Perennial Bed Progress

On April 25, I posted about working on my perennial bed, and I shared this shot of how things looked after I'd dug out all the matted grass and a lot of weeds:

Yesterday, on June 5, the same bed has come along quite well, and here's how it looked (ignore the plywood in the background - that's another project underway!)

I'll give you a little guided tour!  Along the front, in the first picture, you can see some lavender plants, which have now begun to put on new growth and are looking relatively good. There are some red tulips that are finishing.  To the right of the lavender, you'll see a new plant I put in yesterday.  It's a Heuchera "carnival watermelon" that has kind of pinkish-gold leaves.  

Here's a closer shot of the heuchera and surrounding plants.  I like the interesting colour pop and heuchera seems to do quite well for me.  To the left is a cranesbill geranium that wasn't yet up in April, and to the right is a perennial ornamental grass. The cranesbill has dark purply-blue flowers on it that should start showing up fairly soon.  There's a volunteer foxglove coming up just behind the heuchera, and then I've put in a couple of marigolds for summer colour. You can also see the jostaberry in the background, now that its leaves are out, whereas in April it was just twiggy bits!

Here you can see a closer shot of a daylily that is on the rear left side that was barely starting to come out of the ground in the first picture.  The climbing hydrangea on the trellis has now leafed out.  I planted a couple of new Echinacea called "Cheyenne Spirit." The tag showed a bold yellow, but I've since learned that this particular strain can have different flower colours including yellow, orange, cream, and purple.  I hope it is more in the yellow/orange range on the plants I bought because I'm trying to make this bed orange/yellow/red themed.  I'm really not at all fond of red and pink mixed together in one bed, so I prefer to keep my beds in the pink/purple/blue range or the orange/yellow/red range.  There's another blackcurrant on the back left, next to some yellow loosestrife.  I also planted (in the front right of this picture) a coreopsis called "Uptick" that is supposed to be a light yellow with a reddish centre.  If the Echinacea comes out in a colour that doesn't work for me, I'll move it elsewhere in the garden.

On the far left of the bed, I have a lovely geum called "Mrs. Bradshaw" that my mom shared from her garden.  It is already blooming well, and is in the right colour range for this bed.  Over time, it will get bigger and I should be able to divide it. To the right of that, I've planted two Rudbeckia "Toto Rustic" which as you can see, is a two-toned bloom in the yellow/rust colour range.  There is a coral-coloured poppy coming on well in the middle of the shot below, and I put a couple of small heuchera "Bressingham" for their nice mounding habit.  Again, you'll see a few more marigolds (orange and yellow) tucked in the edge of the bed. There is a bachelor's button plant that will bloom soon, but I don't mind the dark blue/purple colour with the orange/yellow flowers, so it can stay there.  There is some purple in the rear right but that's just ajuga (bugleweed) in the lawn.  I leave it for the bees.

Here's a close-up of the Rudbeckia. I thought it was rather pretty at the garden centre, so I couldn't help buying a couple to try.  They only grow 10 to 14 inches tall, so I put it near the front of the bed.

We'll see how things come along with time.  No doubt I'll move some things around or add things over time, but for now, I'm happy to see that it has a bit more organization and will hopefully give good pops of colour over the season.  The volunteer foxgloves will likely be pink, which isn't going to work in the colour theme, but some of mine are a soft apricot colour, so if the seeds came from one of those, I might get lucky and have one that does blossom in the right colour range.  

I'll try to do another update later in the season when things have filled out a bit more.  It will help me next year to look at these pictures and figure out what needs to move or change, and what worked well.

Friday's Hunt v 4.04

It's Friday again, and that means it's time for Friday's Hunt hosted by Eden Hills.  I had hoped to write a couple of other blog posts this week, but as usual, busy was the word of the week.  So, without further ado, this week's prompts are:  Starts with D, Favourite, and Photographer's Choice.

Starts with D
My daylilies are finally blooming.  Stella d'oro, the classic golden-yellow daylily that is seen in many gardens, has been blooming for a couple of weeks, but the others have only recently started to open.  Here is a selection of some of my currently blooming daylilies.  I didn't plant any of them - they were part of the established garden when I bought this home, so I don't know any of the cultivar names. 

 

Favourite
One of my favourite things about my home is the woodlands surrounding it.  They are lovely to walk in (when the mosquitoes aren't too horrible) and they attract birds and other wildlife, which is wonderful.  They also have an abundance of wild berries, including wild blueberries and blackberries. The blueberries are just perfect right now.  I have been picking and eating them, but I should really freeze a few.  They are just so good when freshly picked from the plant.  Here is how they grow on the edges of my woodland areas.


