This has been a very hot summer, but luckily there has been enough rain to keep everything lush enough…not bug free. I have had more Japanese and Green June beetles then I’ve ever had before.
I plan to take measures this fall to hopefully make next year better. I am going to start with nematodes – I know they take time to get to work, but anything would be helpful at this point. I should have been doing it all along, but the problem was always manageable, except for this season. Blergh.
Summer is mostly hydrangea time around my garden. I have always loved hydrangea’s and have planted a lot in mixed varieties. They make me so happy, and even though I don’t have the ph to sustain those glorious blue and purple shades, I have grown to appreciate the pink shades, but my favorite will always be the white and greens.
By the end of August most of my hydrangeas will be falling back to sleep with a few new blooms for September. I will start fall planting and winter preparation in the next month and say goodbye until early spring. A familiar cycle that has become my daily comfort.
In a newsletter I received recently, there was a quote from a customer that said, The most important thing I’ve learned is that gardening is about the doing: the digging and weeding and watering. I may plan and plot and dream but when it comes right down to it, I garden to garden. It really stuck with me because it’s true, we garden to garden. It is an endless amount of work, with more lows than highs — but the highs are so rewarding that we continue doing.
A mighty storm passed through and knocked a lot of my hydrangeas to the ground which was frustrating…but now I have large glorious bouquets falling at my feet begging to be photographed.
Almost there…
This color was not enhanced…I had to actually tone it down.
That beautiful yellow light that follows a storm…
I think Phlox are terribly underrated, one of my garden favorites.
Blueberries from the garden and a blueberry loving girl.
Meg | Hello Farmhouse
Your hydrangeas are beautiful! What kind is the one in the first photo? Is that the vanilla strawberry?
We’ve added a few new hydrangea varieties to our flower gardens this year. Searching for a perfect blush pink, we planted blushing brides and incrediball blushes. I’m in love with them both! I intend to blog about them very soon.
Your lavender looks so healthy! That was the only thing we planted this year that didn’t do well. Four of our five plants died. I’m thinking it’s due to either poor drainage (we have lots of clay in our soil) and/or the crazy monsoon-like storms we had last month. I went back and mixed in a bunch of sand with the soil, so I how no idea if they’re come back next year.
One more question… When do you plant your spring bulbs? I want to start buying them soon, but I don’t want to plant them too early.
P.S. I love your new blog!
Tiffany
Hi Meg! Thank you for commenting, you know I love garden questions! 🙂
Yes, that’s the name of the hydrangea in the first picture! Hydrangea’s really are so lovely, and sounds like you are off to a great start!
Lavender can be tricky. Some gardening places say that lavender is low maintenance, in some ways it can be, but if you have clay soil (I do too) humid summers and hard winters, it isn’t so easy to grow or keep alive, unless you’re using a planter.
What I did with my lavender is I experimented first. I tried several varieties to see which one did the best in the conditions that I know we’ll have every season, and then I planted more of that variety. Adding sand, and stones are good too, and remember that air circulation is extremely important with all the humidity we deal with.
Paying attention is really your best tool and sounds like you’re already doing that, so don’t worry I am sure you’ll be rewarded with soft lavender and sleepy bees next season! 🙂
I do most of my bulb planting mid-October, those warm temps are hanging around much too long these days. Thank you for even asking me, and I look forward to keeping up with what you do!