Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2019

I’ve been busy with work, gardening and just enjoying watching everything grow. No captions today, because my laptop has decided not to work and Blogger doesn’t work so well from an iPad. There are lots of irises, my first peony of the year, and a blue poppy popped out in the rain today.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for the mid-month roundup!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2016

I'm a couple of days late for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, but I missed April completely so better late than never! Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts GBBD each month and it's always fun to check out what's in bloom around the country and around the world.

I've been posting "what's in bloom this week" almost every week, not sure if I'll keep doing that all year but it's been fun so far. Sometimes there's such a huge difference from week to week, and it helps remind me to get out and really look at my yeard.

Roses continue to be the big bloomers this week. I'll have to count one of these days but we have about 20 rose bushes along the front and north side of our yard.

A few of the new plants that I've added in with the roses this year are blooming, including these fern leaf lavenders.

Fern leaf lavender

In my partial shade retaining wall bed, the hardy geranium are starting to bloom. I've also transplanted a few pieces into the rose garden and they are doing well there too. I'm guessing these are Johnson's Blue, but hard to tell for sure.

Geranium

The foxglove that I planted earlier in the spring continues to bloom, now there are much smaller spikes around the main stem.

Foxglove

One blue poppy has a second bloom, and looks like a third will pop out too. The other plant shows no sign of blooming - hopefully next year.

Blue poppy with bonus geranium

Also these aquilega, which I found on super sale last month and couldn't resist. I deadheaded and now they're blooming nicely.

The flowers taking over my vegetable garden are still going strong, an unknown bearded iris, oriental poppies and lupine. 

Oriental poppies, lupine, bearded iris

I really like the color combo of the oriental poppies with a new gazing ball. See my reflection? More super sale aquilegia hidden just behind the poppies.

I've finished another section of the lower hillside, which I'll post details of later in the week. I couldn't resist buying a hot lips salvia, already in bloom. The blooms are red and white, although I think even just the red is gorgeous. 

Hot lips salvia

And a lewisia, which was very crowded in it's little nursery pot, I divided into five pieces. I'll confess I'm never too impressed with tiny pale blooms, but I love the leaves. 

Lewisia

Just below the sunny hillside is an area that I hope to build into a native meadow. The showy camas bloomed weeks ago, but blue eyed grass is peeking out now. 

Blue eyed grass

What's coming next week? More roses, I'm sure! Maybe my new penstemon that is next to the hot lips salvia. 

In bloom this week: May 2, 2016

There is no such thing as too many rose blooms

Before I fill this page with roses, a few other flowers that are blooming this week.

One blue poppy, this is meconopsis 'Lingholm'. I bought two plants from the Rhododendron Garden in Federal Way in March, this one is blooming now and has another bud visible. I can't tell yet if the other will bloom this year.

Blue poppy

Common camas, just planted earlier in the spring. The great camas finished blooming last week, this looks very similar but smaller. I hope to have more of both next year. 

Common camas

Aquilegia, on my sunny hillside - see the cottonwood fluff? No wonder so many people have allergies right now.

Wild strawberries, mixed in with the aquilegia. I planted these all over the hillside years ago, now getting rid of the grass that grew in and finding these still surviving. They get very tiny berries, hard to even pick. 

Wild strawberry

One Dutch iris, in the rose garden.

Dutch iris

Now, a few more roses!

The iris is not quite blooming yet, but getting closer. I tinkered with the succulents in the pot behind it, and also see the lupine getting ready to bloom on the right. 

Other flower and vegetable beds

Iris ready to put on a show

I've mentioned that I'm trying to focus on three main areas of the yard this year. There are so many things that I could do, but I know I won't get anything done without focus. The rose garden and sunny hillside are coming along nicely though, and I'm mostly keeping up with the invasive plants in the back corner. Meanwhile, I have been doing a little maintenance work on the rest of the yard.

This was my vegetable garden but is now starting to be taken over by flowers. I decided last year that I actually like growing flowers better, although I enjoy a few vegetables. This area gets full sun year round and is quite hot and dry in the summer. The soil has too much clay, and eventually when we have to replace the retaining wall (which is rotting in the back), we may put in a raised bed.

Strawberries

A whole section has been taken over by strawberries, with mint and hollyhocks. Vegetables that I've planted: kohlrabi, bush beans, cucumbers, dill, corn and sunflowers. Oops, not a vegetable. I usually buy just a few pepper and tomato starts too.

The clay pot in front is an experiment, I just stuck it where a giant dahlia was that didn't live through the winter. I think the slugs got it, because temperatures were never very cold. There are poppies, small delphiniums, lupine, irises, two other dahlias, and green onions all in here.

Flowers in the vegetable garden

A few years ago, we started to get some type of invasive grass growing in the lawn, so I decided to just dig it up and plant flowers. This is in the middle of a grassy slope just below the vegetable garden.

Flower circle

This salvia has been coming up every year, although I think it was sold as an annual. There are also two types of monarda (bee balm) and gladiolus and irises. The irises were just transplanted from under a row of trees where they were being eaten by slugs, so they are very sad looking.

Salvia

Our front yard is on a slope too, but a two level retaining wall creates a flat space at the top. That's where most of the roses are, and a small lawn area. This bed is in the middle of the retaining wall levels, shaded by the house and by overgrown lilacs.

Shady garden

There are true geraniums, English daisies, balloon flowers, two types of lavender and daffodils in this bed, plus lemon balm that is pretty much going wild. The lavender and balloon flowers did better before the lilacs were so overgrown, so they may get moved next year. Well, the lilacs need to be cut back a bit too.

I bought two blue poppies this year, looks like one of them should bloom.

Blue poppy

Also just last weekend got three foxglove, which I hope will do well. In the background behind the foxglove is a narrowing section of this bed, with a large rosemary bush, vinca minor groundcover, and a small red maple.

Foxglove

And, can't forget the peas! They grow much better in this bed, with more shade, than down in the hot sunny vegetable garden. There are two hollyhocks behind the peas too, which did very well there last year.

Peas!