Tuesday View: The Front Border 10.9.17

Oct12

My gardener has been extremely unmotivated these last few weeks as he comes to terms with the long stretch of hot dry weather which has settled down upon this corner of Pennsylvania. Months and months of not needing to water and not having to concern himself with pampering transplants has spoiled him, and the last month of humid, buggy, unseasonable heat has him refusing to work. As a result this week’s Tuesday view is not much changed from the last view, and other than the general air of decay setting in, there hasn’t been much of a fight put up against this end of season degeneration.

Today’s Tuesday View. Autumn is here.

The garden did get a good soaking this weekend when the latest hurricane leftovers blew through, but the humid dampness also brought the local gnat population to an electrified frenzy. Lets hope it also electrifies the gardener since all we’ve gotten out of him in the last few weeks has been a 20 minute manic attack on a relatively innocent Rose of Sharon bush (Hibiscus syriacus ‘bluebird’). It happened one overly warm afternoon, shortly after he was heard ranting something to the effect of “look at all those friggin’ seed pods, no way I’m pulling up thousands of seedlings next spring”. So out it came.

Sometimes pretty blue flowers and inoffensive green leaves just aren’t enough. The Rose of Sharon is out now, but unfortunately the branches, rootball, and garden cart still sit where the gardener left them over a week ago. Not even the threat of a Tuesday View was enough to get him moving!

Fortunately there have been a few other autumn goings on which can distract us from the local labour’s laziness and sloth. The fall bloomers are coming on in full force and the Monarch migration has reached its highpoint.

We are on the downside of the migration but Monarchs still keep fluttering on through. Aster ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ might not be the Monarch’s favorite but as far as asters go it’s mine. It tolerates drought, needs nothing from me, and flowers for weeks.

There are always a few dozen butterflies floating through the air, and as you stroll they take off and circle in a round, lazy pattern which makes you wonder how they ever manage to make it all the way to Mexico. But they do, and although it’s still on the warm side they better get a move on it. Frost is coming and the last nectar-filled flowers won’t be around forever.

Some color at the midpoint of the bed. An unknown purple mum from a years-past porch decoration and the cute little orange and yellow fruits of ‘Sedona Sun’ pepper. Each year I like ornamental peppers more and more and who knows, maybe next next spring will turn into pepperpalooza!

The last big hurrah of the front border will be the pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) at the far end. Most years the peak of pinkness hits only to be followed by a bleaching frost but this year my fingers are crossed for at least a few days of enjoyment. I’ll try for a better photo next week with a little late afternoon sunshine but for now you’re stuck with a little of the grass with yet another Monarch perched in front.

Monarch butterfly surrounded by the colors of autumn.

So that wraps up this Tuesday’s view, and it also signifies the beginning of the end of the 2017 season. You may have noticed that in spite of the heat I’m no longer quite as convinced that summer will never end, and I’m actually accepting that autumn is here. I guess it was inevitable, and if you’d like to see what it looks like in other parts of the world give Cathy a visit at Words and Herbs to check up on a few other Tuesday Views. I hear she is also admitting the season is winding down.

As always have a great week!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 9.26.17

Sep27

It’s time once again to check in with Cathy at Words and Herbs for the Tuesday view. The word this week is hot, and plants are wilting under the dry sun as temperatures rise to 90F (32C) and above for the last few days. This would have been welcome in August, and even tolerated earlier in September, but now it’s just tiresome.

Dry heat at this time of year saps all my enthusiasm. Plants are wilting, the lawn is browning, and even though there are likely another three or so weeks to go until frost, I’m ready to let it all go.

The plants seem ready to let it go as well. The summer crowd is moving on and the flowers and grasses of autumn are doing their best to pull together for a finale.

Korean feather reed grass (Calamagrostis brachytricha) looks great with the fading hydrangea flowers but I find this grass too invasive to keep. Even if I cut the seedheads there will still be some seedlings next spring… some of which I always end up leaving…

Even as the perennials fade, the half-hardy cannas and verbena bonariensis are still putting on a decent show. I should really water a little, it would be the least I could do for them after all their hard work this year.

The canna ‘cannova rose’ would probably be flowering more if I deadheaded, but… they still look fine. Here the burning bush (Kochia) is finally doing its thing for a few days before drying up in the heat.

