2014 ~ In the Garden

January~Amaryllis 'Très Chic'

I like to look through all the photos of my garden at the end of every year and pick out my favorites. I also like to see the evolution of my garden and flowers throughout the seasons. Here are my favs for 2014, and they (with the exception of the March tulips)  are all photos of my own garden and my own fleurs.  I'm hoping to be more adventurous with my photo-taking this year, and maybe even start a photo-a-day project. We'll see.

Here's to many more beautiful moments in the garden in 2015.

February~ Phalaenopsis orchid

March~Tulips

April~Bleeding Hearts

May~Tree Peony

June~Roses, Larkspur

July~Phlox, Echinacea

August~Annual pots

September~Zinnias

October~Late afternoon garden

November~Golden hosta

December~A favorite ornament

Garden on December 1

Garden on November 1 and Middle of the Night Garden Planning

November 1

I had a hard time sleeping last night, surprise surprise, and after my usual counting backwards by threes, counting the slats in my window blinds, planning Thanksgiving dinner, and going over just about every aspect of my life, I started in on my garden and what I could do differently. I started out by trying to figure out where I could plant more bulbs, and it quickly turned into extending current garden beds and starting a new hydrangea garden. In our side yard at the back, we have four big white pine trees, and right now we just have mulch under them, but I have always wanted to plant azaleas there. I was thinking I could plant some bulbs there, too, plant five or six cheap and cheerful azaleas, and then extend the bed toward the fence and put in some hydrangeas. Or I could do a hedge of hydrangeas somewhere, something I have always wanted, but where to put that? And then I want a gingko tree, oh,  and a crape myrtle too.

Garden on October 1

I am so bad about remembering what day it is, and it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I realized it was October 1 and I hadn't taken my monthly garden photo that morning. And it's a good thing I took it yesterday afternoon, because it started raining last night and it's been raining ever since. So not much blooming in front anymore, just the sedums and a few random phlox and anemones.  Yesterday was beautiful, though, and I took advantage of it and got a lot done in the gardens. I cut back all my coreopsis, as it was blackened and ugly, cut back all the coneflowers and rudbeckia, deadheaded roses and zinnias, pulled out some vines gone wild,  and various other clean up duties. I need to do something about my sedums, though. I don't like how they are all sprawly instead of standing up straight. I guess I either need to stake them  or cut them back earlier in the season so they don't grow so tall. One of my go-to gardening books is Tracy DiSabato-Aust's The Well Tended Perennial Garden, and she recommends that sedums be cut back by about half when they are 8 inches tall. I do this with several of my perennials to keep them shorter, but need to try it next year with these leggy sedums.

Sprawling sedums

Chomp chomp, somebody likes my parsley

Then I decided to tackle something that has been annoying me all summer--my big blue hydrangea in the backyard. It is so overgrown and I have been reading about what to do. Well yesterday I just decided to go for it, and cut it way down.  Pulled out lots of dead wood in the middle. I just hope I haven't killed it. I know I won't get any flowers next summer, but if it comes back in any shape at all and is smaller, I will be okay with that.

Hydrangea--Before

Hydrangea--After

And finally, how about those Nats, our NL East Champs!! Woohoo, we are pretty excited around here!

Garden on September 1

Garden on August 1

How can it be August 1 already? Summer is flying by.  It's cloudy this morning and looks like we will be getting some rain today. The garden is a mix of purples and silvers right now, with phlox and purple coneflowers still blooming, and anemones just beginning. The limelight hydrangea has just begun to bloom--so much later than all the other hydrangeas, which are looking pretty fried right now. This summer has been brutal for my hydrangeas.

Anemones

Lambs Ears

Sedum

Limelight Hydrangea

Sedum

Garden on July 1 (well, July 3)

Yikes, I forgot all about my monthly garden photo on July 1, so here it is a few days late. Must be the heat getting to me, as we are on yet another day of 98-100 degree temperatures. We were very lucky that we did not lose our power after the big storm on Friday night, because a lot of people around here are still without power, and obviously no a/c. Bob and Carol in Bethesda are still without power, as well as a lot of people in northern Virginia. The library opened yesterday and I have never seen so many people in there. People were sitting on the floor in the aisles with their cell phones and laptops and e-readers charging, every single seat at tables and cubbies was full, and we even opened the meeting rooms and set up tables and chairs for people to sit. I guess people were coming in to cool off, charge their devices, and connect with the outside world. Most people were in good spirits, fortunately.

And look what I am dealing with now--Japanese beetles. I haven't seen them for the last couple of years on my roses, but they seem to be particularly bad this year. I just starting noticing them about a week ago, so I guess I better get out there and start picking them off. So annoying.

Garden on June 1

Well here we are in June--the time sure does go by fast these days. The garden is really at its peak right now--with roses, lavender, larkspur, coreopsis, perennial geraniums, all in full bloom. Just starting are the hydrangeas, daylilies, coneflowers, daisies, astilbes. The past few days have been perfect, sunny and in the low 80s, perfect for working outside. I spent a good part of yesterday in the garden, deadheading things, weeding, moving pots around. I need to be extra vigilant with the deadheading this year, as I am trying to maximize the blooms for garden tour time in late June.

And here are some other fleurs blooming this Friday morning.

First daylilies

Purple Coneflower

Daisy

Snapdragon 'Rocket'

First zinnias

Garden on May 1

Well,  you can see the garden is definitely greening up and some blues and pinks are beginning, following the daffodils, tulips, and snowdrops. The catmint is blooming around the edges and the lambs ears are going strong. The pink in the foreground is lychnis, with white candytuft nearby. You can see some of the peonies in the back and the baptisia is just beginning to bloom.

I have perennial geraniums all over my garden and they are just beginning.

Geraniums just beginning

Lambs Ears

I have many varieties of heuchera too and this one is a favorite. The color looks especially good in the spring before the hot summer sun bleaches it out a little.

Heuchera 'Creme Brulee'

Baptisia

Lots of anemones

Garden on April 1

I took this picture yesterday, really, and I should have posted it yesterday on April 1 of course, but here it is. As you can see, things look quite a bit different from a month ago. All the purple blooming is nepeta, or catmint, and my lambs ears are looking healthy. You can see my iris pallida in the foreground and the white candytuft on the left. The big green mounds are sedums and asters and phlox. Daylilies are emerging. In the back to the left of the front door is my tree peony. A few tulips are still blooming and the tall snowdrops are still going strong. Yesterday was a work day in the garden, and we got a lot done. The Boy Scouts delivered 25 bags of mulch last week, so we got about half of that spread around trees and in my side beds. I like to mulch those areas to keep the weeds down, but I don't mulch my perennial bed. I have it filled enough so that the plants keep the weeds down, and I like to be able to get in between the plants myself and scratch around. For some reason, I just don't like mulch around my perennials.

Pretty heuchera after the rain

Freshly mulched rose bed

Fruit on the mahonia

Can't resist alyssum in the spring

Last week when we were walking around Capitol Hill with Pat and Jack, I saw a small garden that had a few big pots of alyssum and I thought it looked really good. So I bought some alyssum this week and planted a pot and then planted the rest in some nooks and crannies of the garden.

Lily of the Valley 

And I had to share this picture of some of my lily of the valley popping up. It is one of my all-time favorite flowers, and I have it growing everywhere. And 35 years ago today, I was carrying the most beautiful bouquet of all lily of the valley (that we had to special order as it wasn't blooming yet),  as Walt and I got married at my sister Linda's house, in front of her fern.