Salal

Salal growing wild on Fidalgo Island, WA.

Red~White~Blue Flowers

Not to long ago I showed you my red~white~blue bowl, here are all the flowers close-up.
I love close-ups of flowers, can't help myself! I hope you like them too.

For whatever reason I've not been able to grow morning glory since

I moved to the PNW. This year, is the year that the seeds sprouted

and gosh finally there are flowers! 

There is a fair amount of evening primrose in my garden this year but I see very few pollen seekers

on it, there was this one little fella though!

Some may consider it a weed but I am happy to see such a valuable plant growing in

my wildflower bed.

I love the honeysuckle and this one is growing right inside the gate, greeting me when I come home.

It was growing at a home destined for destruction, I took a cutting and thankfully

it rooted rather easily.  I assumed it was the native honeysuckle but honestly

I cannot say that and know for sure and will be sad if it is the invasive Japanese 

honeysuckle. From what I can find online I think it's a native but what

do you think?

Here is how she looks in her spot, behind her is a dead
looking plant, sadness. It too was a cutting that
sprouted but I think it wasn't happy, kerria was it's name.

Yesterday I posted my Peony, here is how she looks in a bouquet.
I'm thinking the flowers are quite late this year, what about in your area?

Our Peony was planted in memory of a loving pet.

Whenever we visited Anacortes, WA we saw fennel growing quite large
and wild. We enjoyed the way it looked and smelled
so now we have a spot in our yard filled with it.
 Such a strong, mouth watering
anise scent, well it makes my mouth water!
~
Apparently aphids just LOVE fennel.
Ladybugs (by whichever name you choose) just LOVE
aphids so it seems a win win situation. 

My red~white~blue bowl for the 4th of July.

Yeah I do realize it's after the 4th but honestly

the bowl wasn't so great looking till recently.

A couple of hungry critters.

I can't stop taking pictures of the lilies, they are near the 

gate so I can't miss them!
~
I don't really know much about them other than these don't

have any smell and they flower like mad.
I do know they aren't like the Oriental Lilies I grow,

those are quite tall and fragrant.

Beautifully tall foxglove, most of them are

extremely tall this year.

A better view of this foxglove, it is growing next

to a rhododendron and in front of

some bamboo. 

This one is growing next to my corkscrew willow which
is 8-10 ft tall. Those foxglove seem to love our weather!

In this post you saw how much of a slug

issue I have. There is also a rain issue (nothing new). 

I think the slug came on the porch to get out of 

the rain, if the slugs going to come on my

porch it can eat slug bait!
~

I watched it snatch that piece to it's mouth,

figured it was picture time.

We've had a very rainy summer, so much rain

in fact that many of us are saying what summer!

The raspberries couldn't care less.

The row is not neat at all!
The berries could care less but I prefer to keep it neater,

not sure what happened other then things are

getting away from me this summer.

Okay okay things get away from me every summer

but I love it all anyways.
~
Well maybe not the rain, slugs and weeds.

Hmm can't the slugs eat the weeds and

not sure what to do about the rain. 

The raspberry is also referred to as the hindberry, who knew!

Hind refers to a female red deer (according to wiki)

and she loves to eat the berries, hence the name.

Amazing color combinations wouldn't you say?
While I planted the seeds I didn't plan who would be growing

next to whom. Mother Nature is amazing.

Do you know how to tell if the poppies are annuals or perennials?
I used seed for annual which the pink and orange are

but the I put out seeds of red perennials.

Do you think these are the perennials?

Some interesting information regarding yarrow as a
natural medicine. I think I will be drying some of this
to keep on hand for next time I feel a cold or flu
coming on and for minor cuts.

Something pretty for today!

Slugs

This is what I am dumping all over the place now.

I prefer beer traps but with all our rain 

they get a bit watered down.

I wasn't feeling well for a few days now and hadn't been outside

(except to cool down for brief moments) so today was like

a field trip. We are having more than our fair share

of rain and dampness so I should not have been surprised

at all the slug activity. 

Right as I was getting sick I noticed some chewing going on

so today what did I see?

This big guy/gal!

I didn't realize they would also be chowing down on my poppies also!

The other day I showed you my little rose but it was a close up and 

I thought you might enjoy seeing it in it's environment.

It really is a short one and it really does some beautiful work

without my help!  A very neglected flower bed.

Ah and I am sick (flu-cold kind of thing) so no weeding for a few days. 

Hen n Chicks have the most amazing flowers.

Of course the hen that sends out the flowers dies off but

it's ok there are lots of hen n chicks in my yard.
I like the flowers, how about you?

We had some beautiful sunny weather recently (sadly not now)

so we went for a bike ride and this is what I found! 

Beautiful isn't it?

My little rose bush with it's big blooms,

 well maybe they aren't the biggest blooms

but it's full of personality!

 This bush doesn't get very tall and the only

issues this plant has is black spot, it flowers tirelessly all summer long.

Now if only I had saved the tag and knew what it's name is. 

Maybe that tag is at the bottom of the tag pile in the garage!

What's wrong with my rose?

When this rose looks good, it really looks good. Does anyone know why it doesn't always look so great? It's only the first buds of the season that look this way - I've tried trimming and not trimming and either way they look brown and ooky. Is this just something I should expect for the area? My roses are at least a few weeks behind others in the area, not sure what that's about! Oh and this is the only rose in my yard that does this weirdness. 

Yum huh? Sugar Snap Peas, if I were organised I could

tell you which ones I grew and then maybe next year I

could compare them to another variety.

Hmmm organised, now there's a thought!

I have a problem with these peas is: It's July!

What the heck! It doesn't matter when I plant peas

because I don't get any peas until it gets hot out FINALLY

and then the peas get too hot and guess what I only

get a handful.
 Yes I plant them early and then I plant them

again and then again.
Half the time I plant most of my vegetables again

and again and again.
I don't know whats wrong with my

garden other then it just now is truly getting warm out,

I doubt the soil is even warm yet!!!!

Yes gardening can be a grumpy thing sometimes!

First complaining, whats next? Maybe I will show you my weeds soon.

Bachelor Button has a tendency to get TALL ~
actually there are more then a few plants that get TALL!
Anyways I cut them way back, had to as the rain was coming

and they would then fall over, smothering other plants.

~

I really didn't want to waste all those flowers -

it probably took me wayyyyyyy too long to figure

out that empty blue bucket would be perfect!
~

What do you think?

~
Oh haha all those lamps? 

Its the lamp graveyard, all of them

stopped working so there they wait for us. 

Different views of the same flower bed.

While I love all of my plants, this flower

bed for brief periods is quite

stunning. So stunning that I am 

totally enamored with it, sadly 

this isn't year round.

While it lasts though, it entrances (to fill with delight or wonder) me.

I found this beauty in a parking lot covered in
these blooms and still lots of unopened buds.
Apparently the Cistus is a shrub well
suited to drought conditions, now I
see why they are used extensively
in parking lots.
What a beauty though, I'd love
to have one of these in my yard ~ but how to choose!

An update on my fig, or just to show off!
I am happy to report there is 1 fig happily getting bigger!
I don't actually know much about growing figs 

so that it is doing well is pure luck. 

Pansies have started showing up here and there

and I haven't had to buy them the last few years.

What a cute little flower!

What am I?

I think these look like flowers! And the next photo could be
the seed pods starting?

Rhubarb

I couldn't decide on just one photo today! This rhubarb grows like crazy, no matter how many times I divide the plant it comes back bigger and stronger.
It is quite stunning in the landscape whether its flowering, at seed
or just has HUGE leaves . Those huge leaves always get me thinking about making
a cement imprint, I will just add that to the list of projects I'd like to do!