There is one surprise though. Last fall I bought a ‘hardy’ agapanthus which I didn’t dare leave outside. It overwintered dormant on a cold windowsill and then went into the bed in May. I can’t believe my small plant has flowered!

Agapanthus ‘blue yonder’ is supposedly hardy from zone 5-10. I know people have had success in 5, but I’m still not convinced it will make it for me. I’ll have to let you know next April.

The other surprise has been the butterfly hordes which have come to the garden this past week. Dozens of painted ladies showed up a few days ago and it seems like other butterflies are showing up as well. Maybe it’s a migration or maybe it’s just the weather drying up the surrounding and forcing them to move on for their nectar. Either way it’s exciting to see all the butterflies surround you as they lift up off the flowers as you pass by.

Painted lady butterfly on the Verbena bonariensis. They’re all over, but not all are as photogenic as this one.

I’m still waiting for more Monarchs though. Today there were maybe a half dozen moving through but I’ve heard reports of many more North of here. Not too long ago we had a fall like that, with dozens floating through the air, but I don’t want to get my hopes up too much and I’m just glad to see the ones we’re getting.

Monarchs love the verbena as well, and their orange and black wings look great with the lavender-purple.

So maybe this dry heat is good for something after all. Maybe it’s the perfect weather for butterflies on the move and will make their migration even more successful. I’ll tell myself that as I stand in the heat with a water hose, cursing the stupid gnats and dreaming of snowdrops. Is it too soon for that?

Tuesday View: The Front Border 9.12.17

Sep13

Of course I could go on and on about the Tuesday view this week, but free time has been in short supply lately. The kids are back into their routine and there seems to be an endless parade of games and practices and parties and very little time for anything else… unless you count Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful afternoon and a big chunk of time was set aside to just soak up the sun and enjoy the last days of summer. Some gardeners can’t sit still when there’s work to do. I’m not one of them.

The Tuesday View of the front border. Things are starting to feel the season but I’m counting on a long fade into autumn.

Even though the gnats are terrible I must have spent a good couple hours here and there in protected locations just taking it all in. Usually ‘taking it in’ included a drink or snack or just sitting and staring but I made sure to slow down and enjoy. If you want to think of it as being careful that would be more polite than considering it lazy. You never know what next week will bring so it’s always safer to enjoy things while they’re here.

A view from the side. It’s not often that the ‘Limelight’ hydrangea blushes pink for me but the cool nights and consistent moisture seem to be working. SO much nicer than dried up brown…

There are still a few things to come for autumn but we’re almost at the end of the Tuesday road. Chrysanthemums and asters are maybe another week or two and then after that it’s cleanup and frost. Ouch. It hurts to even say the F word.

I was surprised by this red hot poker the first year it bloomed. I wasn’t expecting it so late in the season but there it is every September. This is last week’s photo of kniphofia ‘Burning Embers’, and it’s a plant which would probably appreciate some more breathing room, but you get what you get.

So this week it’s a calm and mellow contribution to Cathy’s Tuesday View. The weather here and the time of year seem to demand it but if you’d like to visit with a few other more industrious gardeners give Words and Herbs a visit and see what Cathy and others are up to as they track their Tuesdays throughout the year. Have a good one!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 8.28.17

Aug30

Monday was the first day back to school for the kids and that officially means late summer. A few haters will point out that it actually means autumn, but no. Summer won’t give up so easily and I won’t give up on summer… even if there was a slight nip in the air this morning 😦

The front border doesn’t look autumnal at all, and this week as we join the vacationing Cathy at Words and Herbs for the Tuesday view it’s all about sunflowers!

The front border this Tuesday.

The sunflowers seem to know there’s still plenty of time to flower and set seed before the axe falls. They’re really nice right now and between the bright flowers they already hold enough partly-ripe seedheads to bring in a steady stream of goldfinches.

This is my current computer screen background. Sunflowers and ‘Australia’ canna, all looking even better with the beige stalks of ‘Karl Foerster’ feather reed grass as a screen.

As usual I’m not looking forward to fall. I’ll stay in denial for weeks and then sometime in early October bite the bullet and make the transition from late summer to fall. Even my blog categories show this bias and I had to laugh a few weeks ago when I noticed all the other seasons are broken down into ‘early spring’, ‘spring’, and ‘late spring’, but fall is just ‘fall’. I guess that helps get through it just a little bit faster.

