Welcome to July! Let's go for a Garden Tour...
All of the rain we have had this year has made everything lush and green. Just for some variety, I will start our tour at the front in my mostly perennial flower bed.
I say it's mostly perennial. I always plant a few annuals for some colour and none of them are blooming at the moment. My spring bulbs are long past and you can see a few of the old stalks in there.
The hostas and ferns give it a luxurious look.
Above them, the fuchsia I had indoors is a little straggly. It needs to be cut back but I'm morally opposed to cutting back branches with flower buds on them, so it's happening a little bit at a time.
The other pop of colour is coming from the astilbe.
On the way to the backyard, I snap a photo of the two orchids, still blooming. How many months has it been?
This is the view I get from my back window and deck. I did a lot of weeding, a little pruning, and you probably can't even tell but I could briefly see that black border. Meanwhile, my earlier palette of purple and yellow flowers is morphing to orange. The daylilies just opened this week.
And up the trellis on the left where I had planted a clematis, I have a sad story...
My poor clematis was about 45 cm (18") tall and tied to the trellis, then one day I noticed it was broken. Now I'm keeping a space cleared around it so it can get some light or it's doomed.
This is what it's supposed to look like.
I have orange daylilies, orange zinnias, and soon will have orange Mexican sunflowers, but I hope all of the zinnias aren't orange!
The herbs are having a great year. This is the best ever for the Russian tarragon.
Mint. Surprisingly, my mints are not spreading wildly like they typically do.
Mojito mint! The mints aren't spreading like crazy but this one decided to plant itself in the new bed too...
Above, a Mexican sunflower. Unlike most of the sunflowers I am used to, these are multi branched, multi flowered, and orange. I grew them last year for the first time and loved their vigor and colour -- the butterflies liked them too. Behind it is a new bee balm.
This is my Northern kiwi gone wild.
The lone lilly.
And now for the new bed...
This started out as a little bed for milkweed with a few added zinnias for the Monarch butterflies. Then last year, I cut down the pine tree that was in the middle and expanded the bed. As this is the only corner of my backyard that gets sunlight most of the day, I could plant some vegetables but I wanted it to look more like a flower garden than a vegetable garden. Right now, all I see is a mess but the milkweed, peas and beans are thriving.
On the left, there are zinnias and Mexican sunflowers that will tower over the white violets at some point. You can see a few.
My two short rows of rainbow Swiss chard were completely flattened and almost washed away in three thunderstorms. Another morning, I saw the rabbit sitting on them as she/he munched away and, while I don't mind if the rabbit, groundhog, and birds take a little, a friend suggested I bury some forks for protection. So I don't know if it's working or if I even have enough, but I like to think the bunny is getting poked in the nose occasionally.
I intentionally planted extra pole beans on two trellises. In the past, they were either completely eaten or hidden by the milkweed plants. So far, so good, and I love watching them climb the trellises.
In my childhood, we always planted pea seeds 1" apart in rows 10" (25 cm) apart. As a cool weather vegetable, the close rows helped shade the base of the pea plants from the sun. However, I planted these peas in a small round patch beside the bean trellises and in front of the sunflowers. Instead, they have just taken over, but many of the sunflowers were broken in the heavy rains so it has all worked out, and I will be picking my first crop next week if not sooner.
The peas are so tall. I think they found all of that good manure I added to the bed.
In front of the beans, I planted Thai basil and green onions. That's an old downspout trellis providing some rabbit protection but not enough. I really didn't think rabbits would like onions and Thai basil.
Just a little zinnia for a pop of colour. Again, I swear I bought mixed colours, not only orange.
The other onions are doing well.
The remaining cucumbers should be okay. Between the rain and the squirrels, I lost half of them.
You can see the new growth on the rosemary. Behind it, the long leaves are the hyacinths that were so beautiful this spring.
The deck containers are thriving as usual.
And that's the end of the tour. Thank you for visiting my garden!
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Enjoy!
@kansuze