August Abundance

I postponed decisions about what to do at the corner of the garage after I had an old lilac removed.  I put in some annuals and two caryopteris.  If the other caryopteris in my garden are any indication, the two new ones will be huge next year.  The alyssum certainly took off!

The dark blue is an annual salvia that I put in a number of places.  I like it, but I won’t use so much of it again.  It competes with the other blues and from a distance looks like lavender. And caryopteris is so wonderful.  See my two very larger caryteris plants below.

Bluebeard Caryopteris, August 09

In fact, I may move one of them next spring.  I can’t see the white dome hydrangeas behind the second plant.

Speaking of hydrangeas, the tardiva is doing beautifully.   It was one of the first things I planted in the secret garden.  I didn’t really pay attention at the time to how big tardivas can get.  My day lilies could be in danger!

Tardiva, August 09

Lily season is just about over, but Storm of the Century is still giving out blooms.  This may be one of my favorites, though it may be too soon to tell. Some of the newer lilies won’t bloom until next year.  Below, tardiva and storm of the century nestle next to each other.

Tardiva and Storm of the Century, August 09

False Lupine

I bought a false lupine today.  I’m not quite sure what I have because one internet site called it baptisma.  I thought that was false indigo.  False lupine seems to have different leaves than the false indigo I bought earlier this summer.  I suppose I will just have to wait.   I also bought yet another nikko blue.  I put it in the false garden, not because it is a “false” plant, but because I hope it will get big enough to hide the neighbor’s garbage cart.  Such are the trials of urban living and gardening.  Their cart sits just a few feet from my new and now functioning side door.   But the nikko was so cheap!!  I love end of the season bargins.  And it’s a big plant.  I moved a small barberry and plunked it in front of the arborvitae.    I have two others that I’ll move, too.  I think I’ll transplant a holly to that spot.

New Nikko Blue, August 09

I bought some lavender to put in the flase garden, too.  Perhaps the scent will help mask the scent of the garbage cart.  I still have to arrange the rocks, and I have six more bags of mulch to spread.  If it doesn’t start raining again, I may do that this evening.

Here is a picture of my new access door to my garage.  I will steal one of the hollies there to put in the false garden.  I hate to disturb it because it is finally doing well.  But a holly that will get 10 feet tall probably renders any access door inaccessible. The white trim won’t be white for long. That’s just primer.  Notice the new window.  I think it is screaming for a window box.

In Just a Year

It is when I look at pictures taken a year ago that I truly realize how much the secret garden has grown.  This picture was taken exactly a year ago.

Secret Garden in August 2008

Last year I filled in many of the empty spaces with purple petunias.  Many of purple varieties have that lovely vanilla scent and are especially fragrant in the evenings.  This year, though, the perennials became more established and took up more room.  And, of course, I added the Casey Bell sculpture after the picture above was taken.  Below is a picture of the same garden that was taken this morning.

Secret Garden August 2009

Under Construction!

I didn’t know that I would actually be putting a “people door” in my garage this summer, but I am.  The guy who did my kitchen had some free time, so he’s putting in a door and replacing the rotted windows.  The people door means I can finally put in an electric garage door opener.  Such a luxury!

The secret garden is lush.  The moonflowers are huge and I was quite pleased today to see several large blooms had stayed open.  They tend to close up during the day.

moonflower

I am also planning a new bed.   At the moment, I plan to make it my “false” bed and fill it with things like false indigo, false sunflower, false forgetmetnots, and false mallow.  I’m not sure how long this plan will last.  But the old sidewalk at the side of the house has now been removed, a water fawcet for the hose has been installed, and the grade has been leveled so water doesn’t funnel into the basement anymore.   So here is a “before” picture.   I hate the new window wells, though.  Perhaps  the plants will hide them and the furnace pipes.

A Fascination with Rocks

First, the garden is in full bloom.  I love July, and especially this July when the weather has been so great.  It’s the big bloomining month.  The daylilies are out, and so are the hydrangea.  I took this picture this morning.

The yellow daylilies to the far right are called First Knight.  I bought two more pots of them a couple days ago and planted them near the old dogwood tree.  The tall pink daylilies behind the statue are Prairie Blue Eyes.  The tardiva hydrangea is getting ready to bloom.  And the very dark daylilies in the center front are my favorites, but I don’t know their name.  They came from a farm in Byron Center about six years ago, and I planted them in the Portland garden.  When I moved, I dug up a small toe and planted it here in Grand Rapids.  It has moved a couple times before I found a permanent home for it, and now it is no long an “it” but a “them.”

This little nook is coming along nicely.  I dug up the russian sage.  It was ungainly and just didn’t have the look I wanted here.  I gave it to a neighbor.  The pink dawn climbers are climbing.  I hope they take over the supports by the end of summer because I’d rather see roses that white vinyl supports there.  The moonflowers are budded out,  and I expect to see dinner-plate sized flowers this weekend.  I planted a nikko blue hydrangea where the russian sage used to be.  I’d love to see electric blue mopheads by this time next year.

I started collecting rocks for the garden and using them to create little vignettes.  I raided the fence line in the park, and the drip line on one of the storage buildings.  I went down to Plaster Creek on my bike and brought rocks back in my basket.  And, um, I picked up some rocks that were between a fence and a sidewalk.  There were thousands of them and I figured that the organization or company that owned the building on the other side of the fence would not miss five rocks.  I’ll go back to the creek today or tomorrow.  But here is what I am doing with the rocks.

I’ve got bricks that I will do something with, too.  But I think the stone borders are interesting and add a certain sweetness.

