Week 16 - July 17/18 - Flowers

Cone Flowers

Pink Cone Flower . . . will it ever open all the way?

Yes, it will!!!!!

Purple Cone Flowers

More purple cone flowers . . . I have been trying for years to get these to grow well in my gardens and finally, this year, I have lots of them!

Day Lilies

Ivory and purple day lily . . . I have had this one for three years and I guess it didn't like where it was planted, because it hasn't really bloomed.  I moved it this year and it is beautiful!

Dusty Rose Day Lily . . . new this year from Mom!

Double Peach Day Lily . . . there is a huge row of these at the end of my front lawn that were there when we bought the house.

Double Peach Day Lily.

Mauve (very, very, very light mauve) Day Lily . . . new this year from mom!

Lilies

Cancun Asiatic Lily

Cancun Asiatic Lily

Star Gazer Oriental Lily . . . my favorite flower!

Star Gazer Oriental Lily . . . my favorite flower!

Star Gazer Oriental Lily . . . my favorite flower!

Other Pretty Flowers

Purple Phlox

Red (although more of a fushia than red) Phlox

Still don't know what this is . . . 

Week 16 - July 17/18 - Herbs

There really isn't much to say about the herbs or the herb garden.  It is such a small space that it literally takes two minutes to weed.  I put up the netting for the scarlet runner beans across the back and they are slowly finding their way up it and even have a few blossoms.  They didn't do very well last year, the plants grew like crazy, but there weren't many beans.  I am really hoping for a better crop this year.  All of the herbs (perennials in the herb garden and annuals in the vegetable garden) are doing really well.  The only exception is the purple ruffle basil.  There weren't very many seeds in the package to begin with and not very many of them came up which is kind of disappointing, but on the bright side of things, the ones that did come up and doing very well.

Scarlet Runner Beans along the back of the herb garden, starting to climb their netting.

Scarlet Runner Beans blossoms. 

Cilantro

Curly Parsley

Italian Parsley

Sweet Basil

Purple Ruffles Basil

A purple ruffles basil with an identity crisis!  Looks really cool though!

Chives . . . I am really glad these are doing well . . . my sister gave it to me at Easter, she had dug it up from her plant that was getting too big . . . it was in a plastic bag, I brought it home and promptly forgot about it until about a month ago!  It looked just about dead when I planted it, but I decided to try, just in case!  Looks pretty good now!!

Oregano with cute little purple buds . . . that turn into  . . . 

. . . little white Oregano flowers!

Week 16 - July 17/18 - Flower Gardens

I spent all my gardening time in the vegetable garden this weekend because it was in much worse shape than the flower gardens.  They do need a weeding, but they are doing quite well.  Lots of day lilies and other lilies blooming, lots of cone flowers and hostas.  There are a few things that I need to move and I need to make some notes of things that need to be downsized in the spring.  The hostas in the corners of the back garden are both far too big for the space that they are in.  The hardy geranium that is in the back garden has got to come out.  The white phlox in the side garden has gotten huge and there are a whole bunch of little baby ones that have got to go, but I am going to see my mom in a couple weeks, so I want to check and see if she wants any of it before I murder all the babies!  The burgundy galardia that I got for my birthday is a lot taller than I expected, so it needs to be moved.

I am hoping that I can get some time in the gardens in the evenings this week to get some of these things moved.  I prefer to move plants in the evenings when it is a little cooler, but we'll see what the weather is like and what kind of mood my little man is in!

Back Garden

Back Garden

Side Garden

Side Garden

Week 16 - July 17/18 - Vegetable Garden

After spending 3 hours in the sun and rain and then sun again yesterday, pulling weeds in the vegetable garden, it is looking really good.  It isn't weed free and never will be but it looks so much better after having been somewhat neglected the past few weekends.  Everything is where it should be at this point . . . we've been eating the lettuce and the bunnies have been enjoying the swiss chard and kale.  There are lots of little zucchini and cucumbers and a few little tomatoes.  The peppers are really slow, but they were very tiny when I planted them, so I am not surprised.  I am still hoping that they will catch up and I'll get some peppers off them.  

Baby Zucchini

Teeny tiny cucumber

Carrots

Beets . . . time to thin these a little bit and have a snack!!  Yummy!

Tomato

Red Leaf Lettuce and Green Romaine Lettuce

Red Romaine Lettuce and Green Leaf Lettuce

Asiatic Lilies

So, if you haven't already guessed it, I am obsessed with Lilies!  Day lilies, asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, tiger lilies, red, pink, yellow, orange, white, I just love lilies!  Star gazers are my absolute favorite, but seriously, I can't get enough lilies!

These are some new asiatic lilies that I got from Vesey's this spring.  They were a freebie as part of a fundraiser, so I was expecting just plain, basic colours, which, given my love for ALL lilies would have been fine.

My first surprise was the number of buds on the plants.  How often do you see a lily with 5-8 buds in it's first year?  Pretty much never!  But take a look . . . 

Then they opened . . . and all I can really say is WOW!!!  They are gorgeous!  I just can't stop looking at them and taking pictures of them.

Here are some of the first blooms . . . 

And by the weekend they were even more impressive with more blossoms open . . . so far I have two yellow ones and one red one.  I have three or four more that still need to open . . . I wonder if there are other colours . . . I can't wait!!