How does your garden grow? Week of 8June14 - YouLookFab Forum

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How does your garden grow? Week of 8June14

Carla

Veteran

For some folks a week between garden posts might not be enough, but for others a week can equate with a big garden transformation. Also, this is an opportunity for folks who haven't yet participated to share garden pics.

Remember gardens can be:

-the back 40
-pots on an apartment patio
-a shared park

And, garden 'visitors' are included!

This has been a week of growth, and some revelation in my little piece of paradise. Our very cold and prolonged winter resulted in some winter kill. This weekend I pulled out two Spirea and had to cut the John Cabot rose down hard.

The combination of Princess Irene and Queen of the Night tulips has been a success. The allium are blooming earlier than expected, and contribute more purple to the scheme. Low growing yellow iris will be in bloom before the week is out as will the day lilies.

Yesterday a cat crossed the street and stopped neighbourhood traffic. She was carrying a kitten in her mouth! Alas, I didn't have my camera.

How does your garden grow.

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17 replies

Latest reply was from deb

April

Veteran

I don't have a garden per se, but my next-door neighbor is a fantastic gardener who doesn't have much yard. I have given her a little sunny patch of my yard to grow her tomatoes, with the understanding that I can pick whenever I want.

Seems like I get the better end of that deal every summer.

I haven't done much planting here but when I move to our new place next summer, I'm hoping to do a little more. I adore lavender and have been longing for a lilac hedge.

ETA: I have also, perhaps insanely, been thinking that it might be fun to do some beekeeping. Any of our resident gardeners keep bees as well?

doubleh

Veteran

Runcarla I am an aspiring gardener with a very grey thumb at best. Queen of the night tulips are the purple-black ones? I LOVE those! Also, pics 7-8, what are those?
Perhaps I should take a pic, but I have a hydrangea in a pot and this is second summer- it is blooming, but not as full and lush as I would hope. If anyone has advice for hydrangeas I would love to hear.
Your house and garden are exactly what I hope to have someday!

Carla

Veteran

Doubleh, the single pics are of lady's mantle, white violets, and Solomon's Seal. Queen of the Night tulips are an amazing colour, but I find the flower head very small, and the stems long. They work best in combinations with other flowers. I've paired them with white and pink tulips, as a trio, and also with red and pink tulips. This years combination is my favourite, though.

I don't have Hydrangea, but I understand they do best if completely cut down in the fall. They bloom from 'new wood' whereas some things, like my John Cabot rose blooms best on 'old wood' or what comes off last year's growth.

Gardening is a rewarding learning experience. I spend a lot of time looking at other people's gardens to learn what grows well in our difficult northern climate-so very cold in the winter, with hot dry summers. The library is also a good source for gardening books and magazines.

April, sounds like a good trade!

Anonymous

I need to get some pics but I am so excited for my little orchard! I have sweet cherries, sour cherries, the plums set fruit for the first time along with my apricots! My two tiny apples are going to be laden with fruit too.

I did lose all my roses to the ground, half a sand cherry, and two climbing roses didn't make it either.

Laurinda

Veteran

My garden is guided by natural selection and survival of the fittest ;-).
Here is southern Wisconsin the resilient perennials are iris, peonies, and daylilies. I try a lot of different plants, and have good luck with sedum varieties, lavender, and sage (blooming this week!).

I will have to delay pruning the lilac, there is a warbler nesting there. Looks like we have a hatchling.

The best pruning for hydrangeas depends on the variety. The polar vortex winter was hard on mine -- those that were less than two years old died back to the roots, or even to a sad single shoot from a stray rooted stem. All look like they survived at least.

So I wonder if our garden styles match our wardrobes?
Mine is eclectic, boho, and slightly RATE. Also lots of purple.

doubleh

Veteran

Thanks Runcarla! As much as I try; I just don't have the same bedside manner with plants as I do kids, clothes or interiors. Hopefully perseverence and earnestly will count for something. I think the tulips, along with pink-orange, yellow and white would look stunning together.
It does seem with our warmth and frost that a lot of young hydrangeas will not be blooming and perhaps my luck was a pot this year. Which I think is also it's detriment. However, we rent and I really don't want to plant and dig; so pots are our mainstay.
And Laurinda, yes. My clothes would follow suit. I could totally equivalate my style with my gardening tendancies/hopes. New thread?!

Aida

Veteran

You have a beautiful garden, Carla! One of my hydrangeas blooms best off the old wood, which makes it very difficult to keep a manageable size -_- We've been spending the past few weekends on landscaping, including trimming back a very dense Japanese maple to give it a nice light and fluffy shape and doing the final cleanup from a big and destructive storm in February. For the first time I've been able to deter the deer from my roses, but I have a feeling it won't last long All of my rhododendrons/azaleas bloomed WAY early and I am bummed that we won't have any of their color in June/July/August as usual. Same with the irises. At least I've got the (for now deer proof) roses to look forward to, along with hydrangeas, violets, and petunias. No recent photos, but here's cheerfully pink set from mid-May plus a little wildflower arrangement from last week

EDIT: And a neighborhood kitty hanging out on the rock waterfall in our back yard.

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ManidipaM

Veteran

no garden but rather an overgrown backyard. no pics I fear either but in a rather harried 10 days back home we were welcomed by a black-headed oriole, a nesting pair of grey-headed mynahs that returns every year to the champak tree, a pair of tailorbirds, a pair of sunbirds, a pair of bulbuls, thieving cuckoos, a crow pheasant, a couple of treepies, a set of jungle babblers, la few drongos, lots of common mynas and crows, and a barn owl and fishing eagle apiece.

so glad we moved to the suburbs near the wetlands. despite the columns of mosquitoes.