Halfway down the border, Molina ‘skyracer’ is one sign of late summer. It’s a great plant for the edge of the border where its height doesn’t block anything yet breaks up the monotony of shorter plantings. A ‘see through’ is what people call it.

Besides grasses going to seed there are some other sure signs that summer is ripening. The neat little lumpy sedums are blooming.

I think this is sedum ‘brilliant’, given to me by a friend years ago and carelessly unlabeled because I was sure I’d remember the variety. From the minute the buds swell in the spring to the minute I cut down the dried stalks so the swelling buds can grow it’s an attractive thing.

But the annuals won’t give up for at least another month. Even the zinnias which have been going since May are still looking good.

A painted lady butterfly getting her fill off the ground cover zinnias. This might be ‘Zahara something’ but as usual…

I’ll leave you with yet another photo of the end of the border. These ‘Cannova Rose’ cannas with the purple Verbena bonariensis have me convinced I’m the most amazing garden designer who ever planted a canna or paired a color. Be prepared to see this photo one more time when the yellowing kochia plant does its burning bush routine.

Coleus, ‘Cannova Rose’ canna, Verbena, kochia, and a few orange ‘Zahara’ zinnias. Not bad for a bunch of leftover cuttings, tubers, and self sown seedlings… and a six-pack of zinnias 😉

Do give Cathy a visit to see how other views are developing this Tuesday, and it’s not too late to join with your own! You probably have a good four weeks before autumn really insists on arriving, and only until that happens will it officially be too late. Obviously when autumn does get here no-one is going to want to see pictures of fall foliage and asters, so what’s the point of starting then, might as well wait until you can post snowy photos 🙂

Have a great late summer week!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 8.15.17

Aug16

It’s time once again to join up with Cathy at Words and Herbs for her weekly take on the Tuesday view. I’ve missed a week with traveling but the rains have not, and 2017 continues to be a marvelously well watered and well behaved summer.

The front border continues to fill in and color up as summer progresses. The sunflowers are now in charge.

It’s hard to believe that just a few months ago I wasn’t sure what exactly would be filling in the new sections of this bed. People said it would all come together but I had my doubts. Fortunately it did, and I’m very pleased with the results.

Although they haven’t been in bloom very long there are already enough sunflower seeds to start bringing in the goldfinches. I love that they find so much to feed on in my garden and their bright yellow feathers and constant chatter are always welcome.

Most of the filling in of the border relies on seeds, cuttings and divisions. I bring that up now because someone mentioned surprise at how my wife is so good about me spending so much money on the garden. At the time I just laughed it off, but as I thought a little further on it, it occurred to me that they might think I actually do spend a lot of money. The short response is that I don’t. Excluding any snowdrops which may or may not have found their way into the border, I probably spent $60 on plants (for this bed) this year. This includes $20 for my amazingly cool new variegated comfrey, $15 for an impulse-buy-lupine, $6 for a salvia, maybe $5 each for a new mail order butterfly bush and agastache, and I guess $9 for a few six packs of zinnia seedlings… although I bet it was closer to $6…

A few unmulched spots of the older bed have sprouted a nice crop of the bright scarlet wands of standing cypress (Ipomopsis rubra). I would call self-seeding plants such as these ‘free’ volunteers, and the price tag of $0 needs no spousal pre-approval.

The bulk of this border either comes from established perennials which were already in place, or the divisions, cuttings, or seedlings of things I already had on hand.

The depths of the bed interior are now a hopeless mess of colorful annuals mixed with reliable, veteran perennials. I haven’t even tried to get back there, the only attention it’s received has been a handful of fertilizer I threw in the general direction of the canna.

Although my border does not do much in supporting the local nursery industry, it does seem to draw in the bugs.

A healthy, well fed monarch butterfly. I wonder if I’ll see any fresh new ones this week as my former caterpillars should be about ready to emerge. ($0 for these butterfly bushes -cuttings off mom’s bush, $0 for the rudbeckia -grown from ‘stolen’ seeds)

I sometimes just can’t believe how many bees, butterflies, and other insects can be found winging their way through this garden. It makes me sad for my neighbors and their dull seas of lawn.

