There really is a lot of gardening time left in WNY

I was looking at my garden the other day and thought to myself "My garden is on its decline toward fall." Then I read an article and it talked about how we have about 10 more weeks until we get a frost and that there is lots of gardening time left. After reading this, my gardening energy renewed! I took a second look at my garden and thought "There are still so many flowers blooming and many I can dead head to produce a second blooming." So, this morning, I was out in my garden cutting back my Purple Rain salvia, which grows to jungle proportions and produces beautiful smokey purple blooms on spikes that engulf my sidewalk. I felt much better after cutting those back (2 garbage bags full! Sadly, my yard is too small for a compost bin...). Some roses and coreoposis are next in line for a mid summer cutting as is my cat mint, which has already sent up a mass of new blooms. Every year at this time it's a bit of struggle as a gardener because the gorgeous May and June blooms have come and gone and I am challenged to find more plants that bloom later in the year. So, if you too are feeling like the gardening season is on its way out, take a second look and see what you can deadhead and spruce up to encourage a second set of blooms!

The Good and the Bad

I'm just back from a very hot and enjoyable week at the lake. I checked on my garden on Tuesday and watered pots because the weather was so unseasonably hot and dry and I didn't want anything to die of thirst. I looked through my perennial beds and everything seemed to be doing well. I arrived home from the lake yesterday afternoon and went into my gardens to see what needed to be done. To my dismay, Japanese Beetles have nearly eaten 4 of my new rose bushes! I picked off every one I could find and killed it and then started to look at plants close by. There were a few on neighboring plants, so I killed those as well. My first thought was to get out the spray, so I grabbed it from the basement and started to read the directions. The bottle said 'very highly toxic to bees'. Well, my garden is full of bees and other pollinators, so I decided not to spray. Now I'm looking for an organic alternative. In the mean time, I started to look at other plants to see if the infestation was anywhere else in my garden and my other plants, as of today are free of Japanese Beetles. While I am sad about my roses, I am very happy to find butterflies feeding on my pink Coneflower at the other end of my garden! Something good always comes with the bad and I'm so happy about the butterflies, that I can almost forget about the Japanese Beetles.

Delightful Delphiniums

My dad always loved delphiniums. He always grew them and always was so excited when they bloomed each year. I'd always look at them in the garden and think "they are pretty, but...". Well now that I have my own garden and planted delphiniums last year, I finally understand why my father loved them so much! Not only are they unusual with their very powerful flower spike, but they do not resemble many other flowers in the garden. Also, the colors of delphiniums are outrageous! I have one that is deep purple with white centers and another one that is the color of a cloudless sky. It's such a spectacular color that I sometimes just stand and stare at the flower and think about what a true blue it is. Delphiniums are easy to grow and really blend into any flower bed. I had no idea what color my flowers would be when I bought them as a small 4 pack last year. I have dark purple, sky blue, white and a lighter purple. They are the kind of flower that people on the street stop and stare at, then ask you what it is. Those are the kind of flowers I love to have and thanks to my dad, now I see why their beauty is so amazing.

Giant Ferns

My garden is just full of suprises this year. Sometimes I think it is a little magic coming from my dad and sometimes I think it is the unusual weather we have had this whole year. Along the one side of my house, I have ferns growing. In past years these ferns grew about 1 foot high and some years they really looked like they were just going to die out and not come back. They have never made much of a splash but because of where they are, I have always just left them alone because they were not in the way and provided some nice fill along a picket fence I share with my neighbor. This year, for reasons unknown, the ferns have grown at least 4 1/2 feet tall and have all but taken over the space where I keep my grill. It is exciting to see these ferns grow and when I'm in this part of my garden, I feel like I'm in the movie Jurassic Park and am wandering with the dinosaurs! I guess ignoring plants sometimes is the best thing you can do for them!

What a difference 10 days makes!

Recently I went on vacation for 10 days and during that time, the weather here at home was sunny and warm. Much to my surprise when I arrived home on Memorial Day, my garden looked like someone had fed it Miracle Grow while I was gone! It is an explosion of plants and colors and flowers and surprises me every day. For whatever reason, my garden this year is larger, fuller and more jungle like than it has ever been. I wonder if losing the large tree in my yard 2 years ago has a lot to do with it. Even the ferns that are on the more shady side of my house are chest high this year. These ferns were here when I moved in and have never really done much and a few years I thought they were almost dead. They are gorgeous and have about taken over the little spot where I keep my grill. Is it global warming, a short winter followed by an early and warm spring or just the garden gods smiling down on my little plot in Western NY? I will never know but the results are nothing less than spectacular!

Something about purple

It's funny, but I was standing and looking at my garden this morning and every thing that is currently blooming is purple (if we can stretch the blue of bachelor buttons to purple!). My lilac, my bearded iris, my pin cushion flowers, my sage, my allium, my columbine, my candy tuft (ok, deep pink), my bachelor button and my cat mint! The colors just really struck me and I realized that even though I planted all of these flowers without really thinking that much about color, my subconscious love of purple certainly had an influence. In all the shades of purple, set against the greens of foliage and plants not yet in bloom and the yellow of my house, the flowers really paint a happy, lively picture. I guess I never thought there were that many purple flowers, but I have proved myself wrong just by the happy accidents that are currently in bloom at 21 Washington.

When blah goes to WOW!

The first two weeks of May brought quite a change in the weather. Western New Yorkers were getting spoiled by the incredibly nice and unseasonable April we experienced. My tulips and daffodils were glorious, but their blooms were fading or completely gone by May 1st. I looked at my garden, about void of flowers except for my lilac and thought, my garden went from WOW to blah in just one week. The change in the weather brought in much cooler temperatures and lots of rain (rain we did not see in April) and a green garden. Luckily, by the end of last week, flowers were again starting to bloom and there is color and life back in my garden. Allium, batchelor button, poppies, columbine, bearded iris, sage and lungwort are now taking center stage. So many shades of purple and green, it really is becoming a feast for the eyes once again. The iris are so happy this year that there are 4 and 5 blooms on each single stalk which is something I have not seen before! I guess the morale to this story is be patience. There is always something exciting right around the corner in a perennial garden.