Iris in the Tulip Bed

Oh, this is so exciting! I have been moving plants around this spring, and I love to see things take hold and be happy!

The irises just LOVE the tulip bed. It's one of the only flowerbeds that has full sun, and they are thriving. I think I may move the rest of them down there, too.

I also moved the rose campion, and the phlox, which has had major powder mildew in previous years. I hoped that moving it away from the house would help control the mildew, but it's already getting a few spots at the bottom, so probably time for the fungicide! What joy!

Also noticed the phlox is doing well next to the peony, and the liatris that I planted several years ago has finally reappeared. Don't you love when plants do that? I didn't think they had survived. The lupine also made it through the winter in that garden. And the daylilies are getting monstrous. Probably that means it's time for another flowerbed!

Tomatoes in!

Can we believe I've finally planted my tomatoes? This is crazy. I don't think I've ever planted them this late. It's been so cold and wet, I couldn't think of putting them in. Seems like I'll have to start spraying BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) right away to keep the hornworms off. I know I had problems in late July and August last year, and by the time you notice them, it's too late. At least now I even know what the eggs look like.

Swab the Deck

This was the deck day. Finally got out the furniture and planters and tried to clean everything up. I don't think I'll have anywhere near as many flowers as I've had in previous years, but there are lots of nasturtiums! I'll have to go back to the garden store to pick up more plants to pot. I did the planter down by the mailbox, and others by the doors and on the railing. The deck is my favorite place to sit in the summer. I'll get it just right one of these years.

The Rest of the Garden

So most of the rest of the garden went in today. Beans, carrots, beets, and lots of flowers went in rows that I hand-tilled. The front garden is full now, with some seedlings coming up and even some baby lettuces to eat.

Still haven't planted the tomatoes. I didn't start any seeds this year, but Mom has dozens of plants to share, so I'll pick some up in the next week or so. I don't want as many this year, though. I've planted borage in around where the tomatoes will go because I've heard it's a good companion plant to deal with the hornworms.

Scarlet Lily Beetles

I have been trying for years to pay my kids to squish these beetles, but they are still too squeamish. If I didn't love my lilies so much, I wouldn't think they were worth the agony.

I planted my first lilies the year Bronwyn was born, and the stargazers (my favorites) always blossom around her birthday in late July. The other Asiatic lilies bloom all through July, taking turns lighting up the garden in brilliant yellows, oranges, pinks and white.

It might have been only five years ago that I first noticed these beetles. I thought they were a lovely shade of red and didn't consider them a pest. They laid their little red and orange eggs stealthily on the undersides of the lily leaves and I was none the wiser. But I surely noticed when their little grubs started eating up my lilies.

These are easily some of the grossest pests in the garden. You'll notice the leaves disappearing, and when you flip them over, what appears to be a brown bird dropping. If you scrape it off, you'll find the little grub underneath, covered in its own poop! Yucka!

Neem oil can be added to dish soap and water and sprayed on the leaves to deter the beetles and grubs, and I've found that picking and squishing the beetles by hand, then rubbing off all of the eggs that they lay, is sometimes the easiest. But throw a few rainy days into the mix and all bets are off. The end result is lilies with pockmarked and Swiss cheese leaves, not so pretty to take pictures of.

Anyone have any techniques for getting rid of these guys? I don't want to use poisons, but it's hard to watch your favorites get shredded by pests!

Forget-me-not

My great-grandmother used to recite poems that she'd memorized as a girl (this would have been the early 1900s, as she was born in 1892), and this is one I remember:

"Down in the pasture,
Carved on a rock,
Are these three words:
Forget Me Not."

Have no idea who wrote that or if I even have the words right, but I always think of it when I see these flowers. So unusual to find a truly blue flower, and when they grow in great patches as they do at my mom's house, they are striking. She was kind enough to give me another group of plants this year so I can attempt, AGAIN, to start my own shade garden of forget-me-nots. They seed themselves and then spread all over, so I'm hoping with these two years of plants going to seed under the deck steps, I should have my very own forget-me-nots going next year!

Tulip Bed

The tulip bed is gorgeous again this year, but the reds have some kind of blight. Something isn't right--the outer petals are strangely textured and discolored, very unattractive. This is the second year they've bloomed, and I was hoping to have picture-perfect blossoms a little longer than that! Of course I planted more red than anything else. I'll have to look up the variety I planted here so I can make sure NOT to order them again when I fill in the bed in the fall.