Mid Summer Island Bed

My front island perennial bed looks best in late-spring (when the peonies and fox gloves are blooming) and mid-summer when the phlox, cone flowers, and rudbeckia take center stage.  Mid-summer can also be a time when the garden starts to show signs of stress from the heat, humidity, and pests.  With mid-summer comes humid weather, which means that controlling fungus and powdery mildew can be a full time job, but even with the foliage not looking its best the blooms of mid-summer usually puts on a lovely show. 

I've got several varieties of phlox.  Some of them are new cultivars that resist fungus, but most of what I have are older varieties that lose most of their lower leaves to disease every summer.  The one is my favorite (sorry don't know its name).  I love the color and how tall it is - almost as tall as me (5'2")!. 

Notice the darn Japanese beetle munching away.... grrrrrr....

Since cone flowers are native to America not much bothers these hardy plants.  I've got purple, pink, peach, and green blooms in this bed (sorry folks I don't know their common or botanical names). 

The rudbeckia (also native) has lots of buds and should be blooming in a few days (sorry no picture).

Larkspur is new to my garden this year.  I love how they look so similiar to delphiniums (some people think they are the same but they are not).  Larkspur blooms later and longer than delphiniums.  They don't have as a deep a color as the delphinium, but are tall and sturdy and bit more resistant to disease.

Hollyhocks are one of my all time favorite flowers.  I planted them last year and this year they are blooming for the first time.  Only one has started blooming, but 2 others are not too far behind.  I planted them at the back of the bed knowing they are tall plants, but I've been disappointed so far in their size.  They are probably only 3 feet tall and the flowers are smaller than I expected.  They aren't done blooming or growing for the season so I hope they will get bigger (does anyone have any idea why they are so small?)

These sweet coreopsis with grassy foliage and small lavender flowers is planted at the very front of the bed.  I have mixed feelings about it.  The flowers are so small you really only notice them unless you get close up and the foliage is a bit messy looking to me.  I'm undecided as to whether they are staying or being moved.  I'm thinking of replacing them with something that has a bit more impact.  Any ideas anyone?

Around the large oak tree I've planted reblooming daylilies in all different colors and varieties.  I need to take better pictures of them early in the day.  I usually go out with the camera late in the day as the blooms fade so I haven't captured them at their best, but they are really gorgeous.

The Endless Summer hydrangea is blooming really nicely this year.  Good thing too because I was ready pull it out.  I planted it 3 summers ago and this is the first time it has bloomed (and I haven't pruned it for fear that it wouldn't bloom). 

Finally at the back of the bed are tons of liatris.  I inherited them from the previous owner.  They were peppered throughout the bed with no rhyme or reason, and 2 springs ago I moved them all towards the back in a long row for impact.  I love they way they look.

This bed is still a work in progress.  I've got many more kinds of plants then I've listed in this post, but this is what is blooming right now. There are still plants in the back of the bed that are smaller and need to be moved up front since they are hiding behind the cone flowers and tall phlox.  These include the shasta daisies, salvia, and lamb's ear.  I've got that on my "to do" list for next spring.  As the summer goes by that list is growing and growing... but then again a garden is never done and that's what makes it so much fun!

The Allergic Gardener

I woke up this morning with allergy eyes and in serious need of an emergency tissue purchase on my way to work.


Although I suffer from indoor allergies, I'm not allergic to pollen – at least I didn’t think so, but as I’m quickly finding out when you hit 40 you begin to acquire many things (one being something that only my colorist knows!).

New England was hit with an early heat wave and it felt like we shot right past spring and was teleported into mid-July –a perfect opportunity for me to do some digging in the dirt. Ellie’s dad spent the weekend grumbling as he fought with the moss growing in our lawn (and, early on it looked like the moss was gonna win). (That's Ellie's Dad last summer on his favorite piece of equipment).



His weekend started out with some head scratching, dethatching, aerating, and words I won’t repeat. By Sunday morning it progressed into a serious consultation with a neighbor (not THAT neighbor), but one whose lawn seems to have been blessed by the Gods. Anyway, almost $400 later, which included the rental of an overseeder (I didn’t even know what that was until he brought it home on his truck), numerous bags of lime, fertilizer, and seed I’m happy to report that our lawn is now moss free!

Ok... this pic has nothing to with the lawn, but the phlox this time of year is much lovelier to look at than grass.

While all of this lawn wrangling was going on Ellie and I hid in the garden beds and stayed out of his way. Still mostly avoiding the vegetable beds and the snap peas (which I’m now hardening off so at least I’m making some progress), I assessed the front perennial bed and cleaned the back flower bed that is near our deck.

Below are a few shots of the front perennial bed. The previous owner of the house built it in front of our circular driveway. Apparently at one time it was gorgeous, but was neglected for many years before we bought the house. It’s what got me interested in gardening. I love to rescue things… people, animals, plants…you name it. And, this garden was in serious need of being rescued. Never mind that I had absolutely no gardening experience, I wanted to bring this cottage patch back to life. Anyway, the past few years have been a learning experience which I’ll talk about in upcoming blogs. But, suffice it to say that every year it gets a little better.

This photo was taken from inside our bedroom looking down on the garden (sorry about the screen lines, but I didn't want to go through the trouble of removing the screen).

Since it’s still only April in zone 6 New England, the front bed is just starting to come alive. Waking from their winter slumber are peonies, liatris, coneflower, lamb’s ear, Asiatic lilies, hardy geranium, Montauk daisies, jacob’s ladder, monk’s hood, and coral bell’s. We’ve got a variety of sun and shade loving plants because part of the bed is in full sun most of the day while the other part is in partial sun under the large oak tree. There’s also a really ugly utility pole stuck right in the middle of it, which we can’t remove, but it less noticeable in summer when the plants are larger.

Anyway, the weekend ended on a happy note. With Ellie’s Dad the victor of his battle, Ellie exhausted from varmit chasing (like a true terrier!)....

...and me admiring the clean garden beds as I slowly sip on a glass of chardonnay and toast the pleasures of spring.