Wildflower Wednesday July - Natives...

I just realized that I have more pictures of my kids than I do of flowers & plants on my phone camera... Must be doing extra cute stuff this week!



My focus for this Wildflower Wednesday is on my obsession flower of this summer: the Cone Flowers in my garden...



You know... I wonder which (if any) are native or considered a wildflower around here? Hmmm... Had better brush up and become a bit more educated about what I have in the garden… I'm only adding them to this post under the assumption that they are… and you know the saying about assuming - right? Oh well…



One thing is for sure - they are doing great & there are a lot of animals that depend in them for survival (this caterpillar hasn't traveled anywhere for days).



That little white rectangular speck...



A spider... Waiting to catch a meal...



Fungi growing in the mulch at the garden center from the other day... The trip before the last one with Riley...



The "leave money at home take pictures of what you think you want" trip… (ok really, I like to say it was that kind of trip, but I totally forgot my monies at home that morning, and made an impulse trip anyway - there, I admit it…)



That native dwarf joe pyeweed came home with me on the next trip (with Riley)... See it on the far right above? Next to some mountain mint…



This mountain mint must be the most heavenly mint of mints... I smelled it out from 10 feet away at the garden center and had to have it!



Along with some native Switchgrass... (Pink Muhly in the middle...).

If I could get my hands on some Dutchman's Pipe, I would plant that too… So many butterflies around this year! Counted eleven Yellow Tiger Swallowtails, 2 Monarchs, 5 Red Admirals, 4 Black Tiger Swallowtails, a number of Cabbage White butterflies, and skippers a plenty… all within a few minutes…

Did I ever mention I used to help run the local butterfly house when I was in college studying to become an Entomologist? I did… and loved it!
-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

A Little Crazy, Maybe...

I always feel like I am going to lose it when I have a moment to think about all the things going on everyday in my life... (family, my business, and garden)...

Like I needed more plants to deal with (in the middle of the summer heat none the less!)...

So why is it I can't stay away from the local garden center? Cause I'm a crazy plant person that's why... I love to add color and texture to any place that will have it!

We have lots of mushy areas to our property and need to plan for something other than grass (I'll win Dave over on that one day)...

We have runoff issues on one side of the property. Long story short version: when a hill is cleared of all plant materials (weeds that were ugly, but acting as ground cover) and poor drainage of downspouts (going to run to them to the curb now) - that's just a bad situation with torrential fast rain during very dry periods...

I was just "stopping by" the garden center for plant availability and ideas, but just had to load up on the plants that were 50% off (some Iris's & Cone Flowers). I even convinced them that the Pink Muhly Grass should have been 50% off because they looked quite pathetic (like a really bad haircut). And with spending @ $100 there, they were ok with that...

They know I'll be back for more.

And having Riley in the baby Bjorne helped with his orange floppy canvas sun hat... He gets all the girls with that smile and giggle of his!

Having four arms today (two of which I had no control over) made the garden center trip that much more fun. He brought my attention to a lot of things by slowing me down as he would latch onto anything within reach.

Ah, the crazy life of mine...

Thanks for stopping by for this, my "I'm Crazy" (just overwhelmed really…) version of the Tuesday Garden Party hosted by An Oregon Cottage...

-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

Mosaic Monday - Hipstamatic iPhone Style...

Welcome to my contribution to Mosaic Monday, hosed by Little Red House…

My friend Jenny introduced me to a new camera app for my iPhone:

Hipstamatic

The link above is to the app store for the iPhone.

A direct link to the Hipstamatic would open up your iTunes and I don't know if you want to do that right now… (like maybe you are at work and shouldn't be reading blogs… trying to help out here!)

I just love all the things you can do with this app…

I adore photos that look old…

I always wanted to do it to my pictures, but just don't have the time to edit them all...

This is just one of the lenses (John S), and one of the film types (Blanko) available on the camera app!

Ahh… how I love this iPhone!!!

Here are some other pictures I took with it that I did not make into a mosaic, but are with the same lens and film that I want to share with you…

My favorite area of the garden this year… 

Cone Flowers and maybe Blackberry Iris? 

Was once considered a Lilly, but now in the Iris family…

I get that… On some level…

I do have a degree in Entomology - so I understand the naming and categorizing of things on the scientific level… It's just that memorizing thing I have to put more effort into...

When I transferred college interests over to Ceramics, I even named my artwork with genus and species names...

The Nasturtiums… 

Considerably smaller than last year (way too hot this year!)

And the Hydrangeas hanging in there with this non-stop 90+ degree weather…

Thanks for taking your time to stop by.

If you have a chance, pop over to my Marsha Neal Studio Blog…

I have some questions that I would like some feedback on and value all kinds of input.
And you can have a chance at winning one of my cutout flower porcelain pendants on a silk ribbon...

