Red Admiral Butterfly

Another great thing about planting these echinaceas next to the family room window is that it attracts butterflies and fuzzy bumblebees (June's favorites) which we can watch from the window.  This red admiral butterfly was hanging out on the flowers long enough for June and I to grab the insect guide and look it up.  June was delighted to match the picture to the butterfly.

Filling in

I'm happy to see the perennials I put in last summer filling in the bed outside our family room window.  The window sills in there are low, so it was important to get the flower height just right so that they just peeked over the top of the sill - visible, but not blocking views.  The echinacea, daylilies (already there when we moved in) and black eyed susans were just right. Now I just need to get rid of that morning glory that twists itself around everything, hide that big green sewage pump, and tidy up the gutters.....Oh, and repaint the house :)

Peonies in bloom!

One of my all time favorite flowers is now in bloom in our yard.  I wish the blooms lasted longer, but maybe their fleeting nature is part of the appeal.

Woodland Hyacinths

What's Sprouting Today

Little Hyacinth blooming by the family room windows. Bed B3

Frilly red tulip in bed B3

Pink tulips and little yellow narcissus in bed B3

Purple hyacinth in bed B3 on the side of the family room.

Astilbe (red leaves) popping up (amid some creeping Charlie) beneath the hydrangea tree in bed B5

Clematis coming up next to the hose.

Ferns unfurling beside the garage. bed B4

 

Forsythia in full bloom.by driveway

Late summer pics

Just a quick recap of what is going on out in the back yard in mid-September (need to weed!):
Vegetable garden with the last of the tomatoes, marigolds, rosemary and broccoli and beet seeds. B7

Front porch garden with marigolds, sedum, and rose of sharon still blooming.  Red gaillardia still hanging in there. B6

 Garage side garden - needs some serious weeding, but the hostas are doing well. B4

 Daylily bed B5. It really was just all daylilies!

 Back fence line - B10

 North fence line B11. After I removed some thorny shrub.  I thought it was a rose of some sort, but the blooms were just tiny white flowers - definitely not worth the thorny mess. 

 Screen porch ferns B1

 New japanese holly and chysanthemums. B2

 Family room bed B3

Lily seeds thrown in

As an experiment, I scraped the seeds out of the lily seed pods that Julie gave me.  I threw some around the lily plants that Ann and Mac planted, then some around the newly planted Japanese Holly.  I just need to remember that come spring so I don't yank them all out as weeds.

Ann and Gramps add some Blackberry Lilies to Bed B3

Julie generously dug up some of her Blackberry Lilies to donate to our garden.  Mac and Ann came by this morning, dug up a burned out hosta (the previous owners disregarded the shade requirements of yet another shade loving plant!).  The hosta was brought over to the back fence under the mini maple tree.  Ann (sister in law AND former Martha Stewart Horniculturist) expertly planted the transplants.  My only concern now is the downspout location which might erode the soil in a major downpour.

Added some asters

I moved another misplaced shade loving hosta out of the full sun bed and replaced with some shorty purple asters (Aster Dumosus).  I'll still need to move a couple more hostas from that bed, and fix up that wacky downspout and relocate that lavender a bit, but overall, once i weed out that morning glory, i'm pretty happy with this bed.  I'm thinking of adding some tall spiky perennial flowers.  Maybe....hollyhocks or monarda?

Gold finch

One more wildlife post:

We have been spotting gold finches (both male and female) eating the seeds out of the new black-eyed susans.  I added the BES's because they were on sale at Home Depot (end of season sale) and we had a bare spot in the flower bed at the family room window.  The choice of plant and location couldn't have worked out better. I now consider this bed B3 the cutting garden.  I love peeking out the window at the blooms, but I was totally thrilled to find out the the gold finch enjoys perching on the flowers and eating the seeds.  Very exciting!

Bed B3 family room window

Mid June: Family room bed most recently.  Mulched and weeded.  

late April: I was happy to see some flowers after a long winter.

I thought the tall plant there in the center was going to be a cool perennial flower, but it got spindly and the tiny blue flowers were very disappointing.  Needless to say, I yanked it.

How do I hide this thing!?!?

Post-weeding, post bulbs, not much left.....

These hostas are in full sun!  What were the previous owners thinking??

We have these huge windows at the family room with a bed in front.  It turns out that after the daffodils and tulips faded there wasn't much left except for a pretty pink peony, a couple small lavender plants, a couple misplaced hostas (FULL SUN!), a butterfly bush, and a small hydrangea.  I am making this into my cutting garden and have added 3 coneflowers, and 3 gallardias.  Now I need to move out those hostas since they are already fried and figure something out to cover that green sewage pump thing.  I also plan to add a rainbarrel in the corner by the butterfly bush.