growing slowly in the cedar container near the fence. Asters are next to them. They bloom in the fall. Hope you're having a good time in the soil.

Let's Catch Up

 It's been a while. 

Lack of interest on my part to take pictures. There was also technical difficulty with my computer and camera. These pictures were mostly taken with my cell phone, some with an old digital camera. Spring arrived but our weather has been crazy from heat to freezing weather even snow. 

                 The shade planter. Added Autumn and native maidenhair fern, my chocolate mint coleus and another purple ruffled coleus, and finally nettle that has pink blooms. Until the pansies start to look bad. Then I'll add my dragon wing begonia seedlings and some impatiens.

The Broom bush. Invasive and banned in some places due to fires. It was loaded with buzzing bees and has been in bloom for several weeks. I wish the blooms could last all season.

I squeezed in some seeds which may take a while to germinate.

My allium heads are small this year for some reason. The heads are usually large. Don't know what happened this year.

That's supposed to be a peach foxglove not yellow and I prefer the tall ones. The foxgloves that I grew from seed reseeded for years and were tall. But for some reason they didn't come back this year. This disappointed me. I'll start some seedlings hopefully this summer. Next to the foxglove is a holly hock. This is it's second years so it should bloom this year.

I have seedlings coming up that must have self sown. Some look like zinnias and annual salvia. Nice to get volunteers. The small purple flower is stock.

My narcissus are finishing. They were beautiful in the container when fresh and in the second floor window box. Dahlia tubers planted in the blue container. 

Plant mail waiting for me after work. I put my bag on the chair, swept the sidewalk and opened my mail. 

Blueberry I thing Top Hat. Self pollinating and supposedly small and good for containers. My Chicago Hardy Fig Died over the winter.

 

                                               Tulip Tom Pounce. I think I spelled it's name                                                            correctly.

Viola Etain

Planted in my daughter's window box. 

Amaryllis from November finally planted. I have one more that needs planting.

Fragrant ginger from Easy To Grow Bulbs. I also ordered the edible tumeric type, gloriosa lilies, and freesias. 

One nice sized gloriosa lily and a smaller one. The blooms will be yellow.

Earlier pictures of tomatoes which are much larger now and ready to go outside this weekend. Three went to my neighbor.

My seedlings did well this winter except for nasturtiums. Only 3 plants out of many sowed. I direct sowed a package where I want them yesterday. Salvia seedlings that started to bloom indoors along with red petunias. 

Cabbages, nasturtiums, and 3 coleus chocolate mint. The coleus are normal sized now and outdoors in my container. I let all of the cabbages die except 3. They could have been transplanted outside in March.

Swiss Chard Seedlings

Peppers before spider mites.

Dragon wing begonia seedlings. Verbena Officinalis, gomphrena, and nicotiana seedlings were planted outside yesterday. Nicotiana is a plant that every garden should have. It's easy to grow from seed. Seedlings are sturdy and last year mine bloomed past our initial frost and was still going. Can't ask for more than that. I hope you're having a beautiful spring.

First to Bloom

Dwarf Iris Reticulata. First to bloom on the sun porch.

They're getting ready. I have to unstack them so they have room to emerge. I did check the containers below and those that had started to grow went on top. First, the remains of firewood in back of the containers have to be restacked in another place to make room. Today I repotted my seedlings of hot/sweet pepper, tomatoes, salvia, Swiss chard, and petunias. Verbena, coleus, nasturtium, nicotiana, and gloriosa daisy may be started this weekend. It's getting late. Three small bulbs from ornamental sweet potato vine saved from last years plant and seeds saved from lantana  are also waiting to be planted. I've never tried lantana seeds before.