From the left, $0 for the sea holly which was grown from seed exchange seeds, $0 for the overwintered ‘cannova rose’ canna. Free verbena bonariensis seedlings which were transplanted in, and free coleus grown from cuttings.

I’m at a loss as to how I can explain the importance of bugs to my less interested neighbors. I’m thinking about the life happening all around me and they’re debating a bug bomb which could kill off all the pesky mosquitos and gnats from their entire yard. A dead yard. What a fun place to be…

For $0 I found a few salvia splendens seedlings sprouting in the tropical bed, potted them up, got them going, and then planted them back out. I was hoping for purple but the salmon color which was also there last year would have been fine… even though I really wanted the purple 🙂

So it looks like the bugs will keep this area as a ‘safe zone’ for a few more years yet. I guess I could do better with more and more bug-friendly plantings, but for now this works for me.

My $0 monster cardoon. Grown from some seed exchange seeds it’s done better than I had hoped. I can’t even remember the other two seedlings which were planted just behind it.

I’m out of buggy commentary and financially responsible planting advice. Lets just take a look at the bed’s far end.

My second favorite view. $0 for Self seeded verbena bonariensis, $0 for coleus cutting, $0 for cannas.

And one last look at a nearby bed 🙂

This spring I ripped everything out from around this dogwood. The hostas went to a good home but nothing else other than mulch came back in to replace them… until now. My caladiums finally have a summer home!

Enjoy the week and as usual thanks go out to Cathy for hosting each Tuesday!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 8.1.17

Aug2

It’s been a busy week so far with a return from traveling and now a busy afternoon prepping for something new… an open garden! I’ve been toiling away all afternoon and just had to join up with Cathy at Words and Herbs for her Tuesday view even though the garden itself hasn’t changed much. The neatness is what I had to show off, it doesn’t happen much that the garden is surrounded with such a green, trim lawn with crisp, freshly cut edges.

Plants are deadheaded, the lawn is mown, edges are clean, and walks are swept!

As far as open gardens go I think I’m making it sound like much more than it really is. It’s a mid-week visit by the local garden group, the Back Mountain Bloomers, and I don’t expect much more than a dozen or so people. Numbers like that probably make other open day veterans chuckle but for me it’s some serious pressure. It’s rare that my garden is visited by anyone with more than just a passing interest in plants, so hopefully they don’t judge my “in progress” areas with too critical an eye 🙂

Holy neatness… and the ‘Limelight’ hydrangea isn’t looking too bad either.

There’s a good chance I brought this on myself. After a less than subtle post titled “Come Visit”, and several other comments such as “stop by if you’re in the area” and “so when are you coming?”, I think people felt obligated. I’m fine with that and hopefully can corner at least one or two people to talk way too long to about plants with. Now I just have to hatch a plan to trick someone from Philly or upstate NY to drop by, since I’m sure I can bore them for hours since they won’t have as easy an escape as the locals do!

Along the street I’m a little surprised by how all the fennel seedlings have exploded into bloom. It’s one big airy thicket of licorice scented bee feeders and I should probably trim it back a bit before the mailwoman starts clutching an Epipen each time she needs to deliver a letter.

In the meantime let me introduce you to a few of the newest arrivals on the scene. The first is an uber cool Rudbeckia triloba ‘Prairie Glow’ which is blooming from seeds started last year. I love it. Thank you to Chanticleer Gardens since it’s entirely possible a seed head from one of their plants found its way into a pocket on my last visit.

Unlike the more common yellow/black centered Rudbeckia triloba, ‘Prairie Glow’ has varying degrees of a rusty orange with just the faintest hints of yellow at the tips of the petals. These are a little over five feet tall so it’s more than capable of holding it’s own in the depths of the border.

The second is ‘Strawberry Vanilla’ hydrangea. White panicles of bloom and a pink tint which will hopefully deepen as the flowers age are what make this one special. I have it on good advice that this will only get more impressive over the years, so it’s another plant I’m pleased with this week.

Everything was glowing in the evening light. The ‘Annabelle’ hydrangeas in the background have faded green, ‘Strawberry Vanilla’ is still a bright white with a touch of pink, and canna ‘Cannova rose’ and Verbena bonariensis really add a lot of color.

