Flight

.  I like to go out in the garden and hold still long enough to become aware of the motion around me:  A pair of hummingbirds; one flying high into the sky, backwards.  A dragonfly.  A big black carpenter bee.  Busy honey bees.  An orange wasp.  And other buzzy little creatures; bees of some sort, I suppose. 

Hydrangeas

Three hydrangeas are in bloom for June.   The top one is oakleaf hydrangea, next is a mophead, and the bottom one is a paniculata.  Since two are new, time will tell which I like better.

Summer

This is the first real week of summer.  I never thought about it before, but the real beginning of summer marks the time when planting needs to pause for a couple of months.   However, I have seedlings not yet ready to plant out, and several new plants for the new front yard.  As tiny plants fry fastest, I probably will try to hold the seedlings for fall planting.  All new plants need to be watched carefully between water days.  I noticed my new hydrangea was wilty this morning; it needs a dedicated dripper.  So here we go, summer!

Blueberry goodness

I made scones with my blueberry crop.  : )   One cup of berries was the entire first year crop!  The scones are delicious!

June veggies

Picking artichokes and tomatoes this week.  Cucumbers and beans are blooming. I forgot to get a picture of my carrots.  I have beets still growing, albeit slowly, and shallots that I think are a bust, and a pot of potatoes that got going late, and pumpkins just starting.  If pumpkins are in by 4th of July they should be ready for Halloween.

June fruits

Picking in the garden now, a few strawberries, apricots, plums and blueberries.  A stroll through is tasty!  : ) 

Our new Japanese maple

I know the new tree is Jerry's bday present, but I am in love with it.  It was so cool, yesterday we went to Luis' Nursery and they had one just like it, only much older, with a three inch diameter trunk, but with the same shape as ours, for $350!   Jerry is so good at pruning, I can just imagine we will have something that grand in ten years or so.  : )  I read it takes ten years for one to get the size of ours though, so it may be 30 years...

Late

The season has been cool so the garden is behind this year.  Plums are not ripe, while they usually need urgent attention the second week in June.  We have shared one apricot, but those are mostly still not ripe, either.  Larkspur is still blooming away and it is usually gone in May.  Overall it is nice to see what a long cool season will do for full and happy growth. 

Carrots

This morning I picked my carrot crop.  : )   We have nibbled some on the carrots as they grew but I decided with the really hot weather arriving, and seeing what I thought could be carrot flies buzzing over the tops, it was time they were all picked.  I got over two pounds of baby carrots, about three inches long.  I think they are Danvers half longs.  I hope to find Nantes as they are the tastiest carrots I have ever eaten, and I love carrots. 

Jerry's Birthday garden

To celebrate Jerry's birthday we went to Lowes and bought new plants for the foundation bed of our new front yard.  We had talked about a small Japanese maple for a feature plant and found one on clearance!  : )   It is called Crimson Queen, and is a petite lace leaf.  Hopefully it will survive the summer.  We also got a 'Little John' callistemon, a very weird but cool euphorbia, and five mini blue fescues.  We moved our red berberis into the bed as well.  Tonight they are all happily watered in.  Our front yard is starting to look new. 

Summer staple

A great perennial that blooms from now into frost is echinacea.  I grow white ones...
I had a hard time getting these established but once they started self sowing my collection grew to about ten plants. 

Crazy dark pictures

Sweet woodruff

Sweet woodruff is a sweet groundcover that grows in my shady garden.  It supposedly will not grow here but it does, and quite happily.  It does pretty much die back when it gets really hot, but it is right back in the spring.  I think it does best as it does here, growing under and around the other plants, not just out by itself.  The sweet little flowers really have no scent until they dry and then are quite sweetly and strongly scented.  During the middle ages woodruff was used as a strewing herb to sweeten the odor of the home.  It also was used in wines and evidently still is used in something called May wine, which is a white wine punch with fruits and these flowers. 

Pests!

I garden primarily organically, benefiting from good bugs which usually keep the bad bugs under control.  However, I am stymied by scale.  Scale is a weird little bug thing that looks like little lumps on the plant.  They secrete a sticky substance much loved by ants.  Therefore, the ants will 'farm' the scale, to increase the yield of whatever it is they get from them them.  I have thrown out multiple plants just because the scale overtakes them and I do not want it to spread, but do not know how to get rid of it.  I currently have scale on some of my houseplants like this one above.  I have moved them outside and we will try horticulture oil spray to see if that gets rid of them.  The pesticide sprays make me too sick to use, so Jerry will do the dirty job. 

June 1 flowers

Continuing from February 1:
alyssum (as always)
pansies
wax begonias
carnations  

Continuing from March 1:
Johnny jump ups
California poppies
Roses
corydalis 'Blackberry Wine'
geranium 'Biokovo'
alstromeria

Continuing from April 1:
Calla lilies
Corydalis ochroleuca
Columbines
Thyme
Geum Mrs. Bradshaw
"little tree" Solanum atropurpureum
Sweet peas
Gaillardia
Heuchera
Strawberries
Impatiens
Shirley poppies
foxglove

Continuing from May 1:
Star jasmine
clematis
Sweet woodruff
Chives
Cilantro
Nigella
Stokesia
Verbena bonariensis
Penstemon 'Husker Red'
Annual phlox
Pomegranate tree
Lobelia
Gerber daisy
Oakleaf hydrangea
Lamb's ears

New for June 1:
Bread seed poppies are just finishing and setting seed
Thalictrum
Lilies
Hydrangea macrophylla
Mimulus
Pelargonium
Drumstick allium
Larkspur
Echinacea 'White Swan'
Annual red coreopsis
Triteleia
Nandina
Budded up and ready to go, dahlia 'Bishop's Children', hollyhocks, fuschia 'Gartenmeister Bonsteder', monarda 'Jacob Kline', lavender