It's Getting Hot Outside! (But Colorful!)

One of my favorite combinations of flowers at this time of year, bright magenta Campions and pretty little white Feverfew. I always try to plant these perennials next to each other.

A beautiful bright pink yarrow is now blooming in the front of this main garden. Like many of my flowers, due to my limited budget, was found and "saved" to my garden. There is a small triangle of public land on my way to town. It's basically a little lawn for a stop sign, lol. The town mows it flat twice a summer. Last year I was surprised to see this cultivated yarrow blooming there. It was only about six inches tall, and had been mowed earlier in the season. I can only think that a bird dropped some seeds. I dug it up a few days before it was to be mowed again, and brought it back home. I was surprised to see it this year, I had forgotten about it!

Bright orange day lilies in the main front flower garden complement the indigo garden globe perfectly!

I have these common, and prolific, and lovely, day lilies all around the yard. These are in the backyard surrounding a large tree. They may be ubiquitous, and each flower only lasts one day, but for a couple of weeks in June and July, the yard is ablaze in orange. Each plant may produce up to 20-25 flowers.

 

Another clump of day lilies. These are on the northeast side of the vegetable garden. 

Above, I have feverfew and ajuga planted around the base of three small cedar trees at the entrance to Pink Gardens. They have a nice, naturalized flow to them. 

The "wide view" of Pink Gardens' front yard. I started this flower garden, surrounding a decaying tree stump, five or six years ago, and it has really matured since then. I add to it each year.

A close-up view of the main flower garden.

The foxgloves on the right are almost done flowering, but I'm going to leave their seven-foot seedpod stalks. To me, they resemble green flowers now. And hopefully I'll have tons of 'gloves in the future! Looking at the house, my apartment is on the second and third floors, and I have a nice foyer on the first floor large enough for my piano, an overstuffed vintage 1920s chair, a few antique tables and a lot of art. : )

Seen from the other side, standing in front of the home looking towards the driveway, my day lilies are just a sea of orange right now. They contrast well with the pale lavender hostas on the right.

 

Since You Asked: The Vegetable Garden!

The entrance to the vegetable garden. June, my great friend and fellow Pink Gardens resident, found those huge flat stones for the walkway after the vegetable garden was built two years ago. She "walked" them over and dug them into the yard before I even knew she was doing it! Then we were given those slate flagstones by our landlord and we "planted" them inside the garden. The plot itself is shared between three residents of the five-apartment home. The stick "arch" over the entrance is for the morning glories to climb. They are later flowers, coming into their own in September and October. I have blue, pink, lavender and white varieties this year so it really should be quite attractive. If the chipmunks stop eating them, that is.

 

The overall view of the vegetable garden. The outside edge on the right will have marigolds, morning glories and zinnias along that cobblestone edge. Striped ribbon grass from my grandmother's home in Leete's Island forms the bulk of the exterior, giving a nice backdrop to the colorful later-summer annuals. The other sides of the garden exterior have hostas, day lilies, irises, ferns, goldenrod, cinquefoils and agastaches for a season-long bit of color to go with the growing vegetables inside. I also have a small cutting garden inside the flower, protected from most of the wild critters. I have zinnias, dahlias, marigolds and sunflowers inside the protective fencing.

The south corner of the vegetable garden has a lovely hanging pot from Rick, another great resident of the home. That's a dragonwing begonia in a pot below it. I started that one two years ago, but the "parent" of it is ten years old now, and is one of the earliest dragonwing varieties.

 

I'm not above adding a bit of kitsch everywhere, even outside. This is a vintage wrought-iron planter now living in my vegetable garden. It's home to several small pots of parsley. I think it's going to be pretty cool looking once the Italian flatleafed parsley is larger.