I think in the front yard there will be a few things worth seeing this week, so hopefully it’s enough to keep a gaggle of gardeners interested for at least a little while. The tropical garden is looking decent as well but beyond that things get a little iffy. Wish me luck that by the time people are walking past the pot ghetto they’ll be focused more on lunch plans than the unplanted chrysanthemum cuttings.

Tuesday View: The Front Border 7.18.17

Jul18

A Tuesday greeting from humid and damp Pennsylvania. I love it. The garden has never been so lush and vibrant, and until the mold and fungus kick in I’ll enjoy every minute of it, even the downpours. Here’s the view this Tuesday.

The pink coneflowers and lavender perovskia are really kicking in now.

In all honesty this is actually a Monday afternoon view since the lawn was freshly cut that afternoon and strong storms were on the way, but close enough, right?

The view from the street. I started out trying to keep it shorter and neater here but the perovskia and coneflowers seeded in and I’m pretty sure nothing I could think up would look better.

This is the time of year when this border really hits its stride. For the next few weeks it should be just full of color… maybe too much color, but if you think back to our bleak months of winter I think you’ll be able to ignore much in the way of poor design and less than perfect color combinations!

A closeup of the middle. I see plenty, but the yellow of my absolutely favorite new plant ‘Axeminster Gold’ Comfrey is all I want to talk about.

The variegated comfrey has been something I NEEDED for a few years and finally got a hold of this spring. It’s everything I like in a plant, big, bright, and variegated, and although it will likely scorch in this normally dry, full sun spot any other year, this season it’s doing just great. If you need any other reason to grow this plant check out Nancy Ondra’s Hayefield blog for one of her posts on this plant. I make no secret out of the fact it was her photos which ignited my plant lust for this goodie, and honestly it’s been at least a year since I last plugged her awesome blog or books or just plain good person-ness so I think it’s about time I mention her again.

What? More yellow? You bet! The tidy little grass is miscanthus ‘Gold Bar’.. which (after three years) is much shorter than its predicted 4-5 foot height, and some Agastache ‘Golden Jubilee’ which comes nice and true from seed, as these have.

I’ll finish up with the far end of the border which is looking much nicer this year than normal. Part of that has been the rain, but the other factor is I’ve been making a point out of starting at this end and working my way over to the mailbox rather than the other way around. With my attention span it really makes a difference which end you start from 🙂

I don’t think anyone will be copying this mess, the only colors missing are a true red and blue, but it sure is “interesting”. Please take note first of the amazingly neat mulch and second of the hydrangea peeking out from the center. It’s a clearance ‘Vanilla Strawberry’ from last autumn, and although it starts white I’m hoping it develops a nice strawberry blush soon after. We will see.

So that’s where we’re at for this Tuesday View. If you’d like, give Cathy at Words and Herbs a visit to see how everyone else is doing this week, it’s a great way to keep tabs as the season changes, and even better if you join in with your own view… plus you can’t go wrong on any visit to Cathy’s!

Have a great week, and wish me luck. I started tidying up a few shelves in the garage on Friday and the weekend turned into a full blown garage cleaning, rearranging, repairing, and repaint-a-thon. I’m not even halfway done. It was needed.

Tuesday View: The Front Border 7.4.17

Jul4

Its mildly disturbing how quickly the weeks roll by, but once again it’s Tuesday and time to check in on this year’s view. This week marks a new month, a definite turn to summer, and for those in the US it’s Independence day so bring on the picnics and barbecues and fireworks 🙂

A lush, robust Tuesday view. We have not wanted for water this year and many of the plants are bigger than I’ve ever seen. The bugs are thrilled as well, and I don’t recall any other year which had this much buzzing and flitting and fluttering .

I’m declaring this the year of the lily in my garden since it seems as if bulbs all over are putting out more blooms than ever. I have special to me seedlings which have surprised me with their first flowers but I also have some of the fancier hybrids which have finally settled in.

Lilium ‘Red Velvet’. It may not show well in the garden because of its dark, saturated color, but check out that dark, saturated color!

The Asiatic hybrids are some of the most popular of the early lilies, but I’m not all that crazy about the shorter, upright facing forms. I like the tall downward facing ones, and if I had more room I think I could easily collect a few… hmmmm… new bed idea?

