Green Thumb Sunday: Blooms and Bugs!

One of my favorite bloom surprises this year is this Bee Balm I bought for a dollar at the end of last summer. It had a tag, but it was faded and so the color wasn't that clear. It's called Marshall's Delight and it is such a vibrant, lovely pink! I go out to look at it a couple times a day because it's SO neat. The leaves right below the bloom have a burgundy tinge to them. The plant looks great and has a lot of buds on it getting ready to bloom!


Last year I started a bunch of perennial herbs from seed and this was one of them. I thought it was feverfew, but now I'm not sure. I need to look through all my seed packets. If anyone recognizes the plant leave me a comment:) (Yes it's another lesson learned about keeping better records!)

I have bugs and they are not friendly nor are they making my flowers happy. They are chomping on my daisies as you can see below. The foliage is in a sad state but many of the blooms are still looking pretty. I noticed a different smaller bug is on ALL of my mums. The leaves are brown and chewed. I need to make soap spray and give them a good spraying. I grow everything organically, so I don't use chemicals. This is the first time anything has bothered my mums or daisies.

I have not been a very good Green Thumb Sunday blogger this summer, but I'm back, and going to try to and keep up from now on!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday. You can visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

~Brenda

My Raised Vegetable and Herb Bed

I finally have a raised bed for vegetables and herbs! I could not decide where to put one for a long time plus it just kept getting put off for other expenses. I picked this wasted space that is right next to the garage (pole barn type) door:


I asked my husband about pine pieces I remembered we had used at our first house for a sandbox. I told him what I was thinking about and he bought 2x10 pieces of untreated pine, which are 8 foot long for the front and back-- plus one piece cut in half for the sides. He used 3 inch deck screws to put it together. We bought topsoil at our local nursery and this is what we ended up with:



The large "trellis" was left here when we bought the house. I think it was used in the horse stalls the owner had. The other metal is something I salvaged from my father in law. I was going to paint them nifty colors but decided to use them as is, especially since I'll be tying the plants to them as they grow.

I planted four Brandywine heirloom tomatoes that I bought (in the middle). On the side are tomato plants I grew from seed. My cat nibbled them and they got shuffled around so I either have Yellow Pear Tomatoes or Oregon Spring Tomatoes. Next year I will have to protect my tomato seedlings from the Seedling Munching Cat. Who knew?

The big trellis will have Kentucky Wonder Beans and Cucumbers that have sprouted and are growing well thanks to our recent heat and rain. I also sowed 2 kinds of basil, dill and nasturtiums in the front and corners of the bed. I'll take more pictures as things progress.

~Brenda

What's Blooming?

I keep missing Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, so I thought I would post some of the blooms I have going on in June before the month is up. Above is my awesome False Indigo, Baptisia australis. This blooms so beautifully in June every year. Unfortunately it only blooms once. The foliage is pretty neat looking for most of the summer, but I wish it would bloom twice!

This is a bleeding heart that I planted last summer. It already had it's bloom time but I went out the other day and found it had given me a surprise on one stem.

These are my Dianthus barbatus which are VERY hardy in our Zone 5 and really spread, but not invasive, at least for me. They do very well in full sun, and even in dry soil. The butterflies seem to love them too.

This is my "almost dead" rose, which came back after all. The poor thing, I moved it from a spot that it was doing horribly in, and this spring it looked rough--very rough as in almost dead, but it's come back fairly well and this is it's first bloom. I think if I leave it alone with a little care it will be fine where it is.

This is the first bloom this year on the miniature rose I planted last summer. It's doing well, but seems about the same size as it was.


My "Rock Garden" is now too crowded and overall I'm just not happy with it. Though this picture made me think I should keep it as is. I have hens and chickens (Sempervivum tectorum), creeping thyme and Russian Stonecrop (Sedum kamtschaticum). I'd like to keep those three together but they need more space to spread. I have a couple of areas that would work for them. What I want to do is dig it up and put the plants in another bed that is hot and dry. I know they will all transplant well. These are unkillable plants!

I have more blooms but this gives a good overview of June Blooms plus the plants I posted about earlier. I'm sure I'll think of more though!
~Brenda

Missouri Primrose and Tansy "Jackpot"

This picture is from my front flower flower bed that we put in last summer. My mother in law gave me the Missouri Evening Primrose/Ozark Sundrop (Oenothera missouriensis). Last year they stayed fairly short and had some blooms. This year they at least TRIPLED and the height doubled. The little white blooms are Tansy, tanacetum niveum, "Jackpot". These are two more pictures of the same tansy in one of my front flower beds:





Every year I was really careful to pull up the volunteer plants because this variety reseeds BIG TIME, but this year I let them go and they are SO neat looking. This is a hot dry bed, especially in the back where the tansy grows. I need to add compost and more topsoil, something to amend the soil but I haven't had time or money this year. The tansy only blooms once, but the foliage is interesting looking enough to make the bed look okay afterwards.

The cool thing about both plants is that even though they reseed and spread rapidly, they have shallow roots at first so it's really easy to pull up what you don't want.

~Brenda

Pansies and Johnny-Jump-Ups

Last year I planted an entire flat of pansies in my new shade bed because I wanted to fill in while things grew. They reseeded in abundance this year! One reason some gardeners don't like volunteer plants is they often aren't true to the first plants and have odd looking blooms. A few of these are Johnnie-jump-ups I transplanted into the bed too. The last picture is one of the pansy plants I bought this year. I took the picture after a rain.









~Brenda

The Beauty and Fragrance of Peonies

It's been so busy that I haven't posted as much as I've wanted to, but I have been taking pictures! The peonies were beautiful again this year. I had transplanted one plant when it was only a couple of inches tall, but it bloomed and looks very healthy. It's the last bloom in this group of pictures. It's not as full as the others, but next year I think it will do even better. The fragrance of the light pink peonies was wonderful; a little deeper than the other ones. Though I love the two toned blooms, I think this first variety is my favorite. It's SO pretty that you just want to touch it continuously to make sure it's real. I don't have the names of any of my peonies because they were here when we moved in several years ago.














~Brenda

Morning Dew, Blooms and Buds

The other morning I walked around and took some new pictures. Things are really looking nice, and the peonies are almost ready to bloom!









I finally think I have figured out where I want a raised bed for herbs and vegetables, and what wood I can use for it. Now, I just have to find the time to have my husband build it!

~Brenda