Monday, June 9, 2014

We worked hard for this

The best thing about the front garden is how nice it looks from the street.
Our neighbor down the hill in the big house wondered if Emily and Laura might do yard work
That was good for a chuckle. 
Child labor still requires direct adult supervision.
One big garden is enough; there is plenty to do this summer.

Here's a look around at the last two weeks; not in chronological order.


Aunt Laura's iris. This little bed is past its prime, now.


Dad's oriental poppies and Jan's clematis. After two years I may have nursed the clematis back to life.


The peonies. 


Nina's pinks have doubled over these two summers. 


Stella de oro. This bed of bee and butterfly plants is just coming into its own this year.


Solomon's seal and more butterfly plants. The allium in the back is done, and this peony outdid itself this year. This fall it will move back and further down. Better balance.


I bought three very expensive bearded iris last fall. There was a bed of iris in the yard when I was very young and I liked them. These may grown on me. This light purple is too light.


The dark purple too dark. The third iris has no buds.


 The hanging basket I nailed!


The hanging basket I almost nailed. I do like the nasturtiums. 



The hanging basket I'm still fiddling with. I could have bought two ready made for the price of the bedding plants.
That August lily in the triangle just came from Mark's house. Jan spotted his beds of them when she took over some of Aunt Laura's iris to plant at his house.
We had a huge August lily at my childhood home that my dad's mother gave my parents. The cutting we took did not survive the drought of 1988, when we moved here.


And look! On my way back up the steps, the step daisy has new flowers coming. Yay!

34 comments:

  1. So many wonderful plants! And nasturtiums - one of my favorites, and yet I didn't plant any this year.
    But I'm DONE. Now it's all weeding, weeding, weeding since I refused to buy mulch this year.
    I think I'd rather weed than face those hours of moving the mulch from one place to another.

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  2. I like the poppies the best.

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  3. Just beautiful. You are right that the kiddos need direction. CC cutting grass is hilarious. The gerbia daisy is pretty.

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  4. Glorious plants.

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  5. looks beautiful. your 'august lily' is a hosta? that's what the foliage looks like. I wish we could grow them down here but it gets too hot though I have seen them on occasion. and the 'step lily' looks like gerber daisies to me.

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    1. I believe it's called August lily hosta. Or some such. They grow great white trumpet like flowers.
      I fixed the daisy. Just had lilies on tongue.

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  6. Absolutely beautiful. Blood sweat and tears well rewarded.

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  7. Jolly good show (as I would have said in my native UK)!
    Jane x

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  8. purple too dark, too light - guess you are looking for Goldilocks purple.
    nice flowers.

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  9. Love, love, love your gardens.

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  10. Aunt the blue Iris is magnificent. I do not think I have ever seen an Iris that color. The other flowers are just beautiful also.

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  11. My yard looks pretty bad out front, but I have beautiful roses in the back. Your baskets are particularly pretty. I'm no gardener.

    Love,
    Janie

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  12. You and your assistants have done a great job.

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  13. So colorful and wide assortment of flowers!! Job well done to all of you because I remember about reading how much work was involved!

    betty

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  14. You have done a great job! This peony is rather special isn't it? I have never seen one just like this.
    As for hostas, they used to be considered a type of lilies (like in Plaintain lily, which is a hosta). That must be where the name August lily comes from. It must be an old traditional name.

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  15. Thanks to my mother, I actually recognize most of these :) They're beautiful, and now you have captured them for forever. When the kids get older, they will still be able to look back and think how their labour (under your direction) led to this beauty.

    My iris plants are just breaking out in bloom now.

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  16. Love your garden. I see you have a Solomon's Seal too. It's one of my favourites.

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  17. I'm impressed! All these blooms look amazing! You must feel such satisfaction.

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  18. Hari OM
    Ohhhh this is making me a tad regretful I didn't hold out for a garden flat.... step daisy? These are what I know as gerberas and are one of my own personal faves - as are nasturtiums (which are yummy in salad...) sigh... YAM xx

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  19. Wonderful work! And you must be one proud grandma to won this beautiful garden!

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  20. Such gorgeous flowers! You have every reason to be proud.

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  21. Well done! Your hours of work are paying off in a bounty of beauty.

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  22. Dear Joanne, so beautiful that it makes me miss--sorely long for--the perennial and rock gardens I planted and tended in Stillwater, Minnesota. I gave up gardening when I moved here to Missouri, but when I see these lovely plants in your photographs and your yard, I find myself wanting to begin again. I'd need to hire someone to help me dig up the sod and put down a brick border of edgers. But oh, the joy of choosing the plants! You've got me thinking----and longing. Peace.

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  23. WOW you have an absolutely amazing garden!! It's full of life and full of beauty :)

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  24. Dear Joanne,
    your garden looks so very, very beautiful! Can almost smell the irises - they have such an exquisite fragrance. They need time - wait for the third one, maybe she will juggle the 'too pale' and 'too dark' and make a balance.

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  25. Flpwer beds make a house look lovely. And working and stepping through the yard with flowers is very calming -- your photos and history of them is wonderful. -- barbara

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  26. Congratulations! it looks beautiful. I am particularly impressed with the wonderful irises. They always look so exotic, somehow. Beautiful photographs.

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  27. Your garden looks fantastic and after all that terrible winter you had. Your 'A' team have done a brilliant job - well done.

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  28. I love that dark purple iris, I've always liked flowers that are almost black. My mum would have liked the too pale one.
    The hanging baskets are very pretty.

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  29. Nothing. Nothing more beautiful than flowers!

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  30. These are beautiful! I am looking at getting some peonies to replace the dead bushes the base has in front of my house. I love the color on yours. Hope I can find some like that.

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  31. Hard work pays off in the garden, beautiful flowers

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