Laurinda

Veteran

Great idea Doubleh!
@Mandipa How different your garden and birds are from Wisconsin!

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

Carla, beautiful flowers! I love tulips but don't like them in my garden because after they bloom the leaves are so unsightly! However when they bloom it is a beautiful display...
Aida, love your rhododendrons! They are hard to grow where we live because the summers are hot and can be dry. The backyard waterfall is amazing!

I should take more pictures of my garden because it changes daily now!
These pictures are all from the front garden - several years ago we removed the last patch of lawn and it is all garden now. It is not complete yet but even in such incomplete state I still prefer it to the lawn!
It was raining when I went to take pictures so they are all taken close to the house:
#1 Little trellised patio in the front of the house. My doublefile viburnum is in full bloom - love it! Honeysuckle is starting to bloom too. I need to redo these narrow beds around the patio, they are such mess now but still cannot decide what to plant there!
#2 Large flowered clematis on the trellis - the first flower opened just 2 days ago!
#3 My favorite hydrangea ever - oakleaf. It is still leafing out so a bit sparse but by mid June it will be magnificent when it starts blooming. Here is another clematis which started to bloom yesterday.
#4 This is a view along the edge of our lot from the house to the street along the neighbor's lawn. This is the oldest planting I put in when we moved into the house - about 10 years ago. Of course it is the angle of the picture too but I like that you basically cannot see the street from here at all!

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MsMary

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No garden in my fourth-floor Bachelorette Pad! I am hoping to buy a house and have a garden before too long! I'm in deserty So Cal so am hoping to do a low-water landscape design. This photo is pretty much my dream garden. Note the fire feature and the water feature with drought-resistant plants!

Oh, and I also visited a home recently where they had planted milkweed to attract Monarch butterflies, and I will definitely be including that in my garden design!

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Carla

Veteran

Ceit, the apple trees up here are breathtaking. I wonder if it is a response to the hard winter we just had? Here's wishing you a bumper crop of fruits this harvest season.

Lucinda, Wisconsin is pretty harsh. I lived 5 years in Duluth, Minnesota. My Mom used to say that there were 2 seasons: winter and the 4th of July! I remember wearing my bathing suit and a sweater to go wading in Lake Superior!

That is interesting about clothes, Doubleh. I've been thinking about house decor vs wardrobe, but it is a co-operative project with DH so reflects a compromise of both our styles. It will be interesting to see what we make of our new home! My favourite plant colours have been acid green and yellow, but I use crimson and purple as well. I do love yellow ( see recent WIW) and dark purple is my signature colour. Will have to ponder this...

Aida, thanks for correcting me on the cutting back of hydrangea. Spirea are like that, too. I have some that do better cut back in spring and others that benefit from a heavy pruning in the fall.

Mandipa, you must post some pics of your feathered friends. Sometimes I have to close the window when the 'dawn chorus' gets going in the early am.
I can only imagine the cacophony where you live.

Sveta, tulips are 'fast fashion' for my garden. The foundation plantings are trees, shrubs, and perennials that come back each year and in some cases multiply. However, every fall I buy a couple hundred tulip bulbs (cheap, from Canadian Tire or the grocery store by the bag of 25). Once done, I dig them out and 'purge' them off to the composter! Shortly after everything else grows in to cover the bare spots.

Carla

Veteran

MsMary, planting for insects and wildlife adds so much to the garden. DH and I were so happy to see bees and butterfly's making heavy use of the garden. We were surprised that we even managed to draw a hummingbird, who has made return visits in subsequent summers. I try to be organic, but have a hand held spray I use against beetles on the Asiatic Lillie's and aphids on the roses.

MsMary

Veteran

Yes, Carla! We had a pond with a little waterfall in The Former Marital Residence and it was so great to watch the birds splash around in it! I will be having a water feature (I'm thinking waterfall/stream but no pond) at whatever new place I end up with, for sure. And it was so serendipitous to find out about the butterfly bushes!

doubleh

Veteran

MandipaM- I would love to see photos if you have time! Sounds just so exotic and romantic- except maybe the mosquitos.

JAileen

Veteran

I love seeing everyone's gardens. Mine looks nice now, but will soon look dry brown and ratty. The lawn is already a little crispy.

Sugar snap peas
Tomatoes out of Walls O Water
Strawberries

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deb

Veteran

I love seeing how all the gardens are developing this year. Yes, I am late to the party this week but here are some pics I took this morning. Summer has hit us with 100 + degree heat yesterday and today and I do not expect my blooms to last very long. Well, maybe the Crepe Myrtle blossoms.

# 1 - Hosta just starting to open
#2 - Giant magnolia tree, will bloom all summer
# 3 - day lily - not sure of name
#4 - day lily 'Ruffled Apricot'
#5 - fuchsia, I am suprized it survived the November freeze
#6 - day lily 'Dewy Sweet', first year, it will be better next year
#7 - crepe myrtle 'Watermelon' just starting to open
#8 - agapanthus blooms getting ready to open
#9 - the fire pit. It was a planter when I moved in. Tore out all the plants and converted it.
#10 - morning sun on 'Peaches and Crème' Japanese maple

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