I just have to post this. This is a photo of flowers on my dogwood tree! It is a Red Pygmy Dogwood and this is the first time in six years that it has bloomed!! Previously, I think it was getting too much shade so I moved it. Last year it was so unhappy with being moved that it did precisely nothing.
This year, though! Flowers!! Well, they’re actually bracts but I’m calling them flowers because I want to. This tree will only get to about 7ft tall. It is a *really* slow grower. It’s also subject to anthracnose which is slightly infuriating. I spray it every 2 weeks to keep that at bay.
My tulips are blown pretty much. I do have some late ones that are just starting to open up but for the most part they’re on their last legs. As I do every year, I wish I’d planted wider swaths but when I’m out there in the Fall planting, all I can think about is how its cold and rainy and I’d rather be inside.
One tulip I absolutely love is Angelique. She’s a double but so far nearly every one has had two blooms! I’m pretty new to the gardening world (I bought my first plant three years ago) but I had never heard of a tulip with two flowers from one bulb!
I take a lot of pictures of my garden because it helps me remember where things are. I’ve lost a couple things by digging up a spot I thought was empty to put a new plant in. It’s especially difficult with perennials. This time I did label things with those white label sticks but I just hate how it looks. I should get a brown color or something.
This part is something I’m still working on. Well, I don’t think I’ll ever be done but I’ve ripped everything out of this section and replanted it. I did find a new grass. I didn’t know it was grass and in fact I have no idea where it came from but I like it! I need to thin out my Japanese Maple, dig up that yellow sedge in the front and put it somewhere else, and figure out what I want to do with that space. It’s very haphazard right now. This is my project for this year. To figure out what to do with this part of my entry way.
I love this part of my garden. It’s so full of stuff!! In June it looks amazing with the monarda and chocolate joe pye weed along the back. There’s also a hardy hibiscus thats just starting to leaf out! I dug out a tri color willow I had in the corner and I need to replace it with something evergreen. Right now I’m leaning toward a camellia but I don’t know how much sun it can take so its still in its pot for a practice run. This area is in shade for 10 months of the year but July and August are killer.
My mother in law says that a garden will always be a work in progress and I can see she is correct. Every time I go out there I see another thing I want to change. I think I may have bit off more than I can chew because not only do I have my Inner Garden (the previous two photos are of the Inner Garden) but also my front yard AND my backyard! Before we had 87 trees cut down in our back yard, all my focus was the front yard and all my plant love went there. And before you croak about 87 trees, we still have 12 and our lot size is only a quarter acre. Since we cut down the trees, we get sun in the house! It’s amazing! We also dont have a backyard full of only moss and we no longer have huge puddles of standing water (no sun, no evaporation).
It also opened up a whole new gardening area! My goal is to set up a vegetable garden but for now its just shrubs, hostas, heuchera and ferns. Oh, and a glorious deciduous golden redwood. Which I need to take a photo of since its so beautiful!
