Pretty combination.  Double Knockout rose, Maynight Salvia, daylily, and heuchera.

 A surprise volunteer.  I haven't grown coreopsis in two years.  I used to grow Tequila Sunrise.  A lovely dwarf variety with variegated foliage.  It only survived about 3 years.  Two years later...surprise.  What a fun plant to pop up in the crack between the house and sidewalk.

 My dwarf Alberta spruce has had issues since I planted it last summer.  Lots of browning along the bottom and huge sections died off.  Since we had such a severe drought last season, I figured that I must not have been supplementing it enough with moisture.  Turns out, mites are most likely the continuing problem.  Check out all the webbing.  Ugh.

 Guacamole hosta shaded with pink and white azaleas.

 My Golden Delicious apple tree had some funky leaves.  I peeked inside to find lots of ants and aphids.  Yum.

 After unrolling the leaf, here's what was inside.  Where are the ladybugs when you need them?

 Felix Crousse peony with my new birdhouse in the far back (left side).  We just put the birdhouse up today.  I can't wait to see if we get some curious renters.

 Fat N Sassy peppers are loving the heat today.  The Kennebec potatoes are doing well in their containers.  I will have to fill them up the rest of the way with soil now that they are tall enough.

 Reliance grapes are starting to form.

 The entire vine.  Now I only hope I can keep the birds away from them this season.  They ate EVERY grape OVERNIGHT last season.  EVERY GRAPE!

 Ville de Lyon clematis gracing the porch.

 Navaho blackberries are blooming their hearts out.

 Raspberries are already in bloom!

Double Knockout Rose.

Scarlet Oklahoma zinnia are in bloom. A treat planted for both butterflies (nectar), bees (pollen), birds (seeds), and hummingbirds (nectar).Blueray blueberry plant. In it's second season from Jungseed. It came as an overpriced, small twig. Now I will only buy my blueberries from nurseries/garden centers. For the same price, I can get a large plant. Anyway....The three blueberries I planted from them were beat down a bit by the severe drought last season, but all three sprung back nicely. Earliglow strawberries and planted underneath as an edible ground cover. Both of my Salad Bush cucumbers are flowering. Here is one on the left. These are my favorite variety. The vines only reach 3 feet long, but they are very heavy produces of full-sized cukes. The taste is great as well, and my hubby's favorite trait... they're not too seedy. On the right is a Golden Acre cabbage. These grow quickly and will be fully grown and harvested well before the cucumber needs to use the space.Red Zeppelin and Copra onions from Dixondale Farms. I planted these same varieties from them last season and they turned out to be excellent storage onions. I used up the last of them in January, so this season I planted twice as much.Mixed varieties of shelling peas. I definitely need to quadruple the amount I plant next season. My three year old daughter and I can't get enough!Reliance grape vine. Planted last Spring. It is a monster. Even after havy late winter pruning. I really need to summer prune it a bit to keep it more manageable. I will also replace the 6 foot supports with 8 foot ones early next season.The dwarf Stanley plum tree that I got from Starks last fall has been leafing and branching out well. I'm not sure why, but the leaves are turning red. I found two white leafhoppers (?) on the one leaf. Anybody have a guess as to why the leaves suddenly turned red? We did just go through a 3 day heatwave with high humidity and temperatures in the 90s. Your thoughts???

Bumblebee on bolting Golden Acre cabbage flowers.My bed of Yukon Gold and Red Norland potatoes. There are two Mucho Nacho jalapeno and two Fat N' Sassy pepper plants in the bed. Yesterday I added more straw mulch around the growing potatoes to keep them from turning green. Then I added even more straw around the strawberry plants to keep the berries away from the soil.
I purchased seed for Common Milkweed. Asclepias syriaca. Only one of them germinated. I hope it not only survives, but thrives and multiplies.Nepeta Walkers Low. It may be low but it sure isn't petite. This ONE plant that I added last summer is at least 4 feet wide. This is after I used a shovel to slice off a large chunk to plant out front. The bumblebees are absolutely loving it!Yesterday I placed some clothespins on the dwarf fruit trees I planted in the fall. It may not be attractive, but it will help with maintaining wide angles for the scaffolds. This is my dwarf Golden Delicious apple tree.I found apple aphid clusters on the new foliage of this apple tree. Their buddy, an ant, was hanging out with them. I didn't want to dig out the hose and haul it around the house to blast them off with water. I couldn't find my spray bottle either. What to do? Improvise. My kids' squirt guns came in handy. Not as good as a hose, but it slowly worked.

Garden Critters

Swallowtail in three different stages. A maturing cat, a young cat, and an egg (upper right) are all within this picture.My cleome was filled with critters. From bugs to butterflies. Another variation of a harlequin bug.
Check out all the Harlequin bug and babies below. They were covering the cleome. Looks like these two bugs were working on making more as well.
On the underside of a leaf, there were eggs deposited. Black with white stripes. This cluster had some of those and ones that looked like they were hatching.
Tiger Swallowtail.
I have to look this one up.

Potatoes and Garden Treasures

Yesterday I let the kids help me dig up most of the potatoes we planted this Spring. The Russet Burbanks. I admit I was terrible about watering them. Terrible. In fact, I'm surprised they survived the heat and drought. We yielded about 7 pounds of potatoes from 4 of the seed potatoes. I know it would have been more if I watered regularly, but it was still worth it after seeing the smiles on my kids' faces when they pulled them out of the ground.There were a couple interesting finds as well.
This little female ruby-throated hummingbird spent quite a while hanging out at the feeder, clothes line, and in the holly tree. It was like she wanted to me to refill it with fresh nectar. You don't have to ask me twice! I'd do anything to keep her happy.
A clearwing hummingbird moth on my Pink Delight butterfly bush.
A cicada clinging to a tomato stem.
A black swallowtail cat that I found in the garden the other day! The first time I ever found one here!
Only two days later...
I also found these two eggs! The one on the right is blurry.
It's a great butterfly year!

