I've decided what to do with the new coneflowers I bought the other day: they're going in my coneflower bed. (That certainly took a lot of careful planning and consideration, didn't it?)
I've been spending a lot of time potting up plants the last couple of days. Making more potting mix, filling pots, removing big, dead plants from pots, moving plants around. Working with big pots gets so tiring, and they really take a lot of potting mix! Sometimes it's nice to just work with some little pots, especially when they're unusual.
Sometimes parts of your garden get out of hand. You lose control, whether because of lack of time, bad weather, you've been focusing on other parts of the garden, etc. Whatever the reason, a bed or part of a bed just starts looking terrible.
Today I had to make a trip to a local material supply/nursery to pick up another load of compost, so I thought I'd make the rounds of the other two garden centers that are near it and see what sort of new coneflowers they have (talking about them the other day got me interested).
I've been looking after my neighbor John's garden for a few days. His vegetable garden. As in vegetables that he wants to eat. Obviously he hasn't had a good look at my veggie garden recently, nor has he read about my poor spring crop.
One of the first flowering plants I added to my garden was Purple Coneflower, echinacea purpea. Not that I knew anything about it when I chose it, but I just liked the look of it.
It's been so hot here lately, early morning is the best time for me to get some gardening done. Yesterday morning was quite busy, so let's jump into it!
When you spend a lot of time in the garden, one thing you'll start to notice (hopefully) is the abundance of wildlife that surrounds you. I'm not talking about rabbits, deer, birds and the rest. I'm talking about the small garden inhabitants and visitors: the "minor wildlife".
As you approach our house by car or on foot, this small bed is the first thing you really see. It's right next to the driveway, so it's important that it looks great and gives a good first impression. I think I've finally given it some impact:
The other day I found this:
I really love grasses... for the most part. I've got several different ornamental varieties, many native species, turf grasses, and don't forget the bamboos -- they're in the same family as grasses.
My wildflower and annuals bed is really starting to impress! Although currently the cleome makes up the majority of the blooms, this is the real star for me so far:
June is one of the best months for gardens in St. Louis. The weather isn't too hot yet (except for this year, which has been really too warm), there's plenty of rain, and everything is lush and green.
We've had a lot of heavy rainstorms lately. Pretty much every day for the last week or so. It's not that we're getting huge storms that last for hours -- we're getting small, strong storms that dump a good amount of water in a short time.
My ninebark is one of the most striking plants in my garden. You can see why here. The trouble is, although the tag says that it will be 4-5' tall and 4-5' wide, it's bigger than that. Much bigger.
There are some really cool spiders in my garden. Actually, there are probably really cool spiders in all gardens, but they're not always easy to find. I discovered a few really interesting ones yesterday when I wasn't even looking for them.
As you may have noticed, some of my Elephant Ear plants are getting pretty large. A couple of weeks ago I took a division from one and potted it up. It was an experiment since I had never done that before, and I don't think I wrote about it here.
I have to say that the cool season crops in my veggie garden were a big disappointment this year. I planted spinach, lettuces, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, and beets.
Often times when I'm taking photos in the garden I see something that doesn't lend itself to an entire post. Maybe it's something I do that doesn't require more than a photo or two, and a couple of sentences.
I cleared this small raised bed out last fall, and until today had not decided what to plant in it. I've been debating whether or not I should plant a bamboo in it, and finally decided that it would be a good idea.
On the south side of my house is a strip of ground that needs some more plants. The trouble is, this area is tough. Heavy clay, packed hard from years of water running down the slope when the torrential rains come. Dry too, from the baking heat of the sun against the wall of the house.
The kittens are two months old now, and starting to lose some of their kittenocity. (I tried "kittenness" and "kittenliness", but decided on "kittenocity".) Still incredibly cute though!
I spent the weekend in Chicago with my sister and her family. Early Sunday morning as I headed out the back door with my camera my sister said "you're not going to find anything to photograph in our yard!"
A couple of weeks ago I was at a local garden center to see if they had any large pots in the recycling bin that I could grab, and I decided to take a quick look at the new plant stock.
I've mentioned before that I grow a lot of different species and varieties of bamboo (about 50). Many of them are in pots, and since most of these are running bamboos which spread via rhizomes (underground stems), they can quickly fill up their pots.
Yesterday when I posted about various blooms in the garden right now, how many times did I say "deer like to eat this one" or "deer pruned this one for me"? Too many times. I do grow a few plants that the deer won't touch, and one of them is lavender.
There are some beautiful flowers starting to bloom in my garden right now, so let's take a look. First up, a sight that I'm amazed to see:
How about a quick look at the veggie garden to see how things are doing? The last look at the veggie garden was early May when I removed a carpet of weeds and put down a thick layer of compost. That was a great idea, as everything is growing like crazy right now, with a minimal amount of weeds:
Another week has gone by, and the kittens are as energetic as ever. They've gotten much less clumsy, and can jump up on things without falling (most of the time). They're better runners now too, and can zoom around the garage without crashing into things (most of the time).
This plant was growing near my bald cypress and Pleioblastus viridistriatus bamboo patch:
My posts about:
© Blogger template Shush by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009
Back to TOP
