September 5, 2010: First Cooler Days

It has been SO hot this summer, we are really enjoying the first few cold days. It is supposed to get warmer again, but this was a nice break. Not much is changing in the garden anymore, it is just going on as it had.

Most of my hostas are doing really well, but Paul's Glory - the one in the front of the garden on the left side of the path facing the house - looks bleached out. You can see it in the first picture if you zoom in. It is in the sunniest spot in the garden, but I have 2 other hostas close by that look fine. I wonder if it is just too sunny for this variety. I think I might transplant it to a shadier spot (now, or in the spring?) and get a different variety for this prominent area...UPDATE: I read up on Paul's Glory on some hosta websites. Apparently this variety looks different depending on where you plant it - yellow/white in full sun, all the way to darker green in full shade. I still might move it - b/c I prefer this plant with darker colors - and get a different hosta to fill this area. Maybe sun power or August moon.



The only new flower is the liatrope - it gets purple, lavendar like flowers in the fall. Very pretty.


I also planted this Guara last week - it was a gift from Dan's mom. It has beautiful, delicate flowers but it is struggling a bit with the transplant. It looks better in the picture below, before it was planted. I hope it will get enough of a hold to come back strong next year.

August 7, 2010: The Morning Before Vacation

We're going to be away for two weeks so I am crossing my fingers that the house/cat sitter remembers to water the garden! The impatiens continue to go wild, so much so that I might have to trim them back to keep them from overwhelming my recently-planted perennials.


I think our little garden has really improved the curb appeal of our house. I may be partial, but it is really the prettiest garden on the street.


This is the view walking up the street:


We brought back some moss from MI a few weeks to try and get it to grow in the path. So far it is doing well and seems to be living.


Our Japanese painted fern looks really great - it has a really interesting shape and seems to be thriving in this location.


This other fern next to it didn't seem to be doing that great, but now it is sprouting new leaves (really beautiful!) and seems to have made a baby a few inches away as well.

July 16, 2010: Garden Update

Things are continuing to fill in as the summer goes on. We had several hot days, where the garden looked really unhappy, then some rain and an explosion of growth. I swear all my impatiens have doubled in size in the last few days.

Impatiens gone wild:

I've mentioned this before, but the guacamole hosta seems to really be thriving. It is huge, full, and really healthy looking.

This is the mystery plant that was growing behind the tree. These actually flower last week (picture a few days old). I'm guessing this is some sore of lily? The next door neighbors have the same plant in the sun, and each stem has 5-6 flowers. The flowers are about the size of my hand:

June 27, 2010: Garden Update and New Plants

Here is my long overdue picture update of the front garden. I am amazed at how much it has filled in since my last picture. I guess since I see it every day I don't notice it as much. The impatiens are doing wonderfully - they have all spread to the size of dinner plates. No big surprise, but these are definitely the right annuals to fill in for this garden.

I made several additions with the plants Mama and Helen picked out for me. This is the driveway side of the garden. This side is primarily annuals at this point, so I added a few perennials to it.
These are the plants I added, plus a nice close up of the caladium. In the center is the ladies mantle (alchemilla vulgaris - mollis). At the top of the picture are the two pasque flowers (pulsatilla vulgaris - anemone pulsatilla).
I only added one new plant to the section closest to the house - pictured below. The impatiens seem to do the best here. My guacamole hosta is going crazy with new leaves - it is just visible on the edge of the photo. In the center you can see the "big blue" lilyturf (liriope muscari) which is supposed to have purple lavendar like flowers in the fall. I added it a few weeks back because I wanted something grassy looking on this side.
This is a close up of the flower Mama and Helen gave me. It didn't have any ID with is so I have no idea what it is.

I made several additions to the main part of the garden shown here.

First, I moved over one of my impatiens to make room for another coral bells (heuchera -marvelous marble). The two coral bells I already have are probably my favorite plants in the garden, so I am happy to have another.
Crammed in between these impatiens is the other ladies mantle. This is another big space that is filled in with impatiens, so I hope it will fill out this area a bit next year.
This cranesbill pink geranium (geranium sanguineum) is also kind of crammed in between the impatiens for the same reason - to fill in this area next year.

