Peak Summer Garden

Late July, early August always seems to be the peak summer garden around here. Before the early summer blooms stop blooming, but when the late summer/fall blooms are strong. I haven't trimmed back the spring plants that don't like the heat so I know where they go. It's the best time to assess the gaps and make some notes for the fall.

Starting at my favorite tree, the red bud, in the middle of the yard. I am devastated to say I don't know how much longer this wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous tree is going to last. There are multiple factors. Ever since we had a really bad snowstorm where we lost a big piece of it, the base has been weak. The three trunks are pulling away from each other from the massive weight on top. I try to trim the top aggressively every year... but this year there was a robin's nest in the tree so I left it. All that extra weight + surprisingly dexterous hunting dog that tried to climb it to get the robins = the trunks are now fully separated. So you can see below some evidence that I did a major trim once the robins were gone, but it might be too late. And when I was trimming I found some diseased branches that had tree blight on them. They are gone now, but it might be too late - two of the trunks are now heavily shedding bark. So we'll see. I will definitely put another red bud in if I lose this one. 

Around the red bud most things are doing well. This has been a great year for hostas. I did lose a
purple coral bells (heuchera) and my purple salvia back here - they were very small to begin with and while they came back in the spring, they disappeared with all the cool, soppy wet weather.  I did replace the coral bell with a lime light hosta (with bright lime variegated leaves so it's different than the others), and the salvia with some shade loving plant that came from our favorite local nursery (recommended by them, it can survive being stepped on by rude dogs who don't obey fences!) but I lost the tag and have NO idea what it is. I still need something behind the new no-name plant, and something in front of the lime light hosta... but it's progress.

Behind the red bud tree, everything is great. Maybe too great. I had to pull the fig trees back from taking over everything. All my plants back here are super happy to the point of being almost overcrowded - I wish the rest of the yard was this full and lush. Double day lillies, hostas, astilbe, butterfly weed, anenomes, even two surprise dahlias that came back from nothing (I must have not harvested the full bulb and the split came back, surviving the winter!).

Back to the main part of our backyard, on the other side of the red bud tree, I added a red carnival coral bells (heuchera), these seem to be pretty happy in the part-shade environment and I like that they don't get too big. It's between the columbines for some summer interest. There is a gap behind the black eyed susans where I stuck a hanging basket to keep Morgan from thinking this is a great place to bark at our neighbor's dogs. I planted irises here but they just aren't filling in the way I thought they would - they are just single stalks still. I either need to add more and fill it in, or add something else here that's tall and can handle the anenomes next to it this fall.

There are a couple of dahlias under the obelisk, a poor choice for the spot since they are completely hidden by the anenomes. They are a tall variety, but for whatever reason, while they are tall elsewhere in the garden, they are short here. I do love having the obelisk here though - it was placed here to prevent Morgan from digging up this area in the winter/spring, but now I don't want it to move. I think I'm just going to have to build a new one for the raised bed garden next summer. And then get a climbing vine for this obelisk... I'm thinking a clematis right now.

So this area is mostly new, just past the bleeding heart. It was supposed to be irises, delphiniums, lupines, echinachea, lavender and blanket flowers. The irises are there, but they aren't filling in the way I had expected. I can't seem to keep delphiniums or lupines alive. The echinachea I picked for this area is the short pretty kind and while it's alive, it doesn't spread much. The blanket flower was a victim of Morgan before the fencing went up. The lavender didn't survive the winter. I planted peach coral bells last fall which definitely helped, but it wasn't enough.

So it was just... empty. And terrible looking. Which is sad because really this if half the main garden we look at when we're on the deck and grass. Piece by piece I've been filling it in over this spring and early summer... and I will admit it has made SUCH a difference. In the front there's now blue balloon flowers and two large phlox around the two low echinacheas. I added a red-orange blanket flower in front of the hydrangea where the lavender died. In the back row there's now a pink tortuga, a medium red echinachea, and an orange crocosmia with leaves similar to irises so it keeps everything interesting. In the middle there's also a blue stokesia and a yellow daisy hybrid.

Pinks, reds, oranges, yellows and purple/blues all mixed together - it really fills in the garden and looks great with everything else. Lot of variation in size, colors and textures, short in the front and tall in the back. It's really starting to look like the garden I always wanted.

Between the hydrangea and the peony (back left) there's a gap that just doesn't want to fill in. So I want to transplant a piece of sedum here to fill it in. I don't have any close by that spot, so it will vary the textures nicely, and it's free since I have so much in the yard.

In the bottom left below, the bergen's blue veronica is still alive, just very small still. It came back though and has survived the summer, so hopefully it will fill in more next year.

Down the line everything is good (minus my crushed by dog irises from a doggy play date where someone didn't respect the fences). I have a couple of dahlias here to fill things in, but I like them here so I think I'll just keep them there for now. The globe amaranth I started from seed is started to really take off - I love it!

Next to the deck there are dahlias, butterfly weed, two medium echinacheas, two phlox, sweet autumn sedum, dianthus and dahlias. Next year I think I can skip the low dahlias here - we don't need them. The quince and crepe myrtle are in the back.

Next to the patio is that little wedge and after all those transplants, the wedge is full. I squeezed two dahlias in here and I don't think both will fit next year.

This area is always out of control this time of year with sweet pea vines. The new butterfly bush is growing enough that it should hold its own next year. My parents got me a bird bath for my birthday and originally I was going to put it in the new raised bed garden, but it's growing on me over here.

The long strip along the fence is okay. It's green. The dahlias I planted in here are blooming. The peonies, anenomes and astilbe I added here are still alive. The asparagus has two fern fronds. I have 2 dahlias in here that are blooming, plus the blackberries, sweet pea vines and violets. It's way better than it used to be, especially with the rock border.

All these flowers around the yard and so few in my flower cutting garden (due to late planting), I've been pillaging my flower beds instead. It does make for some gorgeous bouquets though.