Can July be Almost Over?

July 31, 2011

I may have to demand a recount of the days! Seriously though, as time does seem to march on, July was a wonderful month of blooms. It was relavitely hot and dry, but things in my garden seem to be well established now, and the roots seem to go deep into the ground to find the moisture.

Since I last posted, the perennial phlox have started to open, as well as the 'Pandora's Box', 'Catherine Woodbury', dark burgandy, and red daylilies. The liatris is starting to open and the rudbekia is coming along.

Today, I'm posting some photos of the side and front beds of the house. I didn't get my camera around to the back yard until the sun came out a bit too strongly for photos, so I'll get to that tomorrow!

front bed with orange daylilies, dogwood, and 'Invincibelle' hydrangea
 the main items that show here

'Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea
(Proven Winner plant - Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

'Annabelle' hydrangea

side border

dark purple perennial phlox behind
the 'Shirley poppies'

Hollyhocks, Rudbekia and More Poppies!

July 21, 2011

Greetings from hot, humid Ontario. I'm going to be taking a week off from blogging - time for family to visit us and not much time for the computer. I'll be back to the computer in time for Fertilizer Friday next week though, and expect by that time the phlox will be out and the back border will be full of colour!

Here is the backyard border this week. Spirea, hydrangea, daisies, monkshood and some daylilies are on the go:

backyard border July 19

Meanwhile, in the side border, my love affair with 'Shirley' poppies continues. I now have a white one, and pink and white one, and a darker (almost red) and white one blooming. My learned-brother tells me to be prepared to 'weed them ruthlessly' next spring:

'Shirley' Poppies

A lovely addition to the garden this year, is this beautiful double rudbekia that I given by my friend, Paula. She brought down three different divisions of her rudbekia about a month ago, and I planted them in three different areas. This is the first one to bloom. It's just a gorgeous two-toned double:

double rudbekia

And last, but not least, for today's post, is my first real showing of hollyhocks. I really want to have the old-fashioned single ones (next year's project) but I love these double ones:

Alcea rosea Hollyhock
'Chater's Double Pink'

Until next week, everyone, happy gardending! I look forward to catching up with reading and commenting on your blogs then.

Favourite Hostas

July 19, 2011

I love hostas! I have a fair bit of shade here, so I have about twenty different varieties. One was here when we bought the property (the 'Gold Standard') but most of the rest of them were purchased, either at garden centres or from a school fundraiser. Sadly, I don't know the names of the fund-raiser ones.

These are my favourite four. I think they are my favourites, because they all are always very healthy looking and not bothered by slugs.

'Blue Mouse Ears'

'First Frost'

'Gold Standard'

'June'

Shirley Poppy

July 17, 2011

Poppy 'Shirley Double'

I've discovered Shirley poppies! My brother has grown them for years, in his zone 1 garden, and I have always admired them. For some unknown reason I never tried them until this year.

They were so worth the wait!

I sowed the seeds, directly into the garden, in early May. The seeds are so tiny, that I ended up with really dense patches of little seedlings, so I took my brother's advice and 'thinned like crazy'.

I will deadhead to prevent them from self-seeding overly randomly. I have very thick shredded cedar mulch in the bed, but I have a feeling they might just grow up from that, if left to their own devices.

I hope to collect some seeds and plant them where I want them to grow. I'll check with my brother on that though.

Blooms for Friday

July 15, 2011

Happy Friday everyone. 

I was away for about five days, and found a few more things blooming when I got back. It's amazing to see how much things can change in our gardens after only that much time. The shasta daisies are getting into the full swing of summer, as are the rose campions. 

My back border is full of buds on the daylilies.  And I can look forward to the perennial phlox in the weeks to come. 

Here's what's going on today:

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snowdrift'
double shasta daisies beside 'Neon Blaze' spirea

allium just starting to open

side border with white rose campion lychnis
in foreground

little back steps garden with
magenta rose campion lychnis

Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' daylily

Leucanthemum x superbum 'Snow Lady'
dwarf shasta daisy

back border with lots of green

There are links to wonderful garden blogs at May Dreams Gardens. It's fun to see what other gardeners have blooming on the 15th of each month. I'm also linking up with Tootsie over at Fertilizer Friday today. 

Feedjit! (Vent)

I always want to reciprocate when people take the time to make a comment on my blog.

But I really hate the 'Feedjit' feature that I see on blogs, leaving a little calling card telling the world that a 'visitor from (and my town's name)' has been there. If I wanted people to know exactly where I'm from, I'd let them know.

Sometimes you can click on the Feedjit widget and remove your IP altogether (in which case I'll leave a comment) but often you can only remove yourself from having your city or town's name left in the future (the first visit will remain.)

Does anybody else feel this way? Just a little invaded? Or is it just me?

FF for July 7

July 7, 2011

I'm joining up with Tootsie over at Fertilizer Friday. Today, I thought I'd show some overall shots of my beds at the front of the house.

The front shrub bed, is one I put in last spring. I know next-to-nothing about shrubs, but I'm learning. In here I have a red-twig dogwood, a drarf snowball bush, an 'Invincibelle' hydrangea and spruce shrub. The spruce shrub is the only thing that we left from the messy-overgrown evergreen shrubs that were there before we lived here.

There's also a shot of the front and side of the house. You can see the perennial border that I've shown 'closer-up' shots of before.

My little hosta bed is in the backyard and I have different hostas in there.

And my 'Annabelle' hydrangea that is (cleverly) hiding our cement well cover!

Happy FF Everyone!

hosta bed

front shrub bed

front and side border

little bed to hide the well cover

Tuesday in My Garden

July 5, 2011

It's the beginning of July and lots of things are starting to bloom.   My first daylily is out, the 'Stella d'Oro'.  Looking around at the various gardening blogs, I can see that this is a very popular one.  It seems to be one of the earliest to bloom and is compact with a lovely gold coloured flower.

Hemerocallis 'Stella d'Oro' Daylily

My delphiniums are really thriving, I'm happy to say.  I planted four 'King Arthurs' (striking purple with white centres) last spring.  All had a few small blooms last summer, but are doing fantastic this year.  I also planted some of the 'Astolat' ones at the end of season last summer.  I was intrigued by the tag colour and wasn't quite sure if they were pink or maeve.  Turns out they are somewhere in between, also with white centres, and they are really pretty.  They are just starting to open.

Delphimiun 'King Arthur'

Delphinium 'Astolat'

Also blooming for me right now are my evening primroses (which I love, but really keep them confined to a small area, lest they take over the world), Sweet Williams from my Dad's garden, and both my magenta and white lychnis (the white lychnis seeds were sent to me by an Oregon master gardener, who is a computer-friend, with the instructions not to plant them too close to the magenta ones - otherwise they can cross pollunate and all be light pink next year). 

Oenothera Evening Primrose

Sweet Williams

Lychnis Coronaria Rose Campion (magenta)
Monkshood in back

Lychnis Coronaria  Rose Campion (white)