I planted all of the columbine (aquilegia) together, kind of hidden a bit right now. There are three different types- music yellow, music pink and white, and oragami pink and white. They look a little sad right now, so I didn't put them in a prominent place. I can always move them if I need to.

My favorite addition is the irish or scotch moss (sagina subulata) and forget-me-not (myosotis - m. rupicola) I planted around the stone. I really like the way it looks.

Here is a close-up:
Finally, the sun plants are doing well on my deck. The veggies are flowering, I have the start of my first pepper, and the flower are all blooming.
The elephant ears Mama gave me have doubled in size in the last week. I guess they like it here.
I'm rather pleased with the combination pots I planted too. I think they have filled out well.

June 4, 2010: Too much going on to wait!

We've had several warm, humid days with lots of rain and sunshine, and the garden is going nuts. Lots and lots of flowers. The new guinea impatiens have filled out more and are looking gorgeous:

Don't know the name of this one, but it has little yellow flowers:
Paul's Glory (hosta) is just beginning to bloom. It has beautiful white flowers with little purple accents.
The goats beard is covered in flowers:
The white astilbe also has flowers:
All three caladiums have started to come up, this one is the furthest along so far:
The coleus have all at least doubled in size and have little purple flowers too:

Take note that all the flowers we got from Brenckle's greenhouse - the coleus, the new guinea impatiens, the regular impatiens, and the rhododendron, are all doing wonderfully, are already pretty big, and were about the same price (sometimes cheaper) than HD or Lowes.

May 31,2010: Back Garden and Deck

I planted several pots to keep on the deck. I already had the two geraniums saved from last year, and the (barely surviving) dragon leaf begonia. I planted the rest yesterday. The selection at Home Depot was not great, and I didn't have time to go out to a nice greenhouse, so I made do. I planted 3 veggies - a cherry tomato, a green pepper, and a cucumber plant (with the cage) to see how they would do in pots. I also planted two pots with a variety of flowers - each has a spike (on red, one green), a sweet potato vine (one red, one green), a few yellow/orange marigolds, and a few pink petunias. The red spike was also saved from last year. I wanted to have some wave petunias or bacopa too, but they were not available. I planted one window box with new guinea impatients, and one with the leftover petunias and marigolds.

I also added a few petunias to the back garden (surrounding the new Japanese maple). This area is visible from the deck and the dining room windows. I chose bright colors so they would show up.

May 31, 2010: Front Garden After Two Weeks

After two weeks, I can start to tell that everything is filling out. The rhodadendron has a lot of new growth, and all the annuals are getting bigger.

View from driveway:

The hosta on the corner (Paul's Glory) has buds and is getting ready to flower:

The Japanese irises had two blooms this week. They are a little past now:

The ligularia seem to like the (very shady) spot we chose - it is sprouting new leaves. This area seems to avoid both the morning sun that comes from the front, and the late afternoon sun that comes from the back.
The first two caladiums are peaking through the ground. They are white, pink, and green and should be beautiful.

May 16, 2010: After the New Garden is Planted

This project took us about two days to complete. I had about 5 cu ft of dirt (leaf compost) delivered from the borough for the foundation. We put down newspapers over the grass that was there, and then mounded the dirt on top. We also widened the path with paving stones, added a stepping stone path back to the gas meter, mulched around the tree, rearranged the stones around the driveway. The whole project cost about $300 for all the plants/dirt etc. Many of the plants came from Mama's garden.

View from the driveway(you can see the stones around the driveway have been rearranged) :

View from the far corner (we added mulch around the tree to make a border):
View from the porch (here you can see the path with stepping stones):
View of the path (Papa widened it by adding paving stones on both sides):

May 15, 2010: Before the Big Overhaul

View from the driveway:

Veiw from the far corner:
View from the porch:
View of the path: