This Week in the Garden - June 7

I thought that I might try a new series on my blog this summer, in which I document the excitement in our yard each week. Maybe this will not yield much excitement at all, but I thought that I would give it a try.

Flower gardens at this time of year are a time of surprise, rediscovery, and work. Surprise from flowers that spring forth that one may have forgotten, rediscovering the wonders of previous years' labors, and working to clean out and plant new life. That pretty much wraps up this past week.

If anyone follows my blogs, then they know that I often kill anything that we might consume. We'll see how these peas do. I'm hopeful. They are growing and climbing. 

One of my colleagues gave me this lamb's ear. I finally got it into the ground this past week. We'll see how it does.

Ah, the lupines are back! Very happy to see them! Moreover, they are doing what lupines are supposed to do, which is spread all over the perennial garden! 

We have about 5-6 rose bushes in full bloom. It's really magic right now!

I don't remember what these little buggers are called, but they sure do add sunshine to our garden. Notice that the hostas that we got from our neighbor, Bob, are doing quite well this year, too. 

It seems as though everyone's irises have bloomed except ours. Can you see the bud forming? This will be our first season with them. Last year I bought 5 iris plants, post-bloom for 50% off, which is definitely a wonderful way to save money.

I'm not sure from where these lovely, little white flowers came, but I certainly am glad that they came for a visit! They look a bit like baby's breath, but up close one can see that they have an open-faced flower, as opposed to a curl/ball.

I have always wanted peonies. Now I have some! I got these from our neighbor, Richard. They are leaning quite a bit, but they are still very much alive. Fingers crossed. I transplanted them about one week ago.

Our growing wisteria. I will be very happy when these guys have a little more action on the arbor, but I'll take that they have to offer for now.

There's a lot of debate about whether these are day flowers or spiderworts. I thought that they were the latter, but now I'm not so sure. They are incredibly invasive, which for now I am loving. They grow fast, they have wonderful foliage and produce such a sweet flower. We also got these from Richard last summer.

Wonderful violets that we got from our neighbor, Richard, last summer. They do a great job. They spread nicely and offer wonderful foliage.  

Our wonderful knock-out rose. Boy, is it happy! That's our grape vine in the back, which isn't exactly depressed...

This week I discovered that the Mama turtle had been back for year #3. It appeared that someone had dug up her eggs. But, just in case, Neil built another frame and we have the area covered. 

So many dahlias! This year we're putting some dahlias in large pots. I forgot to take a pic of the dahlias that I have planted, but  I am still working on the 5 laundry-baskets full of dahlia bulbs. I've made it through 1.5 baskets and I'm already exhausted from these efforts. Moreover, I want to make one of the old dahlia beds a perennial bed. All of this planting  in the spring is a bit much I think!

Here are the dahlias in the baskets!

This is the area next to our new patio. Neil planted some wild flower seeds and it's just not working out. We're trying to come up with a new plan. 

We planted these climbing roses and climbing hydrangeas in 2010. They are doing so well and look just like we had hoped!