Category Archives: the Lot

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – June 2013

fence bed, front bed

This year, June on the Lot has brought the passing of the last of the Spring bulbs and the transition of the season from Spring to Summer. The first half of the month found the Lot blooming with peonies, iris, false indigo, poppies, spirea, wysteria, bleeding heart, coral bell, and thrift. Unlike previous years, I’ve begun to cut little bouquets of flowers for the Other Half and I to enjoy in our home offices. I also am having a lot of fun bringing flowers from the Lot to friends and family.

Now it is the 15th of the month and it is once again Bloom Day! This year, that means roses for the Lot. Three of the four climbing roses on the Lot were already established when we moved here. This first rose was doing poorly and suffered from black spot because of a downspout at it’s base. After trying to dig it out of the ground several seasons ago, this is what it appears like now.

Red Roses

At the southwest corner of the house is our largest rose. This thing is a beast. It tries to entangle and devour trick-or-treaters, mailmen, and at times our guests. Since the Other Half is in charge of mowing, he has a deep dislike for this plant. As wild and crazy as it is, I think it is beautiful. Right now it crawls over the edge of the porch, but there are plans for a hanging trellis in it’s near future.

Climbing RoseClimbing Rose on Porch

Here is a rose we planted in the backyard along the fence. I adore this “little one” because it is an offspring of my friend Mrs. J’s grandfather’s rose. Like she says, it has a pleasant scent of “Grandma Soap.” The four-footed garden helpers think the blooms made excellent bobbles to bop.

Backyard Rose

Last season Ms. A and I extended a south-facing bed in front of the house. The unusually hot and dry summer foiled attempts at starting many new plants in said bed. One plant that survived a move from the backyard to the new bed was this coreopsis that is just starting to bloom. Above it is the fading blooms of our fourth rose, a deep red one that is always the first rose to bloom on the Lot.

Coreopsis South Bed

Last Fall I hit the garden centers and brought home a small flat of Jewel of the Desert Peridott Iceplant (Delosperma). It is pictured above to the left of the coreopsis. The little groundcover is supposed to be super drought resilient. It made it through the winter, is now blooming, and should continue until first frost. Here is a closer view.

Peridott Iceplant

And last but not least is a plant purchased this season during the 2013 Annual Spring Nursery Crawl. This plant is also in the new, south-facing bed in front of the house. Check out this lovely Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia.

Cherry Brandy Rudbeckia

Remember to visit May Dreams Gardens to see what else is blooming this month around the world!

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2013

loki bed

It seems we are running a few weeks behind last year’s schedule for blooms. Nevertheless, here are some Bloom Day photos from the Lot for May 2013.

First up is the variegated Solomon’s Seal in Loki’s bed. This plant adores this spot, having nearly doubled each year of it’s residency.  I’m sure the fact the neighbor’s well-fed veggie garden is on the other side of the fence helps it along as well.

Solomons Seal

Next is a little English daisy planted last year. I thought for sure we’d lost it to the blazing hot summer sun last season. But the little plant popped up again this spring among the self-sown Forget-Me-Nots. Hopefully this season it will become better acclimated to the Lot and flourish.

English Daisy

Here is a photo from just down the street. Each spring, you can smell these lilacs from a half a block away. When the lilacs are finishing their show, the spirea hedge beneath them begin to bloom. It’s a nicely thought out combo.

051513_lilac

Also blooming right now are grape hyacinth, lenten rose, tulips, bleeding heart, and star of Bethlehem. Be sure to visit May Dreams Gardens to see what else is in bloom this month.

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – October 2012

fence bed, front bed, gate bed, ,

Fall has definitely arrived on the Lot. Last week when it wasn’t raining, I was preparing the two 4’x4′ raised vegetable beds for winter. This past, soggy weekend I began to ready the perennial beds by trimming yellow foliage and raking out large clumps of soggy leaves. But Fall prep will be another post; this is a bloom day post with pretty things!

Monster Hardy Mums

First up is the classic, Fall, hardy Chrysanthemums shot. They are a bit raggedy, but still pretty, posing here with Alfred the Hedgehog. In this bed the Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus ruber) is still blooming and the Plumbago (Ceratostigma plumbaginoides) is just finishing.

False Indigo

This is not a bloom necessarily, but this is quite cool because it’s some Fall interest in the way of sound. These seed pods belong to the False Indigo (Baptisia) that bloomed this past May. When the wind blows through the stalks of this plant, the seeds rattle within the seed pod like a percussion instrument. I’ve also snipped the stalks with pods attached as accents in Halloween and Fall arrangements.

Wand Flower

This Wand Flower (Gaura lindheimeri) was blooming last month as well, but it’s still going. I’ve admired the wispy plant in the garden centers for a couple of seasons now. This was the year it was finally added to the Lot. In the same bed the Coreopsis is finishing it’s blooming. Down along the gate bed, the Stonecrop and Maiden Hair Grass are both in bloom. Other plants blooming on the Lot include Nicotiana, Toad Lily, Lamium, Pincushion Flower, and multiple Stonecrop.

Soggy Fall

I felt this parting shot of a cold, soggy annual would capture the feeling so far of this Fall season. Brrr… a lot of gray and rain. However, the tree foliage colors were beautiful, having reached their peak in our area around the weekend of October 6th. We’ve already had a few frosts that zapped a lot of the more tender annuals.

Time to travel on over to May Dreams Gardens and see what other gardeners from around the world have blooming this October. Since a lot of us shared the hot, drought-like summer, I’m curious what Fall is like so far for them. Be sure to check it out.