Saturday, August 15, 2009

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day

Welcome to my first time participating in the Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, which takes place on the 15th of each month. I have been aware of this ritual, started in the May Dreams Gardens blog, since earlier in the season but it had slipped my mind for one reason or another. This morning I will add my blog to the Mr. Linky widgit and weigh in. Due to limited time today, I won't make it over to the Minton Stable Garden, but that plot consists mostly of vegetables, and I have shown my perennials in recent posts. So I'll feature what has been growing at home.Yesterday marked our eleventh anniversary of home ownership, so I'll begin with what had already been in the ground before our closing. My first stop is at the Rose of Sharon. The plant itself has doubled in size but the amount of shade we have has limited the number of blooms. In front of the house we have a hydrangea growing in our acidic soil (as one can tell by the blue color). A magnolia has been shading it out; as a result we see fewer blooms each year.We have planted hostas here and there all over our property; at any time during the summer we can find one in bloom. The most spectacular at the moment is growing near our Rose of Sharon. Most of our backyard flowering plants are perennials but I usually throw in a few impatiens to add some extra color.With more sun hitting the west side of our house, I was able to grow a sunflower which had originally been a volunteer in my MSG plot, but I had decided to move to make room for more vegetables. The blooming period for the beach rose you see behind it and to the left has past.On the other side of the front yard, I have turned over the soil and started a perennial bed. The echinacea, daisies, and black-eyed susans were all divided from my mother's garden.I have not planted a single cosmos seed here. Almost every summer we have been in the house, seeds have blown over from other gardens in the neighborhood. Before I started the perennial bed, we had let them grow on both sides of the walk. They used to completely take over and attack anyone who approached the front porch, but perhaps due to the weather this year, they are much more limited in height and scope.The GBBD has given me an opportunity to take a closer look at what has been growing in my other gardens. Because the focus of this blog has been the Minton Stable Garden, and also due to the mosquito problem we have in our backyard, I have not gotten out enough to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I should put on my long pants and bug spray and get out there more often.

3 comments:

Dan said...

The echinacea, daisies, and black-eyed susan are an excellent combination. They certainly sum up late summer in the garden. We to have a massive amount of mosquitoes in the yard. When I water in the shade area there literally is clouds of them coming out of the plants. Great blooms Sally!

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Sylvana said...

That daisy, echinacea, rudbeckia mix reminded me of fireworks. Oooo! Ahhh!