July Check-In

It's hard to remember, in winter, just how full the gardens get over the summer. It's truly amazing how fast plants grow.

This summer has had a decent amount of rain, and we've moved from moderate drought to abnormally dry. Supplemented with a (new) good sprinkler, everything is doing a lot better than last year.  

I'm especially pleased with the NW corner garden off the mudroom porch --I'm closest to having only green mulch in that garden. It's smallish, and many of the plants are at least three years in. The lack of earwigs in the early spring (probably because the soil temperatures stayed low) helped seedlings get established earlier too, and gave me a very nice display from the Hudson Blue clematis in this bed. This is its fourth year, and the first year I've had a decent number of pretty blossoms. It's continuing to set buds even now.

I also had some sparkler and drumstick alliums reappear (from seeds from the originals, I assume), and they've added a nice bit of whimsy. I put the  phlox in last fall, and it seems pretty happy. I love the way the blossoms are variations of pink and white. We've just started oriental lily season, and the scent off the porch is wonderful.

The garden around the old woodshed is filling in nicely as well. I started it two years ago with two purple coneflowers on either side of the door. Last year I added spotted bee balm, and it really took off. I'm purposely adding natives in here, because any watering has to be done with a watering can. I'm going to move some of the bearded irises to a different area, and sprinkle some gray-head coneflower seeds here this fall.
 

 

I really love this spotted bee balm (apparently another common name is horsemint). The pollinators just love it, and it attracts so many different kinds of bees, wasps, and butterflies.