From commentor Delphinium:
Moved back near the Finger Lakes region of NY from Seattle about 8 years ago. When I bought into my house, there were a couple nice, albeit neglected, garden beds in the back so thankfully did not have to start those from scratch. Made one of the beds into an herb garden and the other into a flower garden since they both get full sun.
Planted hostas, hydrangeas, ferns, and spiderwort in the shady areas at the back of the house and by the garage. The front and side of the house had overgrown, half-dead yew bushes and those were finally dug out a few years ago and replaced with some junipers, dogwoods, and flowers.
The gardens are finally coming together after all these years, but of course there is always more work to be done!
These pictures were all taken in early and mid-June.
Top photo: Astrantia in semi-shady side of the house
Bellflowers and Delphinium in sunny back garden
Daylily after the rain
Hydrangea almost ready to fully bloom
Lady fern and Queen Anne’s Lace by the garage
My overgrown herb garden with Salvia, Mint, Meadowsweet, Thyme, and Allium, with a raised bed of tomatoes and peppers in the background
Close up of Meadowsweet flowers
Newly planted Ninebark in front side of house — it will eventually grow to about 5-6 feet tall
Spiderwort amongst the rain drops
***********
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Send me photos, people!
Reader Interactions
52Comments
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Nancy
Beautiful. Your eye for color and the placement of the plants make a lovely scene.
raven
Nice
MagdaInBlack
Your beautiful delphinium reminded me that mine used to get so tall I had to stake them. I blame the chicken manure tea I dosed them with 😉
MazeDancer
What a beautiful range of lovely plants! Well done.
Van Buren
Very pretty.
delphinium
@MagdaInBlack:
Yes, I eventually had to stake mine up as well!
@MagdaInBlack:
Ned F
Six days near 100 degrees and no rain are starting to take their toll on my small gardens. The weeds don’t seem to care and it’s too hot to deal with them for now.
I planted this two years ago, the first year it was a green bush. The second year it bloomed. This year it’s a much larger bush which will probably bloom again late summer. I have no idea what it is (lost the tag) and my investagoogling is coming up empty. Any clues?
Now, how do i put the picture here?
eclare
Such vibrant colors!
delphinium
@Nancy: Thank you- am always impressed and amazed at all of our fellow juicers wonderful, stunning gardens!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Pretty pictures!
satby
@delphinium: Just beautiful! I have that same ninebark, and it wil grow fast, so 5 feet won’t be far off. And your raised tomato bed looks like sculpture, love it.
Lapassionara
Thanks for the photos. The nine bark looks intriguing. I have never seen one before.
satby
@Ned F: Send it to Anne Laurie or drop a link to a photo sharing site like flicker.
delphinium
@Ned F: Can sympathize with that-usually get enough rain in this area during the summer, but haven’t gotten enough lately to compensate for the hot, sunny days. The flowers and veggies are wilting and parts of my lawn are brown but those pesky weeds are still thriving.
satby
@delphinium: We’ve had a series of very hot spells interspersed with rain so the weeds and crabgrass have just exploded in my yard. I’m going to have to pay the guy who mows to do a yard cleanup, even with me doing a lot of the work too. Wild grapevines have taken over on the north side of the garage.
Edit: rain threatening now, and the overnight low was a steamy 78°. The tomatoes quit setting new fruit a week ago until it cools off again at night.
delphinium
@satby: Thanks! I loved the leaf colors and bark on the ninebark, so had to buy it, the flowers were an added bonus.
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack:
😧And I thought smoked teas were an abomination!
JPL
Beautiful!
Ned F
@satby: Thank you, that’s what I thought. I haven’t had to use a photo sharing app since I had a MySpace page. Coincidentally, Photobucket emailed me yesterday to remind me I still have it. They charge now to create a link, and I have a few dozen 10 year old photos in my account. I’ll get it into next weeks’ Chat!
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
And now I want some stuffed grape leaves. Can they be a breakfast food? I vote yes.
eclare
It has been so hot and dry here in Memphis this summer my yard has only been mowed once. I read a long time ago that once sod is established (I have zoysia), it is really hard to kill. That is being tested this summer as I refuse to water grass, I’m not even sure I have sprinklers anymore.
MagdaInBlack
@mrmoshpotato: So you do not wish for me to forward the recipe?
delphinium
@Lapassionara: Hadn’t seen a ninebark before either-but was intrigued when I spotted it at one of the local nurseries. It was noted as a native species (which I am trying to be mindful of when planting items) and just loved the look of it so in my car it went!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
satby
@delphinium: I got it because it’s bird friendly: a place to hide and the tiny berries from the flowers are really popular for bird food in the fall. You won’t be disappointed 😀
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning!
Edit: more big storms for our areas today! Stay safe!
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: No. That’s quite alright. 😁
Wanderer
Lovely flowers
Kristine
Lovely photos—thank you!
I have ninebark that look similar—is yours “Little Devil?” I pruned the oldest back to a handful of new branches a couple of years ago and by the end of the summer it was a picture of new leafy growth. It’s a rugged one.
