Monday, August 9, 2010

Early Summer Bloom

click any image to enlarge...
I'm finally sitting down to review so many events in the garden, with the temperature at 100 degrees +. After I've watered the pots and the big shade bed, I'm indoors for the rest of the day, to re emerge after the sun sets.

My mother Marie, always did her garden work early in the morning, when all good teenagers are still fast asleep. Her favorite time to weed, was just after a good storm, the soil soaked and soft. The Midwest of the U.S.  can have amazingly strong thunder storms, the electricity and wind energy swirl around you, then can be gone before you know it.Now, the older I get, I find myself going about my garden work as my mother did, getting up when it's cool and quiet, having my time with the morning's humming bird battles, a good cup of coffee in my hands.

I was at a party the other night, and a fellow gardener asked how my garden was, referring the the vegetable garden. My first thought was to say "land of the lost"...because although there are vegetables lurking below the weeds, it is clearly the weeds domain. I get tomatoes, Asian green beans kale, squash,pumpkins and a few other things, but the over all feeling is GARDEN of GIANT WEEDS....

I had beautiful Iris this year, they give so much beauty for a small amount of effort. My brother Kevin has bred many beautiful Siberian Iris, I'm partial to tall bearded sorts, and the beautiful Japanese Iris for sheer luxury of bloom.

I replanted most of these Tall Bearded Iris in to new color block beds, starting with the whites, then proceeding with the blues and purples and finally, all the reds, pinks, oranges and hot color combinations in the last group of beds.
Many of these Iris have lost their names, or were gifts from friends, they're no less beautiful, just more mysterious.


Iris Virginica "Iatan Titan"

Iris along the shore, a mix of species and hybrids...this is a hybrid psudacorus Iris, "Moonlight"

The backbone of my gardens are always perennial, old fashioned favorites like herbaceous Peonies, Baptistas, Alliums, Amsonias give a year of interest from first emergence to the winter seed heads.