Category Archives: the Lot

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – September 2016

backyard bed, bloom day, containers, fence bed, front bed, gate bed, loki bed, perennials

As I review last year’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, I notice the Lot’s blooms are a bit behind the point they were in September of 2015 or 2013. I snuck out earlier this morning before logging on for work to catch some pictures in the morning light. The weather has been absolutely beautiful since this past weekend; it is sunny and tops out in the mid seventies degree Fahrenheit with no humidity. Woo-hoo! Here are some of the blooms currently rocking the Lot.

In the South bed, the plumbago and rudbeckia have been showing their colors for a few weeks now. The sedum is beginning to get its cotton candy-colored blooms.

091516_sedumbes

The shrubby cinquefoil is still going strong since Spring. I really love this little shrub for the small, sunny space next to a rose in the South bed. Collapsing onto it are some echinacea. Unfortunately there was some overcrowding in the coneflowers this year, so they battled a bit of disease. If the weather stays cooler, I think I’ll be thinning them out.

091516_cinqufoilcone

The Route 66 coreopsis has been blooming all summer in front of the echinacea.

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Here is the crazy mess of color blooming in front of the smoke bush. I think some of the coreopsis cultivars are reverting back into the solid yellow, so I may pull them. It is also possible the plant reseeded from the right side of the South bed.

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Here is a more macro view of the left side of the South bed.

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There are splashes of rudbeckia all around the backyard. I’d recently thinned these so they’re a bit floppy still from shock. This patch is between the “Grandma Rose” I received from Mrs. J. and the winter savory. Nestled at its base is Josefine, a little garden charm I brought home from our trip to Germany.

091516_josefine

Here is the anemone I saw last season on a garden tour, and had to have for this season! It adds some flower power to a month the Lot had seemed limited in bloom variety. I found it during our annual Spring Nursery crawl. It is doing quite well in the backyard bed.

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Here is a macro view of the right side of the backyard bed. This is one of the beds the Other Half and I extended this season.

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These are some asters I had forgotten about! I was trying to wrangle a false indigo into a rope girdle and found the aster blooms beneath the larger, floppy plant.

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These are some double-style snapdragons which recently sprung back with the cooling of the weather. While I was working in the garden on Memorial Day weekend, it was humorous to watch a large bumblebee try to get into this flower.

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This is the full planter. My gardening gal friend Miss A. created the arrangement of snapdragons, lantana, and cosmos.

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On the left side of the backyard bed, more rudbeckia and a new yarrow have been blooming. The mum is working on opening up.

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This is the portion of Loki’s bed I expanded last year. The little plug of lavender really took off! The heuchera are all blooming.

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Currently nestled in a hanging planter above Loki’s bed is a new clematis, the prize of this Spring’s Nursery Crawl. I learned of Clematis ‘Rooguchi’ during March’s Smart Gardening conference. This small-bloomed, rambling clematis plays well with other garden plants and blooms all season long. It is a “Type 3” clematis and can be pruned back to the ground in the Spring since all flowers are on new wood.

091516_ragochiclematis

And then there’s the rowdy cousin. Clematis terniflora (known as sweet autumn clematis) is now well established on the Lot and grew like a plant possessed this season. Last year I learned my lesson concerning its rampant growth behavior, so this season I took time to train it and am much more happy with the results. Overall, I feel this worked well as a choice for a climber on the pergola.

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Here is a snapshot of the fragrant, little flowers.

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And here is an overall shot of how it appears on the pergola.

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Other blooms present but beginning to wane on the Lot this month are the jupiter’s beard (Centranthus ruber), butterfly bush (Buddleia), cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), rose campion (Silene coronaria), hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) and tall garden phlox (Phlox paniculata).

To see what else is blooming in gardens around the world, visit May Dreams Gardens, the hostess of this meme.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2016

backyard bed, bloom day, containers, fence bed, front bed, gate bed, house bed, perennials, sidewalk bed, the Lot

Happy Bloom Day! Every month May Dreams Gardens host Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, a day in which gardeners from around the world share what is blooming in their gardens.

