Do you feel like you're running in place just to keep up with the fertilizing, clipping, watering, planting, and sheer sensual fabulousness of your garden right now?
No matter how long we've been gardening, the biomass and bloom of early June still hits us like a wave..which might be a tidal wave if we didn't keep up with earlier spring chores. Yet we may as well relax and give in to the undertow (to string the metaphor along), because this is just the first wave of summer....with sweet peas, strawberries agapanthus, dahlias, raspberries, blueberries and tomatoes (hopefully) to follow....
But let's enjoy this fresh time of year in the garden, when foliage is new and at its very best.... take a break, sit outside and enjoy the garden.
I've heard complaints, I think right here on this blog, about 'Kopper Kettle' Itoh peony - that it's more pink than copper-colored, among other things. But even if it tends toward pink, could anything be more beautiful? The leaves are wide, dissected and dark, and look at that luxuriant fluff of anthers in the center, and the shading on the petals...
Isn't it too early for artichokes to be forming? Not that I'm complaining, but it surprised me. I was admiring the silvery sheen of the foliage, looked inside the plant....and there they are...
This is one of my favorite scenes in the garden at the moment - the stands of lilies developing & the froth of bronze fennel behind the resting lion...along with the chive hedge in bloom and the yellow foliage of Geranium 'Anne Folkard' which soon enough will be draping its violet flowers around the lion's neck. The little pots hold some of my collection of scented leafed geraniums...
You can layer even the smallest garden if you choose various textures and sizes of plants, especially tall skinny ones like the starry Allium 'Purple Sensation'. The layering effect is heightened by dramatically different shapes and textures - the background of Spirea 'Magic Carpet' is frothy and golden, the lily stems are slim and dark, the euphorbia is round, globular and vivid chartreuse, with the dark shadow of purple sedum growing up in the midst of it all...
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