The Season between Tulips and Delphiniums

The flower beds are not as colorful as they were at the height of tulip season, but they look a lot more full and lush now. The slow-to-start perennials, such as lavender and blanketflowers (Gaillardia) have now leafed-out.
Allium "Gladiator" in raised bed (with shorter Allium "Purple Sensation" just behind them):

Delosperma nubigenum in the rock garden. These are the first blooms I have seen from this suprisingly hardy little succulent. I fully recommend this plant. It looks fantastic from the time the snow melts right up until the snow falls on it again.

This photos was taken yesterday at lunch time, just before a huge thunderstorm rolled in and our power went out (again).

The rock garden is looking well-grown now. The blue fescues and pulsatillas are going to seed right now, making things look a bit messy near the bottom.

For my mother: A picture of my rhubarb. Mom's always asking if my rhubarb is the "red kind". It looks reddish at the bases anyhow. How much redder does rhubarb gets?

My very rustic barrels of rambling flowers. There's nothing fancy about these driveway adornments. The Dimorphotheca African sun (orange) open up only in sunshine and are quite happy-looking in this picture.

Containers for Smells and Tastes

I went in a new direction for my deck containers this year. Usually, I plant them up with colorful annuals for a bright show at the front of the house. This year, I planted mainly herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, and scented geraniums.

This pot contains a tasty collection of dwarf globe basil and Red Robin cherry tomatoes. I planted another larger pot with indeterminate (very tall) golden cherry tomatoes, purple basil, lemon basil, and thyme.

I am partial to these Vietnamese blue glazed pots. I recall that resident lawnmower man spotted this one at the Ten Thousand Villages store. I planted "Nutmeg" and "Apples and Cinnamon" scented geraniums (technically they are Pelargoniums) in this pot, hoping to get a sniff when walking up the front sidewalk. I can't honestly say that the nutmeg geranium smells too much like nutmeg, but the apples and cinnamon is not too far off.


The sloped flower bed is looking nice with creeping phlox (pink) in bloom. Creeping phlox (Phlox subulata) is a great evergreen mat-forming perennial that is easily divided. I started with one plant in the yard 4 years ago and divided it into at least 12 plants. I don't find it invasive and it's not unattractive when not in bloom.


Did you catch that pile of sod stacked up in the left side of the previous picture? RLM has been working on the most recent yard projects. We're removing more lawn, which is a pleasing thing in itself. About 5 feet of lawn next to the house will be replaced by stones and gravel, since that lawn gets cooked by heat reflecting from the house and it looks terrible most of the time. In the middle of the lawn, I want a rocky outcrop to make an alpine/rock garden. It will start as soon as we haul in some blast rock and maybe get some machinery to move around some huge stones. Isn't that so exciting?

A rope outlines the perimeter of my rock/alpine garden:


Here we have a Mentha "Julia's Sweet Citrus" and a lemon scented geranium. I bought the mint and geraniums as a mail order from Richter's Herbs. I'm quite excited about these plants and plan to add mint to fresh summer dishes and drinks. The Victorians were fanatical about collecting scented geraniums, so we'll see if this summer of smelly plants gets me hooked. I'll definitely take cuttings of my favourites and keep them for next year.


Aside from the containers, here's my very small raised bed vegetable and herb garden. I am growing all of four broccoli plants, which were started indoors and are now planted out. I've never grown broccoli before in my life, so it's just another novelty in my little garden, just like the purple carrots that are sprouting so nicely now.

I know the rest of the North American gardeners are probably harvesting their first peas and greens, but with our long bright days, we'll catch up soon. At least our dandelions are thriving!

July's Colors

The large and bold flowers are the theme of the month. Four-foot pale blue delphiniums bloom around the yard, though I'd like to add some deeper blue and purple ones for next year. (They are started in the basement already).

The containers on the deck are growing well. I started the Petunias, Lobelia, Nicotiana, and Osteospermum from seed. All were quite easy to grow under lights.

Pictured: The large-leafed plants are Nicotiana sylvestris. People visiting the house want to know the name of this giant flower-- "Tobacco", I say..."the ornamental flowering kind". As much as I was enticed by the promise of sweet-smelling flowers, the overwhelming tobacco smell of the leaves doesn't allow you to enjoy any flower scent.

Pictured: Bright blue Delphinium grandiflorum "Blue Elf" and pink Malva Moschata. I am wondering why I put these in the rock garden, because they are both almost 3 feet tall and require staking. Hmmm. Resident-lawnmower-man says they look fine, but I think this situation may keep me up at night...

Not just perennials

I confess that I am growing ANNUALS up here. Yes, I am not a perennial purist. However, I do know one of these types, who wanted to know if I grew perennials or annuals before taking up a gardening friendship.

Pictured: Yellow pot liles "Lemon Pixie", white zinnias, Snapdragons, and Pink Lilies "Farolito".

Sometimes I even feel bad for growing annuals, yet I justify this act by emphasizing that almost nothing else will grow in containers left out over winter! Those pampered gardeners in Toronto and Vancouver can flaunt their Tiarellas, Tulips, and English Ivys flowing from ornamental containers. Unfortunately, the rule for plants in containers is that they must be hardy to a climate two zones less than your present zone. That is, if you live in Zone 6, the plants in containers must be hardy to zone 4. This might work in warmer places, but technically, it would leave us in negative numbers.

Remarkably though, the snow cover does wonders here and I actually have some yellow pot lilies ("Lemon Pixie") that made it through the winter in whiskey barrels. I intended to leave them there, thinking they would die and compost away. I was quite suprised to see them back this year, especially since our dog's brother ATE all the flowers off those lilies last year. I since found out that lilies are very poisonous to animals, but he was fine except for the yellow pollen "mustache" that gave him away!

The doggie picture is our fine friend in all her sleek summertime glory, without the heavy undercoat. She looks much smaller in the summer! The wild blueberries are growing in her backyard habitat though I don't think she has been eating any of them.