city at night

city at night

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

My Garden

After a couple days of moderate temperatures and sunshine (which melted almost all of the existing snow), the frigid air has returned to Ohio and it's snowing again.

As a reminder that eventually winter will end, I thought that I would post some pictures of my flower garden. 





                                           Azalea and lilac bushes in the spring.


                 Every year this columbine comes up along the edge of the driveway.




                                         I have loads of Asiatic lilies and day lilies.


                                  Goose neck loosestrife is pretty but very invasive.

 
Coleus and tuberous begonias.
 
 
I have three knockout rosebushes.
 
 
Last summer was the first time I tried planting gardenias.  They are very temperamental,  and in spite of repeated applications of acid fertilizer, the leaves still tended to turn yellow.  I did have some very nice blooms, but I did not attempt to bring them in over the winter.



                                   The patio and flower box behind the bedroom.

It will be interesting to see how many of my perennials survived the arctic cold.  Hopefully one benefit of the cold will be a reduced population of Japanese beetles this summer!

14 comments:

  1. Every year around this time, I think many of us start to pore through our photos of spring and summer gardens. It's no accident that events like the Philadelphia Flower Show start to pop up around now. We just crave that color, and the smell of earth!

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    1. The same here... the Cleveland Home and Garden Show should soon be having its run.

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    2. Sadly the Home and Garden show was a few weeks ago.

      On the plus side, you have quite the green thumb. :)

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    3. Thanks, Kathryn. Hopefully, winter will go away one of these days!

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  2. What a beautiful and amazing garden you have. I can imagine an afternoon in the summer, laying on a chaise-long under the shade, reading a book and drinking some lemonade.

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    1. ¡Muchas gracias! Although last summer it wasn't very pleasant sitting outside. We had so much rain that the mosquito population was enormous. My friend Alejandro was here for a visit, and one morning we had breakfast outside. That was the only time we did that because the mosquitoes were attacking him.

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  3. Your garden is fabulous! I'm so impressed..........It has been interesting here in Mexico to attempt to translate what will and won't grow here that grew in Texas. The two things that I finally gave up on were gardenias and camellias.
    I love your plant choices. Gardening, for me, is a meditative process and something I've enjoyed all my life! I can tell you too enjoy gardening.

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    1. Thank you! I do enjoy gardening, although my garden is so big, that it is becoming more of a chore as I grow older. This coming spring and summer, because of travel plans, I will have to cut back on what I do. I'll tidy up the flower beds and just let the perennials do their thing. I'll forgo planting annuals this year.

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    2. Sounds like you're planning to cut back on cutting back, then? ;-)

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    3. Only because of my travel schedule. I have plans to play "tour guide" to a friend again... this time in Spain. That will be in late May and the first half of June (when I am usually doing my planting). I have also decided to go back to Mexico City in April for Alejandro's birthday and Easter.

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    4. I was just thinking that "cutting back" is something I do to certain plants every year, and if I did less of it, I'd be cutting back on cutting back. Bad joke. Sorry.

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  4. Your garden is lovely. I too (along with the entire northern US, I believe) am looking forward to spring. We had a couple of 45° days last week -- felt like a heat wave!

    But we are having a dusting of snow as I write, and it's supposed to get down to 8° tonight, so we aren't nearly out of the woods yet.

    Saludos,

    Kim G
    Boston, MA
    Where I love hanging out in my garden in the summer, but find it kind of a chore to maintain.

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    1. Here it's 10 degrees right now, with a wind chill of -7. Tonight it's supposed to go down to 3 degrees. Although we don't have a lot of snow, it's more than a dusting. I guess I should have stayed in Mexico longer!

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    2. Yeah, I don't know what you were thinking when you decided to come back so soon, LOL. As of last summer, this was to be my winter in Mexico. It looks like I made an excellent choice, and then followed up with REALLY sucky execution since I'm still here personally experiencing the worst winter in a generation.

      I hope your plants survive. I'm wondering about my own, though they are a pretty hardy lot to suffer my ministrations. I'm sure there'll be more dieback than usual, but I guess I have to step up my cutting back.

      Saludos,

      K G
      in B

      P.S. You're winning tonight in the horrid weather trials. Here it'll be a relatively balmy 8° F.

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