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.

Spring in the Garden

Some pics of the garden this spring. The lilacs are blooming, the forget-me-nots are spreading and the wisteria looks like it is going to be very showy in a few weeks. There is a ton of work to do out there but I still have painting to do indoors. Hopefully things don't get too carried away before I finish inside.

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.

This Year's Garden

After a long and hard winter, the fist of the spring blooms are starting to show their colors. The winter took its toll on the foxgloves. Many are dead or stunted. Hopefully they will eventually bounce back. Two pleasant surprises are the lupines and the wisteria. Both look and smell great. 

I planted the lupines two years ago and though I got part of a flower last year, this is the first year I've gotten multiple blooms. They really look great. I am very happy with the wisteria I planted last year too. I chose an amethyst falls variety and it weathered the winter well and has more than tripled in size.  

I have much work to do to get the yard in order. Not winterizing last year does not help at all. Hopefully there will be more to come as the summer approaches.

Garden Flowers 2013

Time for the annual posting of cliche flower photographs. The garden looks particularly nice this year and there are a few new plants that I am pretty happy with. Enjoy!

Cabbage white butterfly on lavender

 

Liatris - Blazing Star

 



Echinacea - Purple Cone Flower

 

Rudbeckia - Black-eyed Susan

Flea Bane

Day Lilies

Butterfly Weed

Bee Balm

 

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.

Tending the Garden

As is typical for this time of year, I've spent a lot of time in the yard tending the garden. We haven't gotten much rain so I've watered quite a bit. There are also some new additions to the garden that I am nursing along to make sure they make it through the season. Everything looks very lush and it was a great year for the daffodils and tulips and the lilacs look fantastic but many of the other flowers are a little behind. The allium I planted last year is just beginning and looks great. Here are some pics of what is happening in the front yard.