Tom Hamill
Sigh. I lived 8 years in Ithaca, two stints at Cornell. I miss it a lot.
satby
Is the Finger Lakes area somewhat near where our friend Imm is considering buying a farmhouse? I’m not really clear on upstate New York regions.
kalakal
Some lovely plants there.
I love Delphiniums, sadly so do slugs. I eventually gave up and grew Monkshood as a substitute*. Neither grow well down here, too hot & humid in summer
* Do NOT eat Monkshood
Geminid
@satby: I think he’s talking the northern side of the Finger Lakes, closer to Rome. I’ve done a couple working vacations in Cortland County 20 miles southeast of Ithaca, which is at the southern end of one of the lakes. Beautiful country in the summertime, but my friends tell me winters there are long, cold, snowy, cold and long. Ithaca has a more temperate climate though.
Spanky
@satby: Depends on your definition of “somewhat near”. Imm would be closer to Rome, which is maybe 50 miles NE of Ithaca, which is on the south end of the easternmost large finger lake. (For some random definition of “large”.)
Spanky
@Geminid: Dunno if winters are worse than Boston, though.
Summers are great.
PAM Dirac
@Ned F:
Just a few degrees cooler here, but very little rain. Hard on the flowers and vegetables, but looking like an excellent year for the grapes (as long as the deer don’t get them).
delphinium
@Geminid: Yes, relatively near depending on which Finger Lake you start from (about 1-2 hours+). There are 11 lakes that make up this region which extends from south of the Rochester area towards the Syracuse area.
JAM
Those pictures are so refreshing. We’re at week 3 of 100+ temps and no rain worth mentioning. I’m still picking tomatoes but the plants are looking pretty sad right now. Peppers and most of the flowers don’t seem to mind too much. I’m just trying to keep my vegetable garden alive until fall and watering a lot.
satby
@Geminid: @Spanky: Ok, thanks.
I once saw a beautiful old house for a pretty cheap price in a small town somewhere around that area that made me dream for a bit about moving there and restoring it. Which I have neither the talent nor the money for, but it was a nice little daydream.
delphinium
@Kristine: Thank you! I believe my ninebark variety is Coppertina.
WaterGirl
@delphinium: I am so jealous!
People say I have a green thumb, but delphinium have never gotten the message, so I have quit trying.
But I love delphinium so much!
Your flowers are gorgeous.
pluky
@Tom Hamill: Was a HS summer APe at Cornell between junior and senior years. Fell enough in love with the setting that I went there for undergrad. Then I found out about the winters! Still the only time campus shut down because of snow was the blizzard of ‘78.
J R in WV
@eclare:
You will have to email it to anne-laurie at balloon-juice.com — assuming I’ve got that email address correct>?
Anne Laurie ’cause there is a rumor that Watergirl is pretty busy right now….
edited to remove the actual email address, which bots would find and spam to death.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: No more busy than usual! Maybe just more visibly so.
jnfr
Really nice pics! Other than some annual zinnias, I don’t have much blooming right now. The veggies are just starting to produce though, so I’m looking forward to that.
Old School
@J R in WV:
There’s a hyphen in the middle of balloon-juice.
WaterGirl
@Old School: Not to mention the hyphen between anne and laurie! :-)
delphinium
@WaterGirl: Yes, delphiniums are 1 of my favorite flowers too, along with hydrangeas. There are several flowers/plants (such as tulips) that don’t seem to do well in my yard, so always enjoying seeing what other people can grow in their gardens.
J R in WV
@Old School:
@WaterGirl:
I knew I could count on many jackals to correct me. Thanks for being dependable..!!
J R in WV
Back on topic, my woodland ramp patches have sent up a ton of little spears a month or two after their foliage died back at the beginning of summer. They bloomed in short order with little white spheres 10 or 12 inches above the leafy forest floor, similar to onion or garlic blooms.
Now those spheres of blossom are turning green, and I would expect and hope those are buds with seeds developing inside. The ramps spread with underground runners starting very young, but to get a really big patch that way takes a very long time. Now that they are pretty strong, having had several years to develop, I’m hoping that seeds will spread the wild ramsone far and wide on the wooded hillsides we call home.
I have some pics of the blooms, like fairy lights floating above the forest floor.
Also have a couple different pics of of a barred owl who seems to find our house interesting enough to sit outside on a nearby branch and watch. We watch back, so it’s all fair.
StringOnAStick
@delphinium: Ninebark has cool looking peeling bark too, so some winter interest as well.
LionIsland
Delphinium…if you ever find yourself north of Syracuse, visit my nursery, Phoenix Flower Farm… wacky perennials are my ongoing obsession…love that meadowsweet- shrublike presence, dry or wet, full sun to deep shade, fragrant bloom, and the bracts that hold the bloom are effective for weeks after the petals fall…are real landscape plant that can work in a cottage garden- I grow five other filipendulas, and they all have their virtues, but that’s my fave..