Holiday in the Garden

Absolutely perfect weather. 70's, sunny, low humidity. A good rain the other day has brought relief to all living things here.

This is the 4th of July holiday weekend, but we're not going anywhere. We can celebrate right here, in the place we love best. We've spent the past two days in the gardens, catching up on all the work that was let go during the heat wave. It's been wonderful to be out there cleaning out weeds, planting, re-planting in some areas, tilling, tying tomatoes and all the other garden chores that we were way behind on.

Larry's been the one in the veggie gardens; I've been working in the flowerbeds. Here's how things are looking now in those--I'll have to get some photos of the vegetable gardens later on.

Might as well start with a little red, white and blue. The white is hard to see--it's the center of the blue flowers.

I did some replanting in this bed, and tamed the oregano that was threatening to take it over.

Found these impatiens plants marked down to 2.00 the other day, so I bought about all they had.

The basil is doing well in its old cast iron pot.

Bergamot and begonias here. This bed is more of a spring flowers place.

This is, I think, my favorite planter.

I pulled the dead pansies from this planter and replaced with stevia, one of my favorites. It will bloom right up to frost.

Also found some miniature roses marked down, so they went in here with the rosemary.

Yet another marked-down pot of flowers, this on petunias. We had the column in our booth but it got chipped so I brought it home for my garden.

I do love this bed. It looks better every year.

Dill has taken over a goodly part of this garden, but that's okay with me.

The big bed needed some color, so I added some potted plants. I would love to get some summer perennials in here, but nothing I've planted seems to live. There are a lot of self-seeded plants here, and the coreopsis in front right seems really happy with its location. Maybe I should plant more of them.

The drift roses were new last summer. They also seem happy with their home.

I thinned the iris some, but still need to do more. One variety in here does extremely well, and has gotten way too thick.

I think this guy wanted to get to the birdfeeders but I was in his way.

A baby redbud is coming up in one garden, add I'm leaving it as a replacement for one that died last year.

I love this hydrangea. It blooms on new growth.

This hydrangea is new this year, and also blooms on new wood.

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