The Other Side Hill...

This is a story currently unfurling...

White Pines planted by previous owners 25+ years ago. Too big to be so close to house. Shaded roof causing wet roof and moldy situation (black mold).


Great new owners cut them down for us last fall.



See, nice open area now. Shrubs and odd things now out of place... And lots of weeds growing and taking over!



Nice color in early spring, but overgrown profusely.



Now the shrubs are gone... I did transplant the iris into my garden (as I promised the previous owner because they were from her grandmother's garden)...




This is the view from my neighbors house.


How ugly is that! Although, now mulched...


And what a pain that shady hill is going to be to have to plan out plantings...


I would hate to walk out of my garage and see this every day... Yet they do!


I just hope I can help their landscape friend with plantings...


I think they are thinking lots of clean looking plantings.


If it were up to me, I'd give them color! And lots of my plants divided up...

I do think we need to figure out where the property line is so we can keep clean for future owners and responsibility... I do have some ideas for our side!

Suggestions welcome!
Thanks for stopping by...
-- Pictures Taken With & Posted From My iPhone

July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Welcome to my Garden in July (part of the July Garden Bloggers Bloom Day)

I love getting pictures with the water droplets sitting atop flower petals...

Especially in the morning when it is still cool, and the sun is just coming over the trees...

They look like little clear glass beads...

...strung in a line, hanging on by tension of little threads and hairs.

The morning glory peeks out from behind the wooden trellis, hiding from the sweltering sun...

The Cone Flowers, Russian Sage and Butterfly Bush love this sun...

And below, finally a bloom on the plant that the deer keep deadheading.

Pale in color comparison to the parent plants in the above picture...

The insects really enjoy them though... regardless of strength of color...

And the hydrangea are battered, but are still thriving... 

Interesting colors in the close up...

And the few little cucumber seeds I sprinkled are really taking off, their vines curling about anything they can touch...

And look... A baby cucumber... 

Wonder if it will make it to my salad bowl?

Hope your garden is in bloom wonderfully!

Thanks for stopping by mine...

A Little Help From The Rain...

Happy Tuesday Garden Party!!!

This is my 50th Garden Blog Post...

And Thank The Heavens for sending us some much needed rain over the last couple of days (and a couple more to come!)

Under the umbrella I crept out into the garden (while both of my little ones were napping) to see how the plants were doing... Found this very wet bee hanging out, unable to fly anywhere at the moment...

There are finally some blooms on my Morning Glories Vines (threw some new seeds in this year for this vivid purple/blue - YUM!)

The Nasturtiums are hanging in there... It was getting pretty dry out there and the leafs started to brown and die off. New growth (if any) from my watering attempts were small in diameter. But now with the rain, they are getting larger... 

Here is a picture I snapped of a Yellow Tiger Swallowtail on a mature cone flower before the rain. Doesn't that picture just feel hot to you? Sunny...very sunny...

The little ones and I went to the beach for 4 days while dad was traveling with work (went to stay with my in-laws). I have been trying to get these new cone flowers into the ground for a few weeks now, but have not had a moment to breathe. What to do when going away for 4 days in 90 to 100 degree weather and NO rain in the forecast? Chloe's water table!!! It worked perfect (this is a picture of them after we got home, I filled it up again, then got rain finally).

These are about to bloom... Wonder how much I am going to love them this year. Last year, they didn't do much for me (these are the ones that I have as my blog header picture from 2008 bloom).

This one I got seeds from them last year and have babies growing in another part of the garden. Will see how they do - so far, so good (about 5" tall babies).

I am quite enjoying these grasses at the top of the hill this year. I think it's time to divide them...

And even though the flowers are showing signs that they have been through a very unusually hot June, the foliage is looking quite healthy (compared to my previous post picture).

And of course just as I saw that this plant was finally coming back to life (I'm horrible at keeping house plants alive. Ok - I just forget to water them often... But my sister comes over and she and Chloe water them. That along with my haphazard random watering and they are all really thriving...) it got bumped by the back of the vintage Italian Grandma lounge couch when Dave sat down in a "Oh Thank God I can sit for a moment" kind of thump sitting.
It is one of my favorite plants, grown by a friend of a friend that worked at Longwood Gardens. I've had it for years...
As I heard the crash from the other room, my immediate thought was "oh, no! Chloe fell out of the hammock chair and hurt herself"... But as I ran back into the room and saw her sitting in the hammock chair staring at Dave... And Dave with a look of "oh crap, what did I knock over" on his face...
I was totally relieved that it was the planter that had broken and not her...

We can always get another planter...

Thanks for stopping by!
Hope your garden is thriving...