First up is a shot from the Lot’s gate bed which is in the shade the majority of the day with just a touch of afternoon sun. The astilbe is in bloom, nestled among the hosta, maiden hair fern, and maiden hair grass.

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This next bloom is a dwarf coneflower, Echinacea purpurea ‘Butterfly Kisses.’ This little guy helps to keep the roots of the clematis cool in an area exposed to full day sun.

071516_butterflykisses

And out front in the south bed are the standard purple coneflowers. I noticed these plants aren’t as prolific as last season. I will have to get in there later and see if there is any disease or other factors stunting the growth.

071516_coneflowerstand

Here is one of the hanging baskets from this season, containing zinnias, snap dragons, and kale. I really dig how the blue green foliage of the kale is working out here.

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Here is a container put together by my gardening friend Miss A.

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In the north bed by the house, the ligularia is blooming.

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And on the east side of the house, the masterwort and lady’s mantle are both showing color.

071516_masterwortmantle

This next bed I’ve struggled with ever since beginning to garden on the Lot. Who knew common milkweed grew so tall! Blooms include tall garden phlox, balloon flowers, and coreopsis.

071516_milkweed

I picked up this mix of succulents, great as a ground cover,  from a neighborhood plant exchange. I used them to fill in some gaps here and there in the full sun bed in the backyard.

071516_mixedsedum

Finally, here is the ornamental oregano just added to the Lot this spring. It is near the purple coneflowers in the front, south bed. I saw this plant draping over a rocky border during the 2014 Portland Garden Bloggers’ Fling. I’ve wanted one ever since!

071516_ornamentaloregano

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2016

alley bed, backyard bed, bloom day, fence bed, gate bed, loki bed, perennials, pollinators, spring

A bright and sunny albeit wind-chilled day marks this season’s Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day. Spring has been wonderful on the Lot this year with transplants having made it through the winter, insects already busily buzzing about, and a few new feathered friends visiting the garden.

Currently the South bed is empty of blooms, the tulips having recently passed. The sweet william in the bed has not quite opened yet. Only a bit of carpet phlox is left behind in the Southwest bed. However, on the East side of the Lot, a pretty vignette has brightened up the corner of the house near the gate.

May Flowers in Gate Bed

The labrador violets are still going, now joined by the purple spear-shaped blooms of bugleweed (Ajuga x ‘Chocolate Chip’). The rock foil (Saxifraga) is blooming like the phlox, but this ground-hugging perennial holds its clusters of white flowers above its mat of foliage. Also blooming in the bottom left of the photo is the pasque flower (Anemone patens). Here is a close-up of the flowers.

Pasque Flower

Next are the white blooms of the foam flower, or Tiarella, accompanied by the neighbor’s escapee bluebells.

Blooms in Fence Bed

Further down the fence, the cranesbill has seeded into the backyard from the two plants near the compost bin. Tucked around the Lot everywhere are forget-me-nots.

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Sharing the bed with the new cranesbill plant are the dwarf iris. I did some major shuffling around of this plant last season when I removed some tickseed. I’m glad to see the iris have seemed to adjust well.

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And here’s a busy bee on one of the irises.

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The brunnera is in bloom…

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…as well as the Jack in the Pulpit. Jack invited along some friends this year.

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The strawberries which ducked under the fence from the westside neighbor are blooming.

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And the same bed brings our second year of blooms from the Geum triflorum ‘Prairie Smoke.’

051316_prairieSmoke

Last season I divided the solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum Variegatum) in Loki’s bed. The plants seemed to have weathered the winter well and are currently blooming.

051316_varigatedSolomonsSeal

Here is the Mt Airy Fothergilla, looking quite stunning in the late afternoon light.

051316_fothergilla

The lilac is blooming near the alley bed.

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The Other Half is not the only one who enjoys sticking his nose in the lilacs.

051316_lilacBee

And the last Bloom Day photo is a patch of violas we are not responsible for planting last season, but have been enjoying nonetheless. The violas are an annual in our Zone 6a garden, but reseed for the following season. I’ve let the generations of the little plants wander about the garden for several years now. The recent cold snaps (we had a frost last night) do not bother them.

051316_pansies

That’s all for the Lot this month. Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens for links to many other May blooms.