A Garden Tour

Nasturtiums make me feel so successful.
These were grown from seed.
I tried to keep the cost down (planters can get spendy),
so I bought about six petunias, eight pansies, a spike for each urn, and I filled in the rest with pansy and nasturtium seeds. (The big, flat leaves that float above the other flowers are the nasturtiums. They should bloom right around the time the pansies die out).

This year I tried something new for this patio pot.
I planted lettuces, chard, kale, parsley, and I can't remember what else.

The lilac is done blooming, but the Snow-in-Summer beneath it is gorgeous.

Here is a close-up of the Snow-in-Summer.
My sister-in-law got a little pot of it years ago, and now it fills several gardens.
I love it.

The back garden (what I call, unromantically, the Fire-Pit Garden).
Nate built these rock walls about ten years ago.
At the time, somebody we knew was moving, and she gave me many of her plants.
My favorites are the blue flax (you can just barely see it on the right),
the irises, and the garden phlox.
I wouldn't recommend planting the spider-wort (the bright pink in front),
because it's invasive and tries to hop everywhere.
It has invaded the peonies on the upper level of this rock wall.

A periwinkle iris from my friend Jamie.

This garden represents the best of times and the worst of times.
The tree in the middle is a terrible tree.
Look it up, it's called a Siberian Elm.
Nate and I think that someday scientists will be able to utilize its tendencies
for regrowth, refusing to die, and covering an area with its own kind.
Most of my weeding is tearing out the seedlings from this tree.
Below this awful tree, however, is one of my favorite little gardens.
More Snow-in-Summer, creeping phlox, hosta, bleeding heart, yarrow, bluebells, and some mystery plants that just might be weeds.

By the shed is the garden I probably look at the most, since I can see it from our living room.
This is a fantastic lilac.
It's called Tinkerbelle, and if you want some, I have plenty of good little baby Tinkerbelles to share.

Back around to the front of the house.
With our wet, cold  June, the bleeding heart have lasted a long time.
I like how the dianthus in front reach toward the sun.

On the north-east side of the yard, we planted a beautiful linden tree.
This is a wild-looking bed of columbine.
I tore out all the landscape fabric so these could reseed.

The columbine up close.
They are called Carol Ann, a misspelled version of my mom's name!

Back on the front porch, in damp flipflops,
happy that these blooms are finally taking off.
June has taken a long time to arrive.