First, meet my little garden buddy, McKay. He’s our cute, smart, hilarious two-year old. He’s fun to have along in the garden, although I often need to clean up the messes he makes, like today, when I swept the sidewalk off after he shoveled dirt all over it from a nearby flowerbed. But no problem,…
My crocuses are such tiny things, and the clumps are few and far between, but I like how they are the first heralds of spring. I have them next to the walkway to my front door so they’ll get our attention as we walk to or from the house. At this time of year, I…
I walked out the front door a few days ago in the evening, and the setting sun was making the tiny crabapples on my tree glow and sparkle. I ran back in to get the camera! This is a Prairiefire crabapple. Sometimes I’ve called in Prairie Fire, but I think the proper name is one…
Now these are some *cool* flowers! Don’t you think? This is one of the Hibiscus moscheutos plants I have in large pots on my backyard deck. This one was much later to flower than the other this year, but it’s great to see multiple flowers opening up at once. My hunch is that they would…
I decided this year to leave the nectarines on the tree longer, because many of them were a little too tart last year. They are really getting good now! I’ve harvested a few small batches of them in the past week, and there are many more still on the tree. Birds are getting to the…
Wow a whole month without posting! I am chagrined to have not posted here for all of August. I don’t have much time to put into it this year, since I’m working much of my free time doing construction in my basement (now shooting for finishing it within a month or so!). Anyway, here’s some…
These pink flowers are Lavatera tauricensis (see an earlier post with info about the name being in doubt). I transplanted them to this backyard flowerbed in spring 2007, I think. Now that they’re established, they’ve grown well and are flowering like crazy. I love this plant, because it keeps flowering all summer long, even when…
Siberian Iris and Dianthus grationapolitanus, both from June. This Dianthus is a very small and slow to grow. I’ve lost a bunch of them and only have a few left. Salvia nemorosa ‘East Friesland’ and Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue.’ The salvia is awesome and will rebloom repeatedly when cut back. The geranium probably needs to be…