I'm still in the garden!

 I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted!  It has been so busy around here, I've barely had time to go on the computer let alone take pictures or blog.  Our weather has been just gorgeous, very summer like and it's hard not to be outdoors when it's like that.  After two awful springs in a row we are all celebrating all this sun and warm weather.  The Littlest Gardener has already been out playing in the sprinkler.  Last year I think it was July before that happened. 
I tried not to go overboard on the pictures, but it was hard not to.  There is just so much going on outside!

 We've been working on getting more planted around the picket fence out front.  I think it's going to look really pretty this year.  The Pink Dogwood ended up having a great bloom!  It's still covered in flowers.

 Deutzia 'Pink Minor' near the front door.  I moved it last year and it seems to love it's new spot.

 Some containers near the front door.

 Clematis 'Asao' is in the wine barrel planter in the previous picture.  The flowers are huge!

 The two raised beds out front are beginning to look like real veggie gardens!  Besides herbs there is spinach, beets, radishes and all kinds of squash plants in this one.

 The other bed is full of kale, chard, basil, peppers and hopefully carrots.

 The Lilac 'Ludwig Spaeth' is having it's best year ever.  The color is so bright and really grabs your attention.

 From the other side of the bed you can see how full it's gotten.

 The neighbor kitty found a nice shady spot under the pear tree.

 Alliums are coming up everywhere!

 Spanish poppies have a really pretty scent, bloom like crazy all spring and summer and I love their tissue paper appearance.

 Gracie found a warm spot on the gravel to plot her next escape.  Here Clematis, rose, Delphiums and phlox are filling in.

 A container I put together last year.  Lewisia is blooming.

 In a shady corner Clematis 'Miss Bateman' is covered in blooms.

 The shed garden is just packed with flowers!

 One of my favorite Columbines.

 The variegated Rhododendron has been here for three years and finally decided to bloom this year.

 We've had herons visiting and so the fish have been hiding a lot.  There is only one so far that I can't find.  After the last time we had heron problems I put an old plastic crate in the pond with plants on it.  It's a perfect hiding spot for the fish now, especially since it's covered in algae.

 The path garden has also taken off.  You can hardly walk down this part everything is so big.  I'm still hoping the Clematises will one day cover this arch.

 For now there are a few 'Nelly Moser' flowers blooming.

 A view of the path from the other direction.

 The raised beds on the side yard are full of Blueberry bushes.  I hope we get lots of berries this year!

 The chicks had their first night outside last night and did great.  I had been putting them out during the day and they loved it so much and hated being put back in their brooder.

 They are growing so quickly!  Now the house is empty of seedlings and chicks and it can get put back together again.  We are all enjoying the chicks.  They are so relaxing to watch.

Hope you lasted for the whole tour!  I realize I forgot to add the driveway garden.  I'll do a post on just that garden next time.  

How's your spring so far?

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

New flowers in bloom on a sunny day.

We had a nice stretch of dry and warmer weather last week.  Everything in the garden seems to be growing twice as fast as usual, probably making up for how slow they were from the cold and wet weather we had most of this spring.  Flowers that are behind are definitely close to blooming finally.  I've seen buds on irises (fewer than last year though), roses, lupine, Hydrangeas and Persian cornflowers.  June is usually my favorite month in my garden, especially the front yard, and it looks like it'll be as pretty as usual.

Lewisia cotyledon

Woodland Phlox smells really good.  I just planted it last year and it's doing great already.

Columbine are blooming all over the place.  Most are self seeded and all look different from each other.

This Tiarella has been in my yard for years, but it had been in a dry shade bed and never did that great.  Last summer I moved it to a front bed which is shady and the soil never dries, looks like it loves those conditions.

The Pink Flowering Dogwood blooming a month late with far fewer flowers than last year.  It still looks very pretty though.  The Dogwood in my backyard had no blooms at all this year.

Deutzia 'Pink Minor' is covered in flowers.

Alliums are just starting to pop open.

The new Clematis in a front container is so pretty, it's difficult to see the shades of pink in the picture.

Over the weekend we planted the plants that I had started from seed months ago.  So far everything looks good even though it's still cool at night.  I couldn't take looking at them withering away under the grow lights.  Looks like we'll have rain off and on this week, but the temperatures are supposed to stay in the 60's at least.

Thanks for all your kind words about Linda on the previous post!  She will be missed by many of us out in here in the blogosphere as well as by her family and friends.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

The shed garden in March.

Somehow we lucked out yet again with another nice day.  It was supposed to rain both yesterday and today, instead we had sun and mild temperatures.  The only rain that fell was during the night.  The Littlest Gardener and I have spent as much time as possible outside soaking in the Vitamin D.  She was busy leaving supplies out for the garden fairies.  I guess they can never have too many small sticks, leaves and pieces of gravel.  Now that she's four and a half she's really fun to have outside with me, her imagination has just taken off.  She routinely looks for signs of fairies in the backyard.  We know they're out there somewhere, but she tells me they are afraid of people.
Last year Sweet Pea and I started what we now call the shed garden.  It had been part of the side yard where we kept yard waste cans and whatever yard junk that had no other place to go.  Since removing the old metal shed and adding a new one last spring this whole area has taken on a whole new look.