Doesn't that make you want a fresh blueberry?

Photographer's Choice
As you can probably guess, when I have the choice, it's usually nature-themed pictures.  Today I photographed this Small Phoenix moth (Ecliptopera silaceata), which is an uncommon one for me.  I think it's beautiful.


I also took a picture of this aspen leaf that has been food for an aspen leaf miner.  The larvae burrow into the leaf and make these serpentine trails as they eat.  It is a pest species, but there are many aspen in this area and a few damaged leaves is not a big deal.  They are just part of the ecosystem.  I think the designs they make on the leaf surface as a result of their feeding are rather fascinating, and have their own beauty even though they are a result of leaf damage.

Friday's Hunt v 2.6

Today is, as usual on a Friday, time for Friday's Hunt, hosted by Eden Hills.  The prompts for today are "Starts with F," "Week's Favourite," and "Shine."

Starts with F
By wonderful happenstance, Marc called me outside yesterday evening and said I should bring a camera.  Little did I know that I was about to meet our first amphibian spotted visiting our new home!  I was so very excited to see this beautiful green frog (Rana clamitans) which Marc noticed on the driveway as he was taking out the garbage.  It is so lovely to have a fabulous husband who knows just when to alert me to interesting flora and fauna in our yard!

I took sooooo many pictures of this frog!

I think its eyes are just mesmerizing.

I took a couple of pine needles off its skin after having snapped a few shots.  I was worried the frog would be upset if I touched it, but it was very calm.  I'm so glad this frog decided to visit just in time for Friday's Hunt Letter F!

Week's Favourite
If you read my blog regularly, you'll notice that I've taken a bit of a shine to the daylilies blooming in my new perennial gardens.  (oooh, see what I did there....squeezing in an extra shine!)  This week my favourite photograph was this stunning daylily that was a total surprise to me.  I thought they'd all bloomed by now.  This stunning example was planted right beside another plant, so I thought it was all the same red daylily.  Nope!  Surprise! Instead, it is a really beautiful double daylily with the cultivar name of Kwanso.  I am just completely enamoured with it.  I am hoping to divide it and make some more plants for next year!  It looks like a fire (oooh, extra F for extra points!) on a stem!

(note, the frog is really also my favourite, but I couldn't help sharing the daylily!)

Shine
This week I went to Parlee Beach for the first time.  It's a very popular beach located in Shediac, New Brunswick.  I'm not usually a "beach person" but I went there because a friend of mine was visiting from Ottawa, and I hadn't seen her in many years.  It was so grand to spend time with her - we just fell back into conversation as if no time had passed at all.  There were lots of little hermit crabs in the shallow water, as well as a few shells. It was a spectacular summer day, and I took a picture of the sun shining on this shell.

Bonus shot - here are some crabs collected from the shallows!

My handsome, handy hubby, and a few other bits and pieces

Today Marc installed a GFI outlet on the outside wall where the electric fence charger will be plugged in.  He doesn't like having his photograph taken, but since Timber and Izzy were there to help him out, he didn't mind so much.  That's the new plug just on the left of the picture.  Thank you, my handsome hubby!  I am so appreciative of his work in helping me get ready to have my sheep and goats come home!  He also installed the fence charging unit inside a weatherproof metal box so it can be put up on a post next to the fence.  What a lucky gal I am!

Now we just have to wait for NB Power to install the new power line so we can hook up the electric fence.  I spent some time this afternoon ripping old, rusty barbed wire fence out of the ground, because it was entering into the fenced area, and I didn't want any animal injuries resulting from it.  I dislike barbed wire very much, and hauling it out of the ground when it's been buried for years is not my idea of a good time.

I had another new daylily open up this weekend and it's a gorgeous plummy burgundy colour with a greenish-yellow centre.  This one might be my favourite!

Here's one of my favourite little neighbours - the chipmunk!  I managed to photograph him (or her) earlier this week.

I picked some more of the wild blueberries today, as well as some raspberries from our yard.  The raspberries are a big brambly tangle, and I would like to get that sorted out into an organized raspberry patch so that they are easier to pick and prune.  I found what I think are blackberries.  They are green and very far behind the current raspberry crop.  Blackberries are usually a later crop, so that's what I think I've got.  I hope so!

Here's my favourite moth from the past week - Habrosyne scripta - the lettered habrosyne moth.  I love the detailed patterns in its wings.  One day I'd like to have a proper macro lens to take even better photographs of moths like these.