Despite the drought...

... the sunny side of the yard is surviving with regular soakings.
Dianthus & peony

Diabolo Nine Bark... $14.99 at Canadian Tire earlier this year so I had to get it.

Achillia

And some sort of Aquilegia

I like the look of the sun shining through the Johnson's Blue geranium.
Spurge

I think the blue bush clematis looks great next to the Black Lace Sambucus!

The new shade garden started this spring

The new shade bed is settling in and I like it. The red columbine (Aquilegia) has powdery mildew, I think, but it is looking strong and flowering for a second time so I guess its OK.

And the clematis seem to be doing well... other than the one that died! Nelly Moser has a flower and 2 buds and the other two are growing like crazy and appear to be setting buds too. :-)

So far...

... I've managed to keep the potted plants alive despite the unusually dry weather. Lets hope they survive my mini-holiday next week!

June

June has been dry but the perennials are doing their best. Lots of things are blooming now, including the Bushy Blue Bell clematis. This is a perennial I planted last year and it is about 18 inches tall now and very well behaved. I thought that, being a clematis, it might be a little unruly but it is very self-contained. The flowers form in between two leaves that form a pocket. As you can see in this fuzzy picture the leaves separate and the flower buds are revealed.
As the flowers age the petals twist and the flower turns up more so that the stamens are revealed. I'll try to get a picture of the seed tufts later in the season.






And the sedum and dianthus are gorgeous too.

Weeding

A few years ago I created a large garden bed on the west and south side of the back yard. It starts off narrow and gradually tapers until its about 11 feet across in the corner and then it tapers back to about 6 feet where it hits the walkway. After I planted it I kept it up for a few years but then a changing vision for the backyard and a lack of energy due to illness conspired to lead me to neglect the bed and grass and that nasty spreading campanula that is everywhere took over. Well now my energy levels are back and I need to clean up the bed. I figured the cool weather this weekend would provide the perfect opportunity to get stuck in and I was right! I spent probably 9 hrs pulling out 2 foot high grass and campanula with a garden fork and I'm somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 done. The tangle of roots was incredible but somethings survived in the mess... German iris, a peony with lots of buds, a varigated artemisia, a large family of hens and chicks, some purple aubretia, a dianthus that was supposed to be an annual but returns as a larger clump every year, several sedums and an aquilegia have surfaced so far. I can hardly wait to see what else turns up!

Going To Pot

Every year I seem to plant more pots with annuals and with perennials which I plant in the garden in the fall.

Spring, Act II

Everything seems to be blooming at once now... crabapple, cherry, carragana and lilac... its a photographer's paradise and an allergy suffers nightmare! Since I fall into both categories I can't decide whether I should rejoice or complain. :-) My garden is continuing to grow as you can see from the pictures.