Summer Yard and Garden Check-in

In spring and summer every year, I have to check in with a few updates on how our yard is going. It's about that time...

Good growing conditions this year have meant that things we planted a year or two ago that we thought had no hope of returning have come back happy and hearty. In fact, our garden is starting to look downright crowded now that so many flowers and plants have awakened and spread. The good news is that we finally seem to have escaped our early problem of having a springtime garden. Now we have azaleas, camellias, hyacinths, clematis, and lilacs in the spring; hydrangeas, lilies, salvia, and black-eyed susans in the summer; and mums in the fall.  And our greenery - spirea, hostas and boxwood shrubs fill the rest of the garden in.

Yes, black-eyed susans and salvia! I tried planting these for 3 years in a row. And this year, one (or all?) of the attempts decided to return. Finally! And, for better or worse, with a vengeance. Here are the black-eyed susans:

They look crowded under our tree, smooshed against the hostas and the irises (and entirely covering the area where the hyacinths grow - hopefully since they are different seasons they won't affect each other at the root/bulb level). I have a few more scatter throughout this garden and the one on the other side of the house.

I kept ready that since they were a local plant that thrives in our climate, they should be hearty and happy. And now finally, I believe it. Let's hope they don't take over - I have no idea if they spread or not.

Another plant that was supposed to be hearty and wasn't - until now. Salvia. I don't remember exactly which kind. I planted May Night Salvia once, that I'd ordered bare-root from a catalog. This isn't that. Once trend with these plants - the ones that come back seem to be the ones that I plant fully alive. I don't have much luck with the bare-root ones. These also are getting huge - they crowded out the little rose bush that was in between them, so I had to move it. Some heavy rains caused them to flatten out on the ground a little, so they take up a massive footprint.

Our magic carpet spirea continues to impress us in every season. Here it is in late spring. It's a favorite of bees at that time, until the flowers vanish right around now:

Our butterfly bush is waking up despite the fact that we have totally ignored it and the base is overgrown with weeds and grass. And our strawberry seduction yarrow and lilies looks awesome!

Somewhere along the way, we decided to make an effort and buy some solar lights for our path. Two years ago, my parents gave us a rag-tag assortment of lights - some had broken stakes, some had broken plastic, some didn't light. Between them all and after testing several combinations, we put together a set of six:

But fast-forward to this year and most were dead or cracked or something. Seeing a sale at Target for lights that were only one dollar each, we decided to try a few new ones:

They look cute and work (for now). I just wish that Target hadn't put the price sticker right near the top and affixed with very sticky glue. We peeled them carefully AND used baby oil and there is still a sticky spot on each one.

Next onto the trees. The baby's hawthorn is doing ok, but actually came down with a fungus - Cedar-Hawthorn Rust. It's too late to treat this year, but next year there is a fungicide we can spray on before the fungus finds its way to our tree from some (presumably nearby?) juniper.

The spooky thing is that it came down with a fungus around the same time that our little girl did - she caught ringworm (which is a fungus, not a worm). Cue the Twilight Zone music...

But that is the anomaly. The blossoming tree in the front of our house has grown taller for the first time since we moved in. Even our rather sickly looking magnolia tree is in bloom:

And this tree! It has fluffy pink puffs on it. Anyone know what it is? (And if the answer is something like Fluffy Puff Tree or something, I'm going to kick myself for not just searching the internet for the answer.)

OK, that wraps up the post, finally, in lots of pictures. How are your gardens doing?