‘Red Velvet’ is in its second year here and about five feet tall. That’s an excellent eye level flower for me, and perfect for close inspection.

Now I won’t go on about the scarlet lily beetle, since as of yet they have not reached our little valley, but for those of you afflicted by this pest I extend my sympathies. I dread the day they reach here and that will likely be the year the lilies are given away to better homes. I’ll just grow sunflowers if it comes to that.

The mailbox is destined to be engulfed with sunflowers this summer (they’re the big leaves in the center). No idea what kind they are other than birdfood leftovers, but I do know they’ll be awesome 🙂

The street side of the border is beginning to show some color again as the lavender colored perovskia, pink coneflowers (Echinacea), and a lonely yellow rudbeckia open up.

Weedy or wildflowery? If I ever get around to mulching I’ll try to neaten up the first foot or so of the edge so it looks like I planned all these plantings… which I didn’t 😉

A few years ago I tried adding a few named varieties of Echinacea purpurea to the border… well actually it was just two, and neither were the more exotically colored forms which you see out today… the plants seeding around now are just more of the average form, which in my opinion are still awesome, but don’t be fooled into thinking you need every seedling which comes up. I rip out plenty each year, and if I were smarter I’d do it again now while they’re in bloom in order to select out the smaller, less exciting flower forms.

Sometimes it amazes me that flowers this nice just grow all by themselves in some midwestern prairie.

As you probably know, these coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) are North American natives and not far removed from the wild forms which dot the prairie landscape. For a minute I might ask myself why I bother with other more troublesome primadonnas from landscapes far removed.

More coneflowers

Have I mentioned spring and now early summer have been perfectly watered? They have, and the hydrangeas and pretty much everything except for a few iris and dahlias are looking all the better for it. Plants are lush this year and on top of that it seems all the good bugs are swarming while the bad are sparse. You know that won’t last, but for now the only thing which seems too lush are a few of the ornamental grasses and this Eryngium.

Maybe it’s just early but this normally steely blue and gray Eryngium (species unknown) is just mostly green *yawn*… we will see how it progresses…

The late planting of annuals is also a work in progress although I have high hopes for a later season of full plants and bold colors… if not entirely tasteful or well thought out colors 🙂

The newest bed expansion is still filling in. I believe there’s already plenty here and just needs to fill in, but it makes me anxious to see open ground in July.

I guess the only thing left work-wise for this summer is mulch. I couldn’t garden without mulch and this year I’m treating myself to a load of shredded bark mulch rather than a temporary bandage of grass clippings or shredded leaves (which were used up elsewhere months ago). This time of year I only cover the outer most foot or two of beds since the inner sections are already covered in plants. It’s not that I wouldn’t mind mulch there as well, but for as much as I plant and replant, this perfect coating of shredded neatness would be dug in and over within a few months and for me that doesn’t sound like a worth-it kind of investment.

A common upright sedum with a few small up and coming coleus and a patch of rose campion (Lychnis coronata). To me a sunny garden without sedum is just nonsense.

So that’s a pretty full Tuesday View. As usual thanks go to Cathy at Words and Herbs, and I invite everyone to give her site a visit to see what her view and others around the world look like this week. It’s always a treat and I’m sure they probably mulched weeks ago. Happy fourth, and have a great week!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 6.20.17

Jun21

The summer solstice is just a few hours away and this week’s Tuesday view should fit right in. The abundance of summer is starting to show, and it shouldn’t be long before the next flush of color begins.

Things aren’t that different this week but I did get the chance to do some major weeding and cleaning out, and (to me at least) it shows.

Besides thinning the iris and removing their spent flower stalks -a brutal process of ripping nearly half the plants out- I’m also well into filling the empty spots. Each summer I make room for plenty of annuals and tropicals (or they make room for themselves) and this year I have an additional two or three foot wide expansion strip which needs filling.

A few healthy sunflower seedlings have popped up near the mailbox and I’m going to call that perfect. It’s one less space which needs manual filling.

Filling the new bed is much less trouble than I thought it would be. There are always a few spare canna roots which get planted, plenty of reseeding annuals which come up on their own, and this year I’m adding bunches of coleus cuttings which I started off of the four new-to-me mother plants which I picked up here and there.

