All posts by jane

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – June 2012

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June already! Here is what is happening on the Lot this month:

This month the Lady’s Mantle is in bloom. It seems to have really benefited from the spring pruning it received back in March. It’s also playing really nice with the Chocolate Chip Bugleweed planted along East side of the house.

Ladys Mantle in Bloom

Out in the back alley bed are several new sedums brought home from the annual Spring nursery crawl. This little guy was purchased as a Jelly Bean Sedum (Sedum album Athoum). However, I think we lucked out and got a two for one. I’m unsure if  the blooms here belong to the Jelly Bean or to the other sedum growing with it.

Jellybean Sedum

I relocated the perennial Bachelor’s Button to the back alley bed because it had grown huge and began collapsing outward from the center of the plant. It was squishing everyone else in the bed. It is getting pretty warm already to move plants, but I took the chance anyway. Seemingly immediately after the change, the little Coreopsis behind it sprang up and into bloom.

Coreopsis

Also in the same bed along the gate, the Loosestrife bloomed for the first time since it arrived on the Lot. I believe this is it’s third year. Behind it is the Snow Angel Coral Bell.

Loosestrife

A couple of years ago we grew Hollyhock on the Lot. The plants suffered from a bout of rust and weevils. I grew frustrated and decided to take a break from growing the plants. Apparently the Lot had other plans. These came close to being pulled out this past Spring, but not recognizing the young plants, I decided to leave them alone and see what happened.

Hollyhock

The prize of this year’s nursery crawl was a Sweet Tea Coral Bell. It was at the top of my list after I spotted it at a Home & Garden show this past March. I found it on the crawl and happily plunked it down onto the Lot. It is absolutely lovely. The foliage is so beautiful and I’m really digging how the early evening sunlight hits those flowers.

Sweet Tea Coral Bell

Last but not least is this little Bellflower. It is snuggled into Loki’s bed and is blooming for the first time. This seems to be a common theme on the Lot this season.

Thank you as always to May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day!

The Downy Family – Feathered Neighbors

birds

This morning I met some new neighbors. At our suet feeder in the backyard was a mother downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) and her little one. Well, he was larger than his mother, but still had the plump, floofy-feathered, slightly disgruntled look about him I’ve noticed in many baby birds. After clinging to the bottom of the suet feeder and swaying about awhile, he gave up and sat on the top of the feeder. Mother took over the tricky task of getting the suet. She would hop to the top of the feeder, feed the young bird the suet, and then duck under again for more.

Throughout the day a few other young birds and a male adult also made an appearance. I’m not sure if all the woodpeckers were from the same household, but I’d like to think so. At one point we had five woodpeckers flitting about together between the pergola and the feeder.

Downy Woodpeckers at Suet Feeder

Here’s a photo of how we rig up our suet feeder so sparrows and starlings cannot access it. Since we leave the plastic cover on the suet and expose just the bottom, only birds that can cling upside down are able to eat the suet. So far it has worked great. We’ve seen both nuthatches and a chickadee here and there visit the feeder, but the woodpeckers are by far our most frequent visitors.