And now it's June?

 This year seems to be absolutely flying past!  It's hard for me to believe it's already June and that summer is just weeks away.  I've had a little time here and there to spend in the garden.  I'm trying to take advantage of any free time (which is little) and pull weeds that are slowly trying to take over.  There seems to be something new blooming everyday, so it's fun finding what the newest flowers are blooming.  The weather hasn't been all that great, lots of gray skies and cool for that time of year, although really this is fairly typical for June in the Seattle area. 
Here's just some of what's happening in the front yard"

 Roses, Peonies, Irises, Alliums and Erysimums in bloom.

 Unknown Irises and Peony 'Festiva Maxima'.

 Lupine started by Sweet Pea at school last year.

 Oriental Poppy 'Princess Victoria Louise'

 Rose 'Abraham Darby' has it's first flower.  Last year I don't think it got more than one or two flowers.  It was damaged during the previous winter and took all year to recover.

 Spanish Poppies and Red Valerian with Lamb's Ear.

 The Delphinium that came back!  Not as tall as I hoped, but it survive the winter and slugs.

 'Eden Rose'

 Geum 'Double Bloody Mary'.  By far the best Geum in my garden.  Lots of purple Columbines.

 Raised beds are filling in with veggies and herbs.

 Fuchsia, Heucheras and more around this sweet angel.

 Rose 'Gertrude Jekyll' and Geranium (I think 'Patricia')

 The chicken feeder planter that I filled earlier this spring.

 A Siberian Iris that I found blooming recently.  This is it's first bloom and it was given to me by a fellow blogger, Linda of Gardening by Trial and Error, who passed away around this time last year.

The driveway garden is doing really well.  We finally dug up the Magnolia that wasn't doing anything and found it's rootball hadn't grown at all.  We have potted it up and are hoping we might be able to "fix" it.  It was replaced by a 4-way grafted Apple tree.

School for both of my girls is wrapping up in the next few weeks.  I'm always surprised at how quickly the school year goes by.  It seems each year is a little busier than the last as they get older and are doing new things.  Luckily I can usually find some time every week or so to unwind and relax in the garden!

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

Some things that made me happy!

Well, first of all I just got a big surprise when getting ready to write this post.  Blogger sure changed things!  Hopefully I'll be able to get it all figured out without deleting anything.
We had several very nice days in a row.  Temperatures in the 70's and mostly sunny skies, that really made me happy.  Yesterday while reading Grace's blog and looking at her new blooms I spied something pink out the front window.  Of course being excited to see what it was I walked across hot crushed gravel in my bare feet with my camera.  I guess I'm just toughening them up for summer?  Anyway, the pink was not only one rose bloom, but many!  How did I not notice them the day before?
Here are a few of the new blooms I found while tip toeing across the gravel:

 Can you see all the spots of pink?  There are lots of buds to open still too.

 A close up of 'Gertrude Jekyll'.  If I remember right she was the first to bloom last year too.

 Rose 'Kimberlina' is right next to Gertrude.  I highly recommend this rose.  It has a very light scent, but gets loaded with flowers all summer and is very disease resistant.

 Persian Cornflower

 Another Lupine started from seed last year.  Last evening I found the Littlest Gardener rummaging through the book shelf in her room searching for a book.  She told me they read a book in preschool that day and she thought we had it.  "It's about the Lupine Lady" she said.  I had no idea what she was talking about, but sure enough we found it on her bookshelf.  My Mom had given it to her and I guess we forgot about it.  The book is called Miss Rumphius.  I'm just sorry I hadn't read it sooner, what a wonderful book with a great message.  Here's a link to it.  Even though it's a children's  book I think adults would appreciate the message and artwork in it.

 Red Valerian - the only one to survive the winter.

 A new Clematis blooming on the picket fence.  I will find the tag and post a better picture of it soon.  It's very unusual - dark red with purple bars.

This might have been the most exciting thing of all.  I found blooms on two of my eggplant plants.  I've never gotten an eggplant because they usually don't flower until too late in the summer.  Fingers crossed we'll actually get some this summer.  Edited to add this is 'Millionaire Hybrid' an extra early hybrid.

Yesterday while the sun was out I decided to dig up the entry bed, and got about half way finished.  It's a tricky bed since it's got mostly shade except for one section that gets full sun.  Finding just the right combination of plants has been hard.  I'll share pictures as it progresses.