Verbena bonariensis transpants look terrible for the first day or two after transplanting but bounce back quickly. I didn’t even bother watering these and I’m sure most will turn out fine.

So this year’s main annual color will be coleus, cannas, dwarf zinnias and plenty of other odds and ends which tend to follow me home, and as far as following me home this spring may have been an all time record as far as high numbers of purchased plants and low numbers of self grown seedlings. I still think I stay well on the cheap side of frugal though since the majority were either six packs or clearance purchases, but I do snap every now and then and end up with something exciting or new. To ease my conscience I try and take cuttings or overwinter a few bits, so I guess it’s the horticultural version of reuse/recycle.

A few hot days and the Arundo donax variegata has burst on up out of the ground. It does makes a statement I think.

As I continue to add and add and add I hope the bed takes on that super full, overflowing with color and texture look. For that to happen I’ll need a few more things, and there are still no signs of anyone starting zinnia or gomphrena seeds (my reliable standards), but I’m sure something will work out. In my opinion annual plantings should be a little more spontaneous and different each year otherwise what’s the point?

As usual thanks to Cathy at Words and Herbs for hosting this weekly update, and if you have a chance to give her blog a visit please do, it’s always a pleasure and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading about other Tuesday views from around the world… or even better yet consider joining in!

Tuesday View: The Front Border 6.13.17

Jun14

Welcome back! That’s what I’m saying to myself as I get back to posting Cathy’s weekly view… after an *ahem* three week absence…

This afternoon’s hot and muggy Tuesday view. The iris are faded, summer has arrived, but the border is looking slightly less than interesting.

There are the usual being busy excuses, the typical computer broke problems, and of course home improvement projects which take on a life of their own, but today I’m more interested in letting you in on a little secret. For as much as this might shock you, this blog is not as highly trafficked as the witty dialog and artistic photos might indicate. Posts over the last few weeks have been down, and to be honest there’s not much pressure to post when your daily view count averages in the low 20’s. As I think on it and ponder the reasons I’m starting to wonder if it’s the raw realness which is turning people off.

Although I’m completely distracted by the second, third, and fourth bloom stalks rising up from my precious red lupine, others might see faded iris stalks, yellowing tulips, overly vigorous weeds, and stray play equipment… I guess in an attempt to mend fences I should apologize for the mess 🙂

Maybe this upcoming week I can pretty things up and polish up on the blog’s readability. Zinnia seedlings are just a seed packet away and the unusually reliable rains this spring should be very forgiving to late plantings. In the meantime looking at the far end of the border should cheer someone up.

I forgot which red hot poker (kniphofia) this is but I have yet to find one I don’t like. Sure this one is over in something like two weeks, but I keep holding out hope I’ll find one with a longer season. The rose is ‘William Baffin’ by the way.

‘William Baffin’ is taking over the end of the border and I’m just fine with that. No disease problems, absolute hardiness, a nice 6 foot height, and even a little rebloom makes it a decent rose… but stronger fragrance would make it an awesome rose. I bet all the better blogs have fragrant roses.

‘William Baffin’ rose, hordes of fennel, and the first blades of the variegated Arundo donax grass coming up and swamping what used to be an iris patch back in May.

Who am I kidding? Summer is finally here, the grass is a color other than its typical June brown, and there’s always a ton of new things to admire. Maybe a little less admiring on my part and a little more work, but I’m quite pleased with (most of) the garden and even though I can’t go around the table asking cabinet members to tell me how amazing I am, at least I can look through older posts and hear myself remind myself how amazing I am.

The roses are coming on in the tropical bed as well. Plus three days of heat and humidity have done more for the cannas than three weeks of sitting in the cool dirt. Finally they’re sprouting.

So it’s an optimistic Tuesday view, and as long as I don’t dwell too long on all the other even more excellent blogs out there, I should be able to make it through the week without regretting the $3 a month which “Sorta Suburbia” demands.

Speaking of other more excellent blogs I’d like to mention and thank Cathy at Words and Herbs for her continued support of the Tuesday view. She and other more excellent bloggers can be found there each week and come Tuesday it’s always a pleasure to see the seasons have progressed another week. Enjoy!

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden

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