Open Post... With a Summer Garden Photo Tour!

[kimberlysteele]

The work in progress... I meant to do more plantings in the front.  As I mentioned in my Spring Garden post, the boxwood experiment is over (they hate the front yard) unless they're in containers.  My plans are to put more hardy perennials in the front that can take crappy conditions.  The front garden you see here has got the worst soil in my entire yard.

This is one of the few shady spots in the yard.  It's my favorite spot because it's the most established.  The hostas come in thickly enough to keep weeding to a minimum.  The pear tree hasn't fruited yet but it provides some nice shade.  In this garden, there is a Rose of Sharon, many varieties of hosta, ferns, a black cohosh, catmint, borage, and purple coneflower.




Raspberry bushes -- they are producing the sweetest berries I've ever tasted right now!  Also various daylilies, rudibeckias sown from seed, and a butterfly bush that is about to bloom.

Borage growing alongside the tomatoes.

One of our many ferals in the sea of herbs and Stella D'Oro daylilies that is the Celtic Cross garden.  I never bought a single Stella daylily, by the way, these are 100% divisions from the plants from the front of the office building where I rent space.


Milkweed is blooming!  This milkweed was started from seeds a few years ago.  I gathered the seeds at the local forest preserve sometime around the autumn of 2017.  I just let it grow in the beds.  Butterflies and bees love it.  

Comments

[kimberlysteele]

Awww, thanks.

I don't consider myself that great of a gardener -- I'm just lucky that the place where I live has good soil and weather and feral cats who stop the littler animals from eating my produce. I don't use pesticides stronger than baking soda, salt, dishwashing detergent, and cooking oil. If I get "pests", such as aphids, that means my mini-ecosystem is trying to balance itself. I might spray some DIY aphid spray but other than that, I don't care. Speaking of "pests", there is a resident woodchuck who seems to be living under the shed. I couldn't care less. So far, he or she has only eaten one green tomato. You would think he or she would go for the raspberries, but nobody seems to be eating them except me! It's their loss...

[kimberlysteele]

I do have two tips.

1. Plants love a haircut. It's far better to prune than not to prune. Cutting off the dead stuff is always a good idea, and trimming anything before it gets leggy helps the plant. The worst thing that can happen is blooms get delayed.

2. Move plants to where they like it, not where you like to see them. I've learned this the hard way many times.