Monday In Bloom

It was actually a pretty gorgeous day, especially considering that July is right around the corner and is the hottest month of our year here.  Blue skies, mild temps, puffy white clouds – these are days that dreams are made of, few and far between here. 

Things are going pretty well in the garden.  Morticia Rabbit was back, so in desperation, I have moved all my pansy pots to the table on the patio.  Saturday night I had lots of colorful buds on my pansies – Sunday morning, I had stems.  Naked stems.    And it seems to be just the pansies, not any of the other flowers.  In the meantime, I’ll have to see what kind of thing I can come up with to cover the pots to keep her out but still allow them to be visible and get air and sunlight. 

Aannnd she must have heard me talking about her because as I was in the middle of working on this post I heard a funny sound on my patio.  When I went to look out the patio door, turned the light on, guess what I saw?  Morticia Rabbit herself, wondering where the buffet had got to.  She was sitting in the exact spot she must have sat in last night while she gorged herself on my pansies.

I feel SO much like Elmer Fudd I can’t even tell you.

The coleus sure are starting to shine!  So colorful!

I love how the sweet alyssum cascades over the pot.  Last year I remember thinking it reminded me of a bridal veil. 

The salvia have started to blossom now, too.  This year I went with purple and white. 

My happy place!

Thankfully, Morticia seems uninterested in snapdragons. 

The hanging pots are getting so lush and full now!  I love how the purple sweet alyssum is kind of peeking out.

There will be lilies!  So many little budlets about to bloom!

The daisies have been reigning supreme right now – just look at all those lovely white flowers!  Aren’t they gorgeous?

I did manage to get some deadheading done on the sage.  There are indeed some new flowers waiting to bloom.  Hopefully they’ve got energy enough to do that now.

And that’s how my garden’s growing this week!  Despite the best efforts of the hungriest rabbit in the place!  How’s yours coming along?

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2017 Garden Weekly 08 | Flickr

Monday In Bloom

A warm day to work outside, but not terribly so.  A tiny bit humid.  Thankfully, it was nothing unbearable.  I realized that despite all the rain we’ve had this week. the pots in the side patch got only a tiny bit of that rain and were dry as a bone and drooping in sadness and thirst.  I watered heavily and hope they perk back up. 

I also sprayed the garden like a mad woman.  Well, I am a mad woman, I suppose.  Either Morticia Addams has taken a liking to pansies, or something has been making a meal out of them.  Many of the blooms are gone, just snipped off right at the tops of the stems.  So I whipped up a batch of some stuff I used last year that seemed to work pretty well, and now have my fingers crossed. 

Overall, things are looking pretty good!  The sage blooms have died off and I’ll probably dead-head those this week.  There are tiny new blooms raring to go so I want to make room for them, and give them plenty of energy to bloom forth and conquer.

Booyah, I remembered to get a shot of the corner patch this time.

The biggest garden news though – Daisies!!  Woohoo!!  Lots and lots of daisies!  Look at all those happy blooms and buds!  Isn’t it amazing?  *dreamysigh*

Hello, new daisy!  Welcome!

I’m pretty certain the lilies and Artemisia have made some kind of a deal to take over the garden front patch.  Rumor has it the daisies are thinking of teaming up with the sage.

Look!  Baby pine cones!  Twins!

As I was taking pictures, I realized that both of the colors of verbena in this pot (can you see the one peeking out in back?) perfectly match the leaves of the coleus.  This is what I call “gardendipity.” 

Wow, check out the … the … oh crap I forgot what it’s called!  The pretty purple vine thing!  Purple heart plant?  That rings a bell.  It’s really grown a lot this week!

A rainbow of snapdragons!  I lost one though.    It didn’t make it so I finally took it out of the pot.  I hate empty spaces in pots like that. 

I love daisies.  I love yellow.  Yellow daisies make me happy. 

The other big garden news – the lilies are going to try to steal the show from the daisies!  There are so many budlets like this one, it’s going to be a gorgeous yellow show!

And the speedwell is blooming!  Tiny lavender pink rockets!

And that’s how my garden’s growing this week!  How’s yours coming along?

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking!  2017 Garden Weekly 07 | Flickr

Monday In Bloom

Can you believe the size of those lily bushes?!  They’re even bigger than last year!  AND I saw buds on the daisy plant Sunday, too, woohoo! 

The purple sage in the background is really blooming too, it’s even bigger than last week and last week I thought it was as intense as it was going to get.

It was pretty warm Sunday afternoon when I went out to take my weekly pictures.  Thankfully, it wasn’t too humid, so I guess it was kind of like Phoenix.  You know, that whole “dry heat” thing.  I’ve always just called that an oven. 

The corner patch is starting to settle in and bloom – can you see the pretty yellow osterspemum?  We’ll just call those daisybushes from now on, okay?  I got one for each of the square pots and I think they’re really going to shine.  *fingerscrossed* 

Likewise, the side patch is also starting to finally settle in.  I do seem to still have some pesky pests so I’ll be treating again with the diatomaceous earth this week. 

This little pot I think has captured my eye the most this week.  That pop of hot pink/red was unexpected (I wasn’t sure what color some of the plants would end up being) and it’s very eye-catching against the white sweet alyssum.  The light purple sweet alyssum combined with the dark purple verbena really makes my eye happy, too.  I think this pot will be one to watch this season. 

This pot of pansies is really shining, so colorful!  Unfortunately, its sister pot still isn’t doing very well.  I’ve lost at least one, probably 4 plants from the other pot.  I don’t think my chipmunky nemesis has returned, but the pot is still suffering.  I don’t know what’s causing it, but I think it’s the same pot I had similar troubles with last year.  I shuffled pots around after the Winter so I’m not 100% positive.  If that pot continues to fail, I’ll just dump the soil and give it a good bleach scrub down at the end of the season and start fresh next year. 

These two – *dreamysigh*  Those colors together just make me feel all melty inside.  I wasn’t sure when I planted these pots how that bright turquoise would play with these plant textures and colors but wow, I am so happy with how they’ve turned out. 

Yellow daisybushes!  They are so cheery!

The new little lavender is still surviving.  So far so good, especially for a plant purchased online. 

The hanging baskets are still doing pretty good, too.  I always worry about them more than the other pots.  I guess because they seem to dry out faster and more frequently than the other pots. 

Purple! 

So that’s how my garden is growing this week!  How’s yours coming along?

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2017 Garden Weekly 05 | Flickr //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js