The Independent Garden

We were both out of town all week last week, and quite concerned about how the garden would do without any attention at all.

It’s maintaining itself remarkably well, considering how little I’ve been home to tend to it. While it did rain last night, things are still very dry, and the poor lawn isn’t looking very well, but everything else seems to be holding up okay.

P7200025.jpgMy very favorite flower (blue butterfly delphinium) is finally in bloom. I started these under lights this year, and planted 70 of them out in the garden, and they are just coming out. They are so different from the regular delphinium, and I love the blue color.

We are definitely in the midst of high summer right now, with lots of white and yellow things in bloom.

P7200013.jpgAlthough the roses are coming into their owns as well. I’m a bit concerned about this Chrysler rose from Arena. We got two of them because of a mis-shipping thing from Arena. We gave one of them to Ginny for Mother’s Day, and hers has bloomed in a really deep red. Ours? It’s sort of orangish, hardly red at all, and I’d almost swear they aren’t the same plants. It might be our crappy soil, though. I dead-headed it pretty thoroughly today, and added a bunch of compost. We’ll see what the second flush of blooms look like.

P7200017.jpgSome of the fancier day-lilies are coming into bloom this week. I wish I’d been better about remember which one I planted where so that I could get to know them by name. I kept written notes, but they seemed to have missed getting transcribed into the journal, and now I can’t find those notes, darn it.

P7200033.jpgI keep wondering if I want to cut off the flower spikes on all of the Lamb’s Ear. They aren’t particularly pretty, but I don’t mind them. When I think, okay, I’ll tidy up and do it, I find them just absolutely covered with bees, so I leave them. I’ll have to remember to do them before they go to seed, though. I like them, but they are already spreading a lot, and I want to be sure to keep room for all of the other things I like too! The bees love them so much I feel guilty cutting them off. They aren’t that ugly.

It looks like I planted Veronica (blue spikey things) right next to the lavender. The paler purple in the lavender is being overshadowed by the deeper purple of the Veronica, so I want to remember to move one of them next spring. I’ll have to read up to see which one will handle transplanting better.

The Bee Balm is happy as a clam this year, and I have it in the red and purple, which is strange. I don’t remember buying or planting the purple, but I’m happy to have it. I’m not sure I knew it came in purple! It’s spreading quite nicely, not too aggressively, and the plants look much sturdier and healthier this year than last.

Some of the lupines that I started under lights this spring are blooming (in purple) this year. I didn’t think I’d get anything from them this year, so that was a pleasant surprise. I think I’ve planted that bad too fully, though. The plants were all so small when I put them in and they’ve all filled out so well, that I think next spring is going to be very busy while I try to figure out what is what and move probably half of them. But the deep purple of these lupine? Beautiful!

P7200005.jpgThe pond looks great right now. The fish are happy. It is absolutely Frog Fantasy land. I think I counted 30 of them today. The water lilies are blooming. It looks great, and I love the sound of the waterfall when I am out gardening. It attracts so many birds, too. I hope they are eating mosquitos.

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