I guess I will join in on the thread, with a few odds and ends garden pictures taken within the past week.
We have a creek running smack through the middle of our property, and have
Gaura lindheimeri hedges above the west creek banks. (At the south end of the bridge, the hedge is actually above a small patio we call "The Pit", which steps down to/sits above the creek bank.) These pictures were taken mid-morning. (Please ignore all of the flags in these photos; we are having some irrigation work re-done.)
Gaura north (with volunteer
Buddleia smack in the middle, and also various bearded irises, including in pots)
Gaura south (the reddish flowering thing is a 'Flower Carpet Pink Supreme' shrub which I put in last year)
I have a Moon Garden, of sorts. This photo was taken late afternoon, from the outskirts of the Moon Garden.
Hemerocallis 'Pink Fanfare' is in the foreground, with 'Newberry White Dove' and 'Tuscawilla Tranquility' in the midground. (The red maple is at the top right edge, with 'Beautiful Edgings' to the left of it.)
My side yard is the only part of the property which is 100% fenced-gated-protected against deer. I have several daylilies in there (in raised beds, pots, and in the ground), and also (despite the shade) have my veggie and herb garden there. Shown is a clump of
Hemerocallis 'Osterized' in early to mid morning, before the sun hits it.
Late Friday night or early Saturday morning we lost an oak tree. (It was in a long slow decline despite our arborist's best efforts (phytophora), and the main trunk came crashing down.) We were resigned to losing the oak tree, but what is galling is that it took out a beautiful Japanese maple (I believe it was 'Ichigyogi') with it!
Our arborist is returning with a crew tomorrow to take out the fallen trunk, and I get to go visit the Tree Nazis at city hall to get a permit to remove the still living (but not for long) part of the tree. We are going to wait and see if the Japanese maple sends out shoots from what is left of the trunk.
(The Japanese maple on the creek bank, behind what is left of the oak, is a 'Beni Kawa'. Its foliage is already frying (we lost a shading corkscrew willow a year ago), and the loss of this oak tree is not going to help it any.)
About a month ago, we replaced (for the 2nd time) a red Japanese maple that was originally on the property when we bought it. (The original maple had been shaded by a ginormous oak which developed rot (thanks to previous owners burning the root collar and irrigating right on top of it) and had to be removed. Once the shade was gone, the original maple got fried and kept dying back each year, and so it had to be removed too.)
The current replacement maple (the first one died due to irrigation issues), an "Emperor I", is thus far doing fine. The picture below was taken this morning and shows foliage, along with a pair of blooms on
Hemerocallis 'Raspberry Banana Cheesecake'. (That, and other daylilies, were planted around the original maple, and were chosen to color coordinate.)
