Happy July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!

Well, I'm back for another month, but I'll have to be honest...July is just not my favorite. It's hot, the bugs are out, the humidity is high, there are thunderstorms that blow up unexpectedly and the weeds need more attention than mom is willing to give them. The Battle of the Weeds begins in July at the farm and so far the weeds are winning.  Mom might even be surrendering, the jury is still out on that.

Luckily, she is pretty good at planting things that don't need much attention to bloom, and are stronger than weeds. Still, there's not a lot blooming in July (frankly, she just doesn't spend enough time outside in July to make July blooms a priority) but there are a few things.

The house gets a lot of shade, so hostas are the go to plant. Nothing fancy, medium to large leaf plants with purple flowers are planted in front of the house. They peaked about two weeks ago (sorry no pretty bloom photos) but you can sorta get the idea here...

Another shade survivor is Cimicifuga or Snake plant. The foliage survives in heavy shade, but filtered shade provides these lovely bottlebrush flowers.

There are also a couple of hydrangea (Mom needs to look up the species) that were planted last year and just don't want to bloom this year. If you move the foliage around and look carefully, there is one bloom - just one. Oh well, maybe next year will be better.

Heading out to the sun garden we have a few volunteer zinnias and rudbeckia next to the compost bin.

(Puppy Sis Emily gave us a few zinnia plants she started from seeds, but those are in a pot in the back yard - all in the sun garden are volunteers)

A clump Shasta daisies

And a tall stand of Pink garden flox

The butterfly bush is still blooming, but really - for July - that's all I've got. Enough to bring a bouquet or two into the house and a bit of color for a welcome home as you come up the driveway.  And that's good enough for me.

I spend most of my July days hanging out with Miss Lola and Remington in a shady corner or under the dog house porch, trying to stay cool and dry.

Thanks for stopping by

Puppy hugs,
Montgomery

Hi All!

I'm back for my Second Garden Bloom Day! Lots of things blooming right now, as well as tons of weeds trying to get a toehold. We're going to ignore the weeds right now, and concentrate on the flowers. So here's to selective photo editing LOL

First we have the "vegetable" garden close to the house - cherry tomatoes, basil and mint are pictured, but there are rosemary, thyme and chives as well.  The impatiens add color to a very shady yard. For years, that was the only color near the house. Mom's never been too good about growing vegetables, something about not spending time outside in July and August. Too hot to water or weed. Yep, she's a wimp.

Also near the house are some oak leaf hydrangeas that came from Granny's farm in middle Georgia, and grow like weeds. You'll notice that a lot around our farm - self suffieciency among the plants is a good thing. There is also some Nandina - who knew that they bloomed? Not big bold blooms like the Oak Leaf, but they are a nice precursor to the berries.

There are also some happy volunteers - oxalis that is starting to colonize, a yellow butterfly weed that found a home in the shade and keeps coming back, and petunias that must have reseeded from a pot I had by the walkway last year.

The sun garden needs a lot of trimming and weeding, but again, we like hardy plants that can take a little neglect and still bloom.

Pink Bee balm, a huge colony of dark orange butterfly weed, some mutant purple coneflower that have super healthy foliage, but green and stunted petals, and one lone allium that stands tall behind a blue hydrangea that only blooms about every other year.

And of course we have daylilies - a variegated hybrid, a pale lemon yellow hybrid, some stella d'or rebloomers and to round out the sun loving flowers that thrive on neglect - a small colony of gooseneck plants.

Lastly, there is an area that is naturalizing with "ditch" lilies, campian and queen annes lace, some dark red honeysuckle and a black knight butterfly bush.

That's it for June...it's much more that I would have guessed. So happy to have a Bloom Day post to make me walk around and notice all the pretty flowers. This isn't the year to get a lot of work done, or add to the gardens, but the work in years past is still bearing fruit.

Puppy hugs!
Montgomery

PS Thanks for the lovely comments last month - there were a lovely welcome to the garden blogging community - ya'll are nice people!

My very first Garden Bloom Day

Hi, I'm Montgomery - the happiest dog ever. I live on a "farm" with 2 pretty white dogs, and a Dad and Mom for company.  Occasionally my puppy sisters come to visit and that makes me even happier than I am on a regular day.  That is pretty darn happy!

Mom likes to play in the dirt (I watch) and has done a lot of digging and planting over the years.  Puppy Sis @_emily_rose has a blog where she posts pictures of all her pretty flowers and other fun stuff she does and I thought Mom should have a blog and post pictures of her pretty flowers too.  Besides, Mom's getting old and forgetful and blog posts will help her remember what she has planted and about what time it blooms. It's amazing how much things change from year to year.  I think it will be fun to track the progress.  

So lets get started :)

I'm going to cheat a little, Garden Bloom Day is supposed to be the 15th of the month, but these were blooming last week and are just too pretty to leave out. Not sure where the orange Iris came from, but I do like them.

 Iris and columbine

Now we'll move on to this week. When I started to walk around the yard, I was surprised how many thing were blooming. Yay! for spring :)

We have Pink Lemonade honeysuckle, common spiderwort, buttercup siberian iris, Duetzia, dianthius, pink peony, a pitiful red knockout rose, blue star creeper in the front walkway, another rose that needs some TLC - its a sweetheart rose that came from a cutting of the rosebush my grandfather planted for my grandmother when my mom's mom was born (it took a big hit last summer when a huge oak tree fell over and landed on top of it), the very last blossom on the bleeding heart and a white spiderwort that has apparently hybridized a bit to be lavender.  

There are a few fusia and white azalea blossoms hanging on, and a mock orange shrub blooming too, but I didn't get pictures - oh well, that's still not too bad for my very first Garden Bloom Day. Now the challenge will be to find things blooming every month.


Just so you know, I may post some other doings around the farm, but mostly it will be flowers and such.  It's pretty quiet around here. We'll just have to see how it goes. 

Thanks for stopping by!