More Pink Day Lilies

Good old K Gardens!  They set up at the Fulton Street Market and today they had dozens of pink day lilies.  I bought six different varieties and already have them stationed in the lily bed.  I’ll plant them this afternoon.

But July is day lily bloom time, and I love it.   Below is strawberry candy, which is planted in the front.  It’s actually not my favorite.  I thought it would be pinker than it is.  But it’s peachy bordering on orange. This picture here makes them look pinker, too.

strawberry candy day lily

My favorite day lily is one that I don’t have a name for.  I bought it a number of years ago from a woman in Byron Center who owns a day lily farm, of all things.  The leaves are quite broad, and as you can see, the flower is very dark.  In fact, I’ve never seen a day lily that is this deep.

Again, this image doesn’t quite capture the deep wine color.

It’s a cool and cloudy day, especially for the middle of July.  I learned a couple days ago from an astromony professor that we are experiencing an unsually cool summer because the sun is not creating many sun spots. Last year was the “bottom” of an eleven year cycle.  This should be the beginning of a new sun spot cycle, but so far, there have been remarkably few sun spots.  So, our weather is quite cool.  No one understands why we have fewer sunspots.  But in the 1800’s there was an extended period when there were few sunspots and that impacted the temperatures world-wide.  In Holland, for example, the canals froze over during the winter.  This apparently is a rarity.

A Stitch in Time Hosta

I scored the jackpot today, both in lavendars and in hostas.  I went to Byron Center’s  K Gardens.  They had several Stitch in Time hostas, and, though it was expensive,  I  bought one.  Here it is.

stitch in time hosta

I hope it is very happy under the kousa dogwood.  I bought two other hostas–ghost spirit and allegan fog.  Those two have some similar qualities and should get larger than stitch in time.  So, I hope they provide an interesting backdrop for the little show piece.  I planted two dream queens that I picked up last week in the same bed, which is a new hosta bed.  It is directly across from a bed that I started at the end of the summer in 2008. That bed is deliciously abundant this year.   The splash of chartreuse is a new coral bell that I put in a week or so ago.    The idea here is to pull the greens of the hostas just a little bit further, but to also break up all that green and cream with the splash of red astilbe and the red coral bell varieties.  The pinkish red coral bell is call encore–just the perfect name for a singer.

Pink Day Lilies

There used to be only two color choices when it came to day lilies: yellow or orange.  But those clever lily growers have, in the past few years, developed all kinds of lovely pink lilies.  And some of those have landed in my garden.   The lovely flower here is Prairie Blue Eyes.

I’m off to a garden center where I hope I can find a couple of different varieties of lavendar.  My goal at the moment is to put in as many different lavendars as possible.

But I have to comment about all the adolescent robins that live in my neighborhood.  They love to splash around in the fountain.  There is one right now, though, sitting on top of one of the supports for the dutchman’s pipe.  His breast is a little lighter than many of the others.  And now he (or she?) has flown away.  But another is sitting on the rim of the fountain looking ever so much like a discontented socialite unamused by the absence of fine china or something.  Poor robin.

A Garden in Grand Rapids, Michigan

I spent a lovely afternoon with two other gardeners who also happen to be cat lovers.  Amy rents an apartment in one of those beautiful old Heritage Hill homes.  But that hasn’t kept her from gardening.  She has transformed a lovely slope behind her apartment, using stones to make little “vignettes.”  She has herbs mixed in with shrubs and perennials.  It’s quite sweet.

Steph’s garden is just getting established, but I can already tell her art background is going to work magic on the back yard space that is gradually coming to gether.  I’m amazed that she could get her pansies, a deep almost black color, to come back again this year.  They look alarmingly healthy.  I’ve never been able to get pansies to survive a winter.  Stef also has a lovely dappled willow that she and Amy sharply pruned a few months ago, and it is now lush and vibrant.

And she has valerian, an herb that smells so sweet.  I must get some.  It’s invasive, so I will need to put it in a pot.

My plan was to work in the garden this evening, but it’s buggy out there.

Speaking of bugs, the Japanese beetles have arrived.  I found two on my English roses.  I put some insecticidal soap on them, but I doubt that will take care of the little creatuers.  Tomorrow I may resort to chemical warfare.  It’s too bad because they really are quite attractive–for a bug.  But beauty ain’t everything, especially when there are six legs and a hug appetite involved.

Dutchman’s Pipe

Three summers ago I planted a number of dutchman’s pipe vines that would create a green wall around part of the secret garden.  This year that wall is finally filled in.   That’s it behind me.

I’m standing behind a couple of white dome hydrangeas that run along a battered picket fence.  The wonderful surprise is that the white domes are fragrant.  I notice it particularly at night.

Several days ago I bought some white fleshed donut peaches.  Today I knew I had to do something with them.  So, I put together something with a little sugar, the juice from half a lemon and some cinammon.  I put pie crust on top, so it will be some sort of top only peach pie.  It’s baking now and smells heavenly.

A friend picked gallons of cherries from the old cherry tree in the back yard and then gave me some of her loot.  I pitted the cherries, cooked them with a little sugar, and then pureed them.  I was going to make cherry chutney but knew I didn’t want to use all of the puree for that.  And then I didn’t have jars, and I didn’t feel like creating a mess.  So, I poured the puree into mini muffin tins and stuck them in the freezer.  When they are solid, I’ll dump them out of the tins, put them in freezer bags, and use the little lumps for whatever I happen to want or need at the time–chutney, a little bit of jam, or something else delictable.  Happiness is flexibility.