Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Colors of Summer

On this bleak rainy and windy January day we do have a little summer color back...green lawn, although not as bright a green as on a warm June day.
This is wierd weather for January. We woke up to pouring rain and temps of 45F (7.2C). They've dropped to 36F (2.2C) this afternoon but the wind is whipping and it feels much colder outdoors. The rain has turned to sleet.
I've been trying to get time to try posting photos. I want to show you a few pics of our last summer's gardens. Something to brighten up the winter colors we're looking at outside now. I hope they come out the right size. So here goes nothing....


Wow! It worked! I'm so impressed! See those double gloriosa daisies on the right next to the singles? I was so excited with those. I hope I get some more next summer. Gloriosas pretty much do their own thing. Mine are a mix of yellow, orange and maroon, and just sometimes....when I'm lucky.....I get a double , like this.

Let's try again....




OK! I made this one bigger. I like that better. There's some achillea (Yarrow...Cerise Queen) and monarda (bee balm) in pink and lavender mixed in with the gloriosas in this garden. It's one of my favorites. The petunias were so pretty last summer. We had an unusually longer and hotter season. It was wonderful! Sometimes we hardly get any hot days (in the 90'sF...32 to 35C) at all. I feel short-changed when that happens.
There are some other flowers in this garden that you can't see in the pic. I planted 4 lilies in there this past summer...2 daylilies and 2 asiatic.
One more....


This is looking towards the road in our front yard. That's the other side of the little fence garden in the background. I planted some other annuals late so they're not showing. In the foreground we have red monarda and perennial phlox among lots of other plants which you can't see. There's a weigela in this garden that bloomed beautifully last summer after skipping a couple of summers. Or just giving me a few measely blooms. Feel free to tell me how I can get it to bloom profusely every year, if you know the secret. Is the new growth on old wood or new? When to prune?

These pics were taken with Kylie's boyfriend's Canon Powershot. We're leaning towards something like that.

I hope you're all having a lovely day.

5 comments:

Alice said...[Reply]

I know I put a comment on here earlier but it seems to have disappeared into the wide blue yonder. I love your garden photos. Please may I come and play? Also love the post and rail fence. Is all that land we can see in the photos part of your farm? It's so green - just like a storybook farm.

Weigela - cut back the old branches after flowering to encourge new growth. Flowers are borne on the new branches. They are a lovely shrub; what colour is yours?

Love to see lots more photos. Do you still have the cowshed? I guess you call it a barn? Post some photos and I can feel all nostalgic.

Kerri said...[Reply]

You are very welcome to come and play in my garden any time you like Alice :)
The land across the road isn't ours but looking the other way across the front yard is all ours. There's lots more behind us and on the other side. We still have about 240 acres. Used to have 60 more.
yes, our valley is beautifully green!
Thanks for the advise on the weigela. Ours is a lovely red. I have pics!
Yes, we still have the barn and all the other sheds. I'll see what I can do to feed your nostalgia :)

Val said...[Reply]

I too love the post and rail fence. And I'm so envious of all that space to allow sunshine in for your flowers.

Well done getting your photos posted. Wondering how you get that nice white frame around each one...

kylieps said...[Reply]

Mum!
The pictures look great! And the writing is great too. Weigela sounds like some kind of garden gnome from Harry Potter...
In answer to Kali, the white border just shows up in blogspot as part of the template. I think you can go into the template area and change that around if you know some HTML (which I don't know nearly enough of to even attempt something like that!)

Shell said...[Reply]

Awww, now this is my idea of heaven - a beautiful cottage garden of flowering plants, rolling hills, green fields and a sweet homestead. These photos are glorious, really, so lovely.