What's blooming in late June

I planted 2 lupins last month and both have blossoms forming. 

And the painted daisies have put out their colourful blooms.

I planted 2 irises in this bed two years ago, only one survived. And it has 5 blossoms on it. What a lovely iris.

A whole lot of columbines are now in bloom. I love these blossoms, I find them captivating with their beautiful upturned bell-like faces and the long spurs in back. The intricacy of nature is so beautiful.

pale blue

and soft lemon yellow

to bright crimson, they are like a flower within a flower

Lady's Mantle have set their yellow blooms. These ones are in full morning sun and they are about 8-10" tall.  I have two others in a more shaded location and they have grown much taller, as if they are stretching towards the light.

the real reason we grow Lady's Mantle, for the way it holds water drops

                                 

A favourite plant of mine, fringed bleeding heart. This one will bloom all summer long. This is in a shaded bed and the colour is bright. I have another one that gets much more direct sun and the flowers are a faded pink instead of this bright pink above. (that bleeding heart is in the first two photos with the columbines)  But the plant is looking very healthy even with all that sunshine.

This is a brunnera, I don't remember which species. The leaves are plain green and the plant holds the daintiest blue flowers above its leaves. The flowers really do look like forget-me-nots.

I had forgotten how Ontario has dry summers.  After 30 years on the wet east coast, one takes rain for granted. Not here. It hasn't rained in 8 days.  I got a rain measure so now I really know how much and how often it rains. Even when people think it has rained a lot, as in two weeks ago, it was still only half an inch per week which is only half of what gardens require to grow well. My neighbour wonders why I water so much and I wonder why she doesn't water more!

A wet and cool spring

Winter hung on for so long, snow until the end of April.  Just like last year, and it looked as if the blackflies' cycle might have been interrupted by this weather.  But no, they have arrived in full force.
So much so that even our poor dog had to see the vet as she had licked herself and got infected in her private parts. She is now wearing one of those collars that look like an Elizabethan ruff. She even managed to lick herself with this on last night and proceeded to puke afterwards.  More than you want to know, I am sure.  All this to show what a nasty spring this has been.

Some things are growing like crazy though. The grass needs cutting every week for sure; I have set the blades lower so that we don't have to cut it as often, but then it seems to burn in the sun.

I have only one plant left to dig in, that is a honeysuckle that I saw sitting at the grocery store and no one bought it. So I said "if it's still there when I go today, I'll buy it".  Now, where to put it?  I might just put it right next to the other honeysuckle on the fence and let them grow together. I don't know what colour of flowers this one has, but two different colours would actually be nice.

I have lost a few plants. A re-blooming lilac planted in mid May hasn't survived. So I replaced it with a Pinky Winky hydrangea. I am putting plants around in a kind of square in the middle of the garden to have some kind of "garden room" if that is possible in this non-descript rural backyard. Most people just plant on the edges of their yards, but there are a few brave souls who have replaced their grass with plants and have yards jammed full of plants.  I do like to have some kind of order in the planting and I think that you probably have to have some paths between things to do that.

the land of sheds - the raised bed has beefsteak tomatoes in it

these raised beds have tomatoes, peppers, carrots

and the nearest one is potatoes

The young tree is the apple tree planted two years ago

A Rebecca clematis with giant fuchsia/red blooms

I haven't even started on the front yard and the three beds there need weeding badly. One bed on the west side of the lawn is being encroached on with ferns. They are rather nice ferns and perhaps I should just let them be the backdrop to a few plants, rather than trying to get rid of them.

I'm still thinking about the hedge of hydrangeas around the driveway.  I would have to have 7 hydrangeas all the same kind and would have to be prepared to dig in 7 semi-grown plants.  Do I have the energy?  It might be a project for July.

It is raining again today and the temperature is a chilly 15 degrees Celsius which is no good for outside work but certainly makes the grass grow.

June 6, 2019

I have tulips this year! Since the back yard is now fenced, we don't have deer coming in to eat the bulbs. So this corner of the garden has some lovely tulips.

Another shot  of the tulips. Also in this bed is a red weigela, two phlox, beebalm, forget-me-nots, poppies which will bloom next year. I put some red portulaca at the front of the bed, next to a blue catmint.

And this is the new ginkgo biloba tree, with some cosmos planted at the base.

Another shot of the ginkgo, as the adorable little leaves begin to emerge.

And I was thrilled to see that this viburnum has some flower heads on it.  What a lovely surprise!

The weather has been up and down, and quite unusual for this part of the world. Usually the days warm up in May and June can be quite hot. But not this year. Today is a lovely day with 20 degrees Celsius at 1 pm. One result of this strange weather is that the blackflies have not really come out in droves. But I read on one blog that people in Spokane, Washington have blackflies for the first time. Odd, that they would be moving south. Good for us if that is the case.