Felix Crousse Peony

Here is my latest addition to the garden. A Felix Crousse peony to the left of my Lady Emma Hamilton rose. Unfortunately I didn't know that it doesn't have a fragrance, but I still can't wait for the blossoms to open. I decided to get this variety, because I saw "the sign". Should I get another white or the red? Hum... This one has a pair of ladybugs on it. Sold! I walked it up to the counter very gently, not to disturb the ladybugs. I have fresh growth on the tips of my roses that were covered in aphids. My two little friends would be a very welcome addition to the garden....If only I could get them home without flying away!

Darned if the little ladybugs stayed on that peony. They didn't fly out the car windows or fly away when I took the peony out of the car around the house. They hung on. I let them crawl on my finger and placed them each on a rose next to eachother. Right among a pile of aphids. They must have been hungry because they immediately grabbed hold of them and started to have their dinner. I've never seen anything like it. They stayed there eating while my family had dinner. I could see them munching away. They were gone the next morning, but so were most of the aphids! I hope those little ladybugs enjoyed their meal and decided to stay in my garden. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for them. I greatly appreciate their work!

Peony Buds

At the end of last season I added two Immaculee peonies (The ants seem to be enjoying one of them in the picture above). The first I bought at Lowes. Full price. The second I purchased on sale at the grocery store. There was no tag, so I figured I'd take my chance on a mystery peony of unknown color. It was priced low enough that I would take my chances. How exciting! Hopefully I'd get one that was a different color than the white one I already had. Turns out that when I went to plant the peony, I flipped the container and it had a sticker that stated, "Immaculee". A few weeks ago I added an Edulis Superba. I hear these are quite fragrant. Pink. I wanted a variety that reminded me of the large, double peonies that I had as a kid. Very fragrant. Beautiful in containers. I may have found such a peony. Since it was only planted a few weeks ago, I don't expect to see any blooms this year. The anticipation is still fun.

Aphids! Already! And other garden news.

I was so excited to receive my onion order from Dixondale Farms this afternoon. A long storage sampler with a blend of white, red, and yellow onions. They went into the ground just a while ago.

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Check out what I found covering the upper part of two cane on my Brite Eyes climbing rose. Ugh. I have to worry about this already. The news said that temperatures are 11 degrees above normal for the month. 11 degrees! It's great to see everything blooming so early, but aphids. Gross. And some really tiny white flies. Even better! Where are the ladybugs and the resident praying mantis when I need them.

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Recently I planted my two new raspberry plants. Fall Gold and Caroline. Fall Gold has broken dormancy and appears to be doing well. Caroline looks very dead. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also received a Reliance grape vine from the same company (Indiana Berry) that still appears very dead. The Navaho blackberry from them is breaking dormancy though. It's still too early to worry too much.

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Strawberries are now in their Al's flower pouches, hanging containers, and strawberry planters. They seem to be doing well. I do admit that it is a pain watering the pouches everyday, but the squirrels are leaving them alone. Priceless. They're still digging them out of the planters though. You win some, you lose some.

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The lilacs are in bloom in my neighbors' yards. The smell is intoxicating. Every year I'm so jealous of their blooms and wished I could snatch a few blossoms to bring in the house. Well I'm wishing no more. I caved and bought my very own lilac from Home Depot a couple of nights ago. Charles Joly. I can't wait to see how it develops over the next few years.

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Well, that's the latest around here. Happy gardening everyone!

Cicada

Aphids Beware!

Raising beneficials! My son and I had great success raising butterflies, so I purchased him the Ladybug Land Kit also by Insect Lore. You can see a larvae on the paper and on the wall of the dome. We've only had them about a week and just yesterday they started hanging on the sides of the dome (the beginning of their pupal stage). In about 5 days we should have some beneficial ladybugs to release into our garden!

The Garden In June: A Photo Update

My Lady Emma Hamilton rose is finally in bloom. The coloring is gorgeous. The scent is like a citrus, lemon Pledge. It's wonderful! Each rose have little green worm nesting inside the blossom. They don't seem to be doing any damage although I saw one toss a little piece of poop out of the blossom. Kind of gross, but I don't mind them so much.

My first attempt at growing celery appears to be a huge success. After the rainiest, record-breaking, Spring I can remember the only plants that seemed to thrive it were the Tango celery. All eight plants actually look like...celery. I wasn't sure how they would turn out at first. They were a bit floppy, but after all that rain they stood right up and have developed nice, thick stalks. It felt like it happened overnight. That was a great garden surprise.

Another great surprise, despite the rains, was how well this Red Morn Madness petunia held up. The other varieties took a few days to start blooming again. This variety just laughed at the rain. It's a real winner.

Unfortunately the rain took a toll on a few plants. One of my Autumn Joy sedum and about half of my Burpeanna pea plants rotted out of the ground. They just couldn't handle the massive amounts of rain this month. On a more positive note, I uncovered a nice-sized, Mucho Nacho jalapeno pepper yesterday while crawling around my raised beds. It won't be long until this little guy is ready. Both the Fat n' Sassy and Mucho Nacho plants all have small peppers on them.