November 3, Seriously?

Lots of reblooming and still blooming going on, all over the yard.  We've had a couple of frosts, lost tender stuff, tomatoes, peppers, etc.  But many things are still poking out flowers, even after the plant had been cut down once.

Pretty in Purple

The yard is growing amazingly this week.  We got about 3/4 of an inch of rain last evening and night, and that surely helped.  It had been pretty dry.






The Ajuga is especially beautiful this year.  I think because we didn't have a spring flood to muddy things up.  Look at June 1st last year  to see the difference.  Here are some other shots from today.              

June 1, 2015 - Amazing Growth

Things are really growing fast!  I can’t believe how much the yard has changed since May first.  Here are some shots of the yard taken on June first.

New Flowers this week

There are many new things blooming and lots of things budding and pushing up shoots.  The warm weather this week is making Spring come quickly.  Just hope everyone stays careful until after the possible frosts we will be having next week.  But the rains we expect will be a good thing.

Daffodils and Bloodroot.  Had both in the yard for many years.

Not sure what these blue bulbs are.   The pink flowers are one type of Pulmanaria   And Forsythia of course.

 

There are also several Frogs in and around the pond so far.  No singing yet, but they do hang out on the cattail pot every day. 

Update a day later:  The frogs sang all night last night, and today there are at least twice as many in the pond.  Three pairs are hitched together, and soon I think we’ll have a lot of frog eggs in the shallow water.  The fish are already excited! 

Crocuses, Snowdrops and Squills, OH MY!

All have arrived in the last week, along with the Winter Aconite and many sprouting bulbs of tulips, daffodils, alliums, etc.  Nice to see.

       

For the Record: 2014 New Hostas & Heucheras

Under pagoda dogwood in back:  L to R

Heucheras: Frosted Violet, Lava Lamp, Cinnamon Curls, Bella Notte, Lava Lamp (not shown)

Under Forsythia:  

Heucheras:  Caramel, Marvelous Marble,  Lava Lamp

Under Charlie Brown Hostas: 

  back: Luna Moth (from hosta show)

front: Carnival  (from hosta Show

in "D" garden South, Heucheras:

Left:  Blackberry Ice

Right:  Frosted Violet

"D" garden north:

Astilbe White Sensation

Front walk Hosta garden:

Left:  Sum and Substance

Right Kiwi Full Monty

Also planted a new Hardy Hibiscus near the Willow stump:  Plum Fantasy Rose Mallow.  And two new Shasta Daisies in the pagoda garden:  Silver Princess Leucanthemum superbum.  Late last year planted Red -Leafed Mukdenia (Mukdenia rossi 'Crimson Fans') in the hosta garden under the back birches.  Bill planted three Frosted Violet Hostas in his garden also.  

Summer is Here!

I say this even though the high temperature yesterday was only in the mid sixties.  But it is supposed to get warmer soon.....

Here are some shots of what's going on in the yard right now.  My neighbor and I have both been allowing milkweed plants to grow all over, and she found about 10 monarch caterpillars on some of her plants.  So we each took some in and kept them fed on fresh leaves until they formed their chrysalises.  About 10 days later for each a beautiful monarch butterfly emerged.  They were set free in the yards and we see them all over now.






Watching for more caterpillars, but haven't found any yet.  They say that 90% of those sheltered in this way survive, vs. 90% being eaten if left outside.  We're doing our part.

We were gone for 6 days in late June and that meant we came home to massive overgrowth of shrubs, weeds, etc. that needed tending.  But things are looking much better now.


 
The monarda plants are beautiful now, and the coneflowers and daisies are spectacular.  We spent the last week and a half spreading 8 cubic yards of mulch and are very tired of that.




 

 This year I've been trying to convert places with invasive, difficult to manage plants like wild geraniums into easier to maintain plants like hostas, heucheras and astilbes.  It's getting harder to keep up with all this.