One day of the weekend, today, has turned out to be nice at least and Bookman and I got out in the garden to do some much needed weeding. Friday and Saturday it rained. A lot. So things are a bit muddy, but weeding had to be done anyway. Besides, what is gardening really except a high falutin’ excuse to play in the dirt?
About two years ago we created a nice little rose and clematis trellis in our yard:
Everything is doing great. The climbing rose, William Baffin, started blooming last weekend and has been going like gangbusters all week.
One of the clematis, jackmanii, started blooming about the middle of the week. It is starting to twine in with the rose which I am very excited about.
In the front yard the burgundy blanket flower is starting to bloom. The spiderwort next to it is just about done.
Friday the peonies, which are blooming really late this year, were opening. so, expecting heavy downpours Friday night, I paused on my arrival home from work and stood and admired them for a bit. And it is a good thing too because the heavy rain came Friday night and Saturday afternoon and today they don’t look so very pretty.
Also in bloom this week is a yellow honeysuckle. These flowers are small and tubular and I couldn’t get a satisfactory photo. The flowering sage is also blooming. I have two varieties, midnight and I can’t remember the other one. No photo of those either. And also on the go since last Sunday are the strawberries. We are getting loads this year and they are so yummy! We can’t possibly eat all that we pick every evening so they go into the freezer, measured out in ziplock bags for smoothies and whatever else strikes our fancy later in the summer. Yesterday Bookman made strawberry and banana French toast for breakfast. Heavenly!
And here are the gardeners hard at work:
There was also reading this weekend. I started in on Cakes and Ale and continued reading Reality Hunger. I am enjoying both but Maugham’s frequent usage second person is a bit annoying. Hopefully he’ll get over it before too much of the book has gone by.
Hope you all had a great weekend!
Wow! Your clematis bloom really late! Mine bloomed i April for the early variety and in May for the late one.
The garden is not doing too great this year. The 1st year, I was experimenting, last year I was away for a month and came back to find a jungle and this year… well this year the weather is just not helping. We’ve had a few warm days, but it’s mostly cold. We’ve had no rain for a while and then a few days of lashing rain. And there are loads of pests: green flies and other pests I haven’t identified, plus the usual slugs. It still looks nice and I’m sure I’ll eventually get some veg, but the conditions are just not ideal.
You must be feeling good after a day of gardening! I find that there’s noting like it to empty your mind…
Lovely! I love your trellis. I have to fix my trellis — it has nothing on it, and needs a frame… that’s my vacation project (in two weeks! yippee!). I need to grow some peonies, I think. Even downtrodden those are lovely.
Um, nice hat, Bookman.
Congratulations on a lovely garden. I love peonies, but rain really can do them in. Have you tried plant hoops? I picked up a bunch at a discount job lot store several years ago and they keep things unobtrusively upright. I also adore clematis and climbing roses. And your very own strawberries! Yummm! Thanks for sharing with a city-dwelling ex-gardener.
Em, everything is blooming late this year because we had a long winter and a cool, wet spring. Even so, my jackmanii does seem to bloom about a week later than it does in my nextdoor neighbor’s yard where it grows against the south wall of their house. But I don’t mind
Sorry to hear your own garden isn’t doing that well this year. I hope it perks up. If not, next year it is sure to be lush and gorgeous.
Daphne, you need something on your trellis so it doesn’t get lonely. Planting peonies will always get my vote!
Cindy, my sister, it keeps him cool-ish and who says men can’t have a lovely ribbon on their hats?
Joan, thanks! You know, every year I keep saying I should get plant hoops for next year and then I forget until the following year. Maybe I’ll manage it this year and be ready for next year. I love clematis too and there are so many different varieties. And roses, though growing them in zone 4 limits my choices. Does your city have community gardens where you can rent a plot for cheap? It’s big here. If I didn’t have a yard I’d be all over that for my gardening fix.
Philadelphia does have some community gardens, but there are long waiting lists for them. My niece and nephew-in-law snagged one and have been growing mostly vegetables for several years. They do share with us.
One of my favorite clematises is ‘Etoile Violette’, a lovely small, dark purple flower. And I like the name. I also had a beautiful white one whose name escapes me at the moment.
Too bad it is so hard to get a garden plot. Etoile Violette is lovely (had to look it up). I’d like to get a white clematis sometime. I just have to figure out where to plant it!
So pretty, especially the jackmanii. I wish our strawberries were doing as well, they’re very small, but rhubarb and radishes are coming along well so can’t complain too much.
Oh, how about a road trip to Pittsburgh, where the sun always shines (wink)? My climbing rose bush is doing miserably and I can’t figure out why. I think slugs are eating it. My neighbor recommended putting beer in a plastic cup and placing it in the garden…apparently that deters slugs?
Your garden is looking lovely! Although, how is it already late June??? I am not ready to accept that.
I have the exact same clematis as you and it is also blooming abundantly here. I rather like to think of our gardens being linked like that! Lucky you to have all those strawberries – I have never managed to grow them satisfactorily – is there a trick to it?
Your garden is looking wonderful! Want to send some of that rain our way
Our poor garden needs help as we are at 100+ temps with no rain although I guess I should take some responsibility too – I’m a terrible gardener!
Your garden is lovely, and you know what? Your peonies look just like mine this year. The heavy rain got the better of them before I had a chance to pick a few. I love the smell:)
Bookgazing, thanks! Too bad your strawberries aren’t doing very well. Last year mine were all small so this year they are making it up to me I guess.
Everythinginbetween, too bad your rose is sickly. If slugs are eating it, beer in a somewhat shallow dish will help. The slugs like the sugar and they climb in, get drunk and drown. Well, I don’t know about the get drunk part, but they do drown.
Emily, thanks! I know, what happened to June? I’m hoping time will somehow slow down in July.
Litlove, a wonderful garden connection! Now every year when my jackmanii blooms I will think of you in your garden
My trick to good strawberries is neglect. All we ever do is weed the bed and even that we aren’t always good at keeping up at. Otherwise we don’t do anything. We don’t water them or fertilize them or mulch them for the winter.
Iliana, thank you. You’ve been having a drought where you are, haven’t you? I would gladly send you some rain if I could!
Diane, thanks! maybe next year we will get to have a good peonie year. That’s the thing about gardening that I like. If something doesn’t do very well one year, the following year is likely to be a good year. At least I hope it is!
What pretty clematis–I would love that. I like your green man, too! I had three containers with my usual petunias on my porch that blew off into the yard last night when high winds came through. It was so dark and ominous outside and the sirens were going off all I could think was to go the basement and the flowers completely were forgotten. Poor things–they were so abundant and pretty–I’m going to be afraid to look at them later when I go home. Much like your peonies I’m thinking is how they’ll look. Oh well, maybe they’ll all perk up again.
I’m about to start Cakes and Ale tonight, probably. Didn’t know that about the 2nd person — we’ll see how that goes! Your flowers look great!
Danielle, thank you. I’m sure you could grow the clematis. It is really an easy care plant. We love the green man at our house. The green man and garden gnomes. Your poor petunias. I hope they weren’t destroyed and they can make a recovery. That was quite the storm wasn’t it? It blew through our place too.
Dorothy, thanks! 2nd person is a dangerous and tricky technique and I understand what Maugham is going for when he uses it but all I could think about was no, not me, that’s not how I think or feel. Hopefully you got on better with it. I’m a litte farther along now too and it seems to have gotten better.
The flowers are all so lovely. It is nice that you both enjoy the garden. My mom and I grew strawberries when I was little. We had so many that she had the opportunity to teach me how to make strawberry jam. Enjoy your lovely garden!