In the Garden

Things are changing again in the garden.  Most of my spring blooms have faded now ... just a new foxglove hanging on with the flowers growing paler and thinner each day.

 

We've had a lot of rain lately ... heavy rain ... and the ground is waterlogged and there's mold looming here and there.  I have some potted begonias that are covered in some sort of mold and not looking well at all.  My son's climbing rose is now blooming, but the first blossoms have been a bit beat up from all the rain.

 

The rotten rabbit had a feast on this rose in the early spring, so I'm glad that it at least survived that.  It's now surrounded by the ever-so attractive chicken wire to keep the rabbit away.  We have yet to build a trellis for this rose, but perhaps it will get done this summer.

 

On the weekend I did some trimming with my heavy duty hedge trimmers.  First were my backyard neighbour's cedars growing up and over our back fence.  The neighbour is a slob and I think they actually rent the house.  They have a pool surrounded by these overgrown cedar hedges.  When we first moved into our house 18 years ago, there was a middle-aged couple living there and they took immaculate care of the house and gardens.  Now after several different people, the slobs moved in and they swim in their green pool, have their radio on non-stop all day long, and on a windy day I like to watch their roof shingles flip up and off their roof!  Anyway ... the hedge is a mess with their garbage trapped under it, and I'm glad that it's all hidden behind our shed :) 

 

After the cedars, I trimmed this bush beside my patio.  I can't remember the name of it, but I know there's a "d" and a "z" in the name, and it has pretty white flowers that just finished blooming.  Usually this bush is completely covered in white blooms, but I think it was growing too large and not many bloomed this year.  So I cut it back ... way back!  It was almost up to the height of the arbour, and this is what it looks like now (the bare branches to the right of the arbour)  ...

Excuse the long grass as the rain is making it grow rapidly and we've not had time to cut it yet this week!  With "d" bush trimmed back, the clematis on the arbour are better exposed.  The bush also leaves space in my patio garden (I'll show my patio another day, but it's right behind the bush).

My son finally got his pond cleaned up and filled with water.  It's so nice to hear the gurgling of the little waterfall in this pond.   He'll put his two fish back in here tomorrow I think.   The area at the top of the pond (above the waterfall) is a small walled garden around my patio.  It always looks crummy in this garden as I try different things.  My son planted one small pot of ornamental grass there last year, and it actually looks pretty good.  I think I may get some more and just plant it all around the top of the pond.  He chose a grass that look like reeds, so they suit the pond. 

My garden in front of the shed is coming along nicely.  I love this little garden as the plants I put in there all seem to do well.  It's shaded by the pine tree most of the day, but around 2:00 it gets full hot sun.

I have a bright pink columbine that loves this spot right beside the door (finished now).  Last year I bought the pink spire flowers (but can't remember their name and I've lost the card for them).  And beside that I have some garden flocks that will be blooming in a couple of weeks I think.  The clematis on the side of the shed is slowly getting more and more shade each year, so the blooms on it don't come out till later.  It still hasn't bloomed, but is covered in buds.

Here are the pink spires.  When the sun hits them, their ends all hang down, so I try to remember to give them some water in the afternoon.

I'm such a procrastinator that this little window box hasn't been filled with flowers for THREE years!!  The plastic liner that we had was all broken up, so this year I finally got a new liner and some annuals plopped in there, and they're filling in nicely.

I planted some morning glories all along the fence here ... look how tall they are!  I probably should've had them planted weeks before, but I hope they start to climb up the chicken wire soon.  I love morning glories ... these are "heavenly blue" and look fantastic in late summer.  My mom had morning glories growing up strings in front of her kitchen window so she could look out at them while doing the dishes.  I hope the rabbit keeps away from them ... I painted them with "Skoot" to deter him.

 

Mom's clematis that I dug out of her garden at the last moment.  I'm glad I did because it's climbed right up the fence now and look at the rewarding buds this year!  The people that bought my parents' house completely renovated it and tore up all the gardens that were there.  I'm so glad that I took almost all of Mom's plants before we sold it because the new people obviously didn't care about any of it.

 

The Shasta daisies are unfurling their pretty white petals ...

The butterfly bush has lots of teeny tiny buds about to appear.  I love the scent of the butterfly bush blooms ... so I'm looking forward to another good year of this beauty.

The lilies are blooming too!

And last weekend the pool has been put up.  Nothing fancy there, but it is so nice to hop in on a hot muggy day and just float around and look up at that blue sky and huge pine tree and relax!  It's already warmed up to 23'C!  Today the outdoor temperature was 31"C, so we're all hoping the pool warms up just a bit more and then we're in there!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Wendy

Linking up with Fishtail Cottage Garden Party