More Garden Photos

I've finally been able to spend a couple days cleaning up the yard and everything is coming in nicely. I am particularly excited about the new irises. We planted them about four years ago but this is the first they are blooming. They were well worth the wait. How amazing they look. The wisteria is on the verge of blooming as well and takes up just under half of the pergola. I am guessing it will look great in another week.

Summer Garden Photos

It has been an odd gardening year at the Tiny Bungalow. I haven't had much time to devote to keeping things up but luckily, the weather has cooperated and things have been both cool and wet. That has kept the flowers in nice shape for most of the season. I am hoping I can do some more work on expanding the front beds and also clean up and expand the plantings in the back. I guess time will tell. Until then, I am just going to enjoy the blooms.

Warning: animals were harmed in the making of this blog

I had a very busy day in the yard today. I've been meaning to get rid of the final two vibernum bushes for some time now but keep finding excuses not to. That was until today. I took them down and dug them up and packed them into six garden bags and they are now gone.

I hope to have the rest of the border on this side of the yard filled with flowers next year. Already, it makes the yard look huge. It is a little disconcerting to see the neighbor's shit-bucket and grill but it will all grow in quick enough.

 On a more exciting, in a Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom sort of way, I saw our first praying mantis in the yard. My wife found it as it was making a lot of noise trying to eat a cicada. Actually, it was the cicada making all the noise. The cicada got away but the preying mantis stayed behind. He

It was very photogenic and even caught one of our bumble bees to munch on. It was wild to watch as it ripped off the back part of its body, discarding the stinger and then started munching on the rest. 



Fun with concrete in the garden

About four years ago, my daughter made a couple stepping tiles for the garden. One was a father-daughter project that we did one summer afternoon. The other was a project she did while at pre-K.

Last year I bought the supplies to make a few more but never got around to it. Yesterday we did another batch of stepping tiles and they came out pretty good.

We also decided to try to make something new. I had this idea to cast bowls and other objects because I thought the forms would be interesting for the garden. I had a left-over light globe and my daughter taped glass tiles to the inside surface and then we filled it with concrete. I think we can perfect the process but it still looks pretty cool. It kind of reminds of a mini Death Star or that hovering ball from the movie Phantasm but I like it and we'll probably make some more.

We still have plenty of glass left and we haven't tried out the flower mold yet so I think we may be making more of these over Memorial Day weekend.

Elsewhere in the garden: the alium looks great and I am glad I planted it.

My small dollar-buy off the distressed plants bin at Lowe's, my doublefile viburnum, is doing pretty well also. It is almost three feet tall and should be a full-fledged tree next year.

The five varieties of hostas we have growing by the pergola are also doing well.

I got lazy with the border this year and threw down some perennial seeds last fall. I've since filled it in with some foxglove and bee balm from the front yard and I think it is going to look great this year.

Finally, after digging out all of the hops (a major chore), I found an amythist falls wisteria to climb up the pergola. It has grown over a foot since putting it in a week and a half ago. It also had a bud and should start flowering soon. I also added some seed and transplanted perennials at the border near the pergola. This area should fill in nicely also.

Growing cucumbers up

I am trying something new this year with the cucumbers.  I made two towers and am going to trya nd train the cucumbers to grow up them.  I've seen photos of people's gardens where they have done this with some success.  Hope it works out because we don't have the space to let these things just meander.

My daughter and I also took on a small art project and we added painted windows to the side of the garage.  They look nice and the back yard has shaped up pretty good this year.  I have two more projects that I'd like to finish before the end of the year though: I'd like to attack the gutters and finish that mosaic.      

Cleaning up the back entry

The back corner of our yard, where a gate leads to the alley, has always been the most neglected part of the yard.  Overgrown with morning glories, raspberries and several buckthorn that I cut down to the ground annually, it never looked particularly nice.  Since I spruced up the garden, I figured it was time that I cleaned up the rest of this area and make a planting bed out of the ramble that existed there.

I added a bird-bath, some potted plants and moved one of the hanging baskets to this area.  I also added a border of broken patio stones.  I figured this was better than keeping the pile of stones heaped in the planting area.  I am happy with how it all looks and it should be much easier to maintain.

The garden is doing very well.  We had our first lettuce of the year last night, the tomato plants are starting to develop flowers, and the cucumbers now need some support so that they can grow more.   

The heat has taken its toll on much of the yard and I feel like I am constantly watering but things still look pretty good.  The sunflowers are starting to bloom and it looks like a lot of the other flowers that burst in mid-July, will be blooming later this week. 

Father's Day...

...or as I like to call it, "grass removal day".  Every year, I take another bite out of the grassy area in the front yard.  I spent a good part of the morning digging out about 18" of additional planting bed in the front and in the parkway.

I added a few more pathways through the planting beds and moved around a few of the plants.  It is supposed to be pretty hot the next few days so I'll have to take pretty good care of them.

They look pretty good but I have plenty of years of doing this before I've eradicated all of the lawn area.

I am loving the flea bane out front.  I've spent several years trying to get it to grow in one area and it has gone a little crazy.  It is well over four feet tall now and looks pretty great.

The back yard garden is progressing well also except for a couple small problems:  the tomatoes are having some white fly issues and the peas are getting eaten.

The culprit is a tiny bunny.  It seems to be a loner, which is fine and better than when we have three or four attacking the various beds at once.

The red lettuce seems to be doing the best.  The color is great and after only a couple of weeks, it is almost ready to cut for salads.