In the Gardens, Part 1

45 this morning, cool and damp, partly cloudy all day.

I took my camera for a walk this morning, around the gardens. This is the first of 2 posts, since I took a lot of photos.

You can see the grass is having trouble here, thanks to the large amount of rain we've had. But the liriope is thriving, since I gave it a good haircut this spring--that's the green around the stone column. The little sedum on top of the column self-seeds every year. The yellow pansies in the planter are also doing well so far.

All the plants look so healthy this year. Although it's been wet and cool, the result seems to be happy plants.

I planted purple and white petunia in this tower planter--it's actually some kind of metal shelf, missing the shelving pieces, but it works perfectly as a planter.

This is the garden area I re-habbed last year. My effort was worth the trouble as it is looking beautiful so far. 

Same garden, different view:

These old-fashioned irises are called blue flag locally. This is the first time this patch has bloomed in many years. I have threatened many times to pull them out, but never got around to it. Maybe they heard me.

The clematis is not as full of bloom as usual, but still lovely.

daylilies, Japanese Iris, lemon balm, spearmint, and peonies are happily co-existing here by the cellar. There's also some self-seeded lamb's ear. The lemon balm also self-seeded. 

The veggie garden is coming along slowly. Larry put down mulch around the early tomato plants today. Potatoes are in the far garden by the tractor building--new ground this year.

The big flower bed.

There's not a lot blooming in here right now except the iris, some allium, and a few pinks. But soon, I hope, that will change. This garden is crammed full of plants. Over the years, it has expanded without me realizing it, moving both up and downhill as plants have seeded themselves, the iris spreading out, etc. It's a lot bigger now than it was when I made it.

As you can see--here is the same garden back in 2012. I do love the way my gardens take a hand in their own creation. I know it's probably not how horticulturists would like, but it suits me just fine.