Today we are back to cloudy and cool, the good side was some housework was accomplished!

A sunny start to the day.

After several days of downpours and cooler weather we woke up to actual sun today!  It was amazing how fast we were all able to get up this morning when the brightness of the sun lit up the rooms.  The forecast is for temperatures in the upper 70's and sun all weekend.  The garden seemed greener and happier than it has in a long time.  I have a feeling by the time the weekend is over there will be lots more new blooms too.  I'm also hoping the seeds we sowed last week will begin to sprout as well.
Today I cleaned up the raised beds where the blueberries are in the side yard, planted Sunflowers and Cosmos and Nasturtiums and did a little work on the pond.  I took a visit to Russell Watergardens earlier in the week and got some great planting ideas from the owner.  If you live nearby it is so worth going for a visit.  I'm hoping that we will visit again this weekend so my husband and older daughter can see it again.  I did a post on it last year, you can read it here.

The lighting was pretty this morning when I went to take some pictures of the newest flowers.

Clematis 'Nelly Moser' has quite a few blooms open now.

She's growing up the arbor that leads down the pond.  Right below it are Linaria that are very close to blooming.  The plants along the deck are all self seeded Geraniums 'Wargrave Pink'.  On the left Old-fashioned Bleeding Hearts still bloom and self seeded Foxgloves are growing taller everyday.  You can also see the big red Rhododendron blooming down the path, it's way behind schedule.

Clematis 'The President' is starting to bloom on the trellis I spray painted awhile ago.  I love how the purple looks against the turquoise.

Dutch Iris blooming by the pond.

Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' is covered in bees all day.  In fact today there were more bees around than I've seen in forever.  Also spotted were damsleflies, Cabbage White butterflies and lots more bees.

Geum 'Double Bloody Mary'

An iris my sister gave me a couple of years ago.  She was going to throw them away!!  I was happy to take them.

Lupine that I started from seed last year.  I've started lots more again this year since they are fairly short lived.

The shed garden is quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the garden.  I still can't believe this was all new early last spring.  I also can't believe how well everything is growing when many large cedars are right on the other side of the fence.

I hope you are enjoying the sun and your garden, although I know there are some gardeners in the south that are having a little too much sun.  Hope some rain makes it's way down there soon. 

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

Flowery exclamation points in the garden.

I think anyone that has gardened for some time learns how important different shapes of flowers are in the garden. Something needs to catch your attention every so often across a sea of leaves and flowers, and I find the spiky shaped flowers do that for me. Spiky shaped flowers are actually clusters of many flowers along a stem. To me they are the exclamation points in the garden, one or two here and there can really add some excitement. Too many together can be a little overwhelming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had fun going through my pictures and instead of looking for colors of flowers like I usually do, looking for some of my favorite spiky shaped flowers.

Hollyhocks

Veronica 'Lilac Fantasy'

Veronica 'Sunny Border Blue'. Not all spiky flowers have to be tall, these are low growers at the front of my border and break up the usual "flowy" types of edging plants I use.

Lobelia siphilitica was new to my garden this year, it likes moist soil and can be grown in boggy areas. Lobelia Cardinalis is another tall, spiky shaped red flower that I have growing in my pond.

Liatris 'Kobold'

Larkspur 'Shades of Blue'.

Agastache 'Golden Jubilee' has really pretty gold foliage. It attracts both hummingbirds and butterflies.

Salvia is very popular with the bees and puts up with the hottest and driest part of my yard.

Linaria or Toadflax is a flower I added several years ago. It does reseed some but is easy to pull out or transplant. I always cut it back about halfway after it finishes blooming to get another round of flowers.

Lupine is a flower that isn't always long lived, but if you're lucky it may reseed and give you some replacements for when it dies. I was happy to see the foliage returning on this plant already. I love how it looked with the yellow Daylilies behind it.

Penstemon 'Catherine de la Mar'. Penstemons are a real favorite of mine, especially towards the front of the border.

Other favorite spiky flowers of mine are Cimicifuga (or Bugbane or Actaea), Foxgloves and Delphiniums.
Just doing this post made me realize what it was about a flower bed in my backyard that I haven't been happy with, it is almost all spiky flowers. I will be doing some rearranging there this Spring trying to break up all that excitement with something a little more calming like a nice round flower shape.