Christmas Notebook

We’ve had lots of rain this garden season. The yard is overflowing with plant life. Good and bad. The weeds are certainly enjoying all the wet and warm days as much as the flowers are. The fenced garden looks stuffed. Lots of green there!

Outside the fence, on the northwest corner, ‘Second Hand Rose’ (daylily) is still blooming strongly. It seems *all* the daylilies have extraordinary color this year. The subtle tones and patterns are more prominent, the colors more vivid, the shadings more lovely than other years. I wonder if other daylily gardeners found the same to be true in their own gardens.

Don’t the daisies look like they are peeking over the fence? I guess they want to check out the lovely phlox.

The color of this blue spruce against the many shades of green makes me happy every time I see it. The tree sits north of the fenced garden. When we bought the house, there were three spruces planted in the front yard, near the porch. They were just a few feet high. We decided to move them. One died, but the other two thrived. This one has the prettier blue color. It used to stand alone, but the garden has grown up around it.

Moving north from the spruce, we enter the east side of the front yard. The black eyed susans are beginning to brighten the beds with vivid splashes of summer gold.

On the west side of the front yard, there is a much smaller space between the drive and the edge of the yard than on the east side. But we manage to pack a lot in. 🙂 The hosta in this picture lost it’s sheltering redbud tree last year, so it’s showing signs of a bit too much sun. Seems to be doing fine other than that. All the rain we’ve had this year has helped, I’m sure.

I like the way the ribbon grass adds a light spot in the flower bed. Especially at this late afternoon hour of the day.

This patch of phlox is just beginning to open. Last year, it didn’t bloom well. There was something wrong with the patch…not sure what. I almost had DH dig it out but this year it seems fine, so I’m glad we didn’t get rid of it!

It makes me sad to know we are on the decline side of things in the garden. Even if it doesn’t show a lot just yet. When I mow, I see the first few leaves fallen from the trees. Just that tiny hint that autumn is coming, whether we’re ready or not. Sure, we have two months of summer left, but those months will fly by. Sad, sad, sad.

All over the yard, the volunteer honesty (money plant) has gone to seed and is ready to pick for dried arrangements and bouquets. What we pull to discard, we will scatter in the woods at the back end of the garden or sprinkle along the west fence for more volunteers. They make such large and lovely swathes of purple in the spring. You can see the honesty in the foreground of this picture.

But let’s put autumn on the back burner and ignore those signs for now. We’ll enjoy every moment of delicious summer as long as we can. Perhaps in two more months we will be ready for a refreshing change, for cooler crisper air, for falling leaves, and asters and mums. But for now, it’s still summer.

And if you would like to enjoy other lovely summer gardens, head over to Tootsie’s place and follow the links.

~~Rhonda