This past week I have been busy adding a lot of new plants to the garden thanks in large part to my mom visiting (She’s been here for 2 weeks and leaves tomorrow–it has flown by! Wish she could stay longer!). She has been great helping me pick out (and purchase) many of them and although I know it’s not an ideal time to start planting, you have to strike while the iron is hot! Although the garden had been looking better, I realized this spring that I really wanted a full flowering garden with butterflies, bees and hummingbirds coming to visit but I also wanted reasonably low maintenance. I love gardening but I knew that realistically with 3 young kids and our dry Mediterranean summers I needed something fairly hearty, independent, and sun-loving: So we went with mostly sages.
To be honest I can’t remember all the different kinds of sage we got (There are so many kinds available! I know what I bought is not the clumping kind but the bush kind) and I chose pink, purple and white flowers. These are interspersed with Penstemon and Nemesia in various shades as well. I also got a ground cover that does well with foot traffic right up next to the path called Pratia Pend but I don’t know if it’s going to make it. It does not seem to like where I planted it. The sad little brown clumps up next to the path would be those…
The pink flowers in the back are penstemon and the little purple, pink and white ones closer in the frame are sage. I have already seen a couple of hummingbirds and many bees and butterflies!
Besides having a very sunny side of the yard, we also have a full shade portion that I filled with more hydrangeas. We found some beautiful Annabelle hydrangeas and I placed them along the house under the diamond windows. This fall I plan to remove the old Camelia stuck there in the middle and turn this area into a little outdoor room surrounded by hydrangeas on one side and boxwood on the other bordering the path. We have some leftover hardscape that will make the table and chairs more usable too.
There is still so much work to be done here but we are definitely making progress. The hydrangeas alone improve the space immensely!
I also mentioned the other day that I planted some limelight hydrangeas under the kitchen windows behind the ferns. Here’s a little shot of them:
They look tiny now but I think next year they will really come in and show up more from behind the ferns. I love all the green right here under my green and white kitchen!
And finally, here’s our summer vegetable garden starting to come in nicely:
In front you can see all the lettuces followed by strawberries.
Then we have little green bean plants, zucchini, tomatoes, and corn. I’ve never grown corn before so we’ll see how it goes…
The hedge behind the veggies goes all around our corner to block all the traffic from what is a pretty busy street. The hedge is called Tea Olive and we love it (the previous owners planted it but it has grown in while we have lived here). I need something to fill in at the base of it in the rest of the yard where there are no raised beds. I was thinking French Lavender but I’m not sure yet…
I really love summer gardening and am so excited about all our new plants. What’s growing in your garden this time of year?