It's hard to imagine that this time last year this was all gravel and leftover piles of bricks, plant pots and other junk.  I'm really happy with how it looks just one year later.

Ribes sanguineum 'King Edward VII' was planted in the shed garden last summer.  It has already grown so much and is loaded with blooms.  Everything in the shed garden has to compete with our neighbors huge Cedar trees roots on the other side of the fence.

Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls' has been in my garden for years, but I moved it to the shed garden last year.  I'm surprised it's already got blooms on it.  (Tina, is yours at about the same stage?)

Some of the tulips I planted last year are loving the sun.  I think things grew overnight, these buds were not this far up last time I looked.

Lewisia that I found at the fruit market last year already has buds.  I read that these can be difficult plants, but it loves it here.  I hope they have more this spring since they were such a great price compared to what I just saw them for at a nursery.

I'm not sure if the Dogwood will bloom this year, but at least there are leaf buds.  This one has never bloomed well.  I love how a row of Foxgloves planted themselves along the fence behind the tree.

This is taken looking out from the shed.  There is still some nice blank planting space left.

To see what this area looked like last year click here.  It's so fun taking an unused and forgotten part of your yard and turning it into a new garden space.  Especially if you have a small yard like we do, the whole yard becomes valuable garden real estate.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Is it really November?

After record setting rainfall on Monday we've been spoiled with springlike weather since.  It's currently 70 degrees out with blue skies, just beautiful.  I was able to get some more clean up done today, although the bulbs still haven't been planted, and I'm already thinking about what I want to do in spring.  Hopefully when it's spring those very bulbs that are still waiting to be planted will be blooming. 
For much of the summer I felt like I'd lost interest in gardening.  This summer was probably the least I've gotten done in years.  I'm not sure if it was the weather or just a phase I was going through.  But, I already feel that excitement that I usually have for gardening returning, and days like today really help allow me to make up for lost time.
Look what I found blooming today:

 Salvia 'Golden Delicious' which is an annual here is finally blooming now that it's November.

 Hardy fuchsias are still blooming very nicely.  It's difficult to see in this picture, but the Water Hawthorn is blooming in the pond now.

 My newish Hydrangea 'Limelight' still has several fresh flowers.

 One of the new Daylilies which I didn't expect to see flowers from until next year has thrown up a bud.

 Lewisia has a new flower.

 Rose 'Kimberlina' has lots of buds, I wonder how many will get to bloom?

 A Hollyhock in November is very unusual.  I found this one when I was picking a couple of pears nearby.

Cosmos and Rose 'Lady Emma Hamilton' are blooming quite a bit even though the area they are in has gotten quite shady now.

Did anyone else notice how beautiful the moon was early this morning?  I wish I would've tried to get a picture of it.  It was followed by a beautiful gold sunrise.  I wish every November day could be this nice!

The shed garden.

Our weather has been very nice the past several days, and it seems that the plants were waiting for the sun and warmer weather as much as I was. Everything seems to be growing quickly all of a sudden. One area that seems to be doing well is the new garden in front of the shed. I still haven't decided what I'm calling it, so far now it's still "the shed". Maybe once I get it decorated a little I'll be able to give it a name. I'm hoping we can visit some antique stores or flea markets this summer and find something gardeny to use. I have just loved having everything organized inside and it's kept my tools in much better condition already. I still plan to put up some shelves inside and maybe find an old chair or something for the deck.

I've been slowly adding plants in. I've found a couple of native plants for this area and think I will also add a Sword fern which is a native evergreen fern. The shrub against the fence is a Flowering Currant (Ribes Sanguineum) 'King Edward VII' - a native shrub - which will be smaller than my other Pink Flowering Currant.

Another Pacific Northwest native wildflower is Lewisia cotyledon. This is more of an alpine plant which according to the tag likes "perfect drainage". Hopefully this sunny area in a bit of gravelly soil will work. There are lots of little flower buds growing on it. I've been working on adding more native plants into my garden.

Astrantia 'Sunningdale Variegated' really is pretty tough. I dug into it twice after transplanting it here. This was new to my garden last year and I can't wait to see it bloom this year.

I love how these two Heucheras are looking together 'Green Spice' is the closer one and 'Berry Smoothie' is right next to it. Right behind them I found some Foxglove seedlings that have flower buds on them.

The little Pink Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida) is doing well here too. They don't seem to be very fast growing trees, so I'm sure it'll be many years before it looks like the one in our front yard.

There is still work to do here, but so far I'm really happy with how it's filling in.
My in-laws are coming to visit this week and I'm glad our predicted weather is sunny and warm, hopefully we can spend some time outside now that the garden is looking good. That way I'll be forced to just enjoy it while we visit rather than on the ground weeding.