Then & Now.

Lee's garden on June 6, 2010 above.  Same garden on May 22, 2011 below.

Long View of Lee's garden on May 27, 2012

My flowers on July 6, 2011-click on photo for larger image

Pretty Gaillarda in Bloom

This plant has been a pleasant surprise for me in the garden.  Even though some varieties are called perennials, most do not survive our New England winters.  This one not only survived, it sent out seeds that bloomed elsewhere in my garden this year.  I need to deadhead this plant.  While at the garden this year, I've not noticed the white coneflower in the lower right portion of this picture.  The coneflower in heavy bloom is a variety called Hot Lava.

Various flowers in bloom

This is a variety of coneflower called Little Angel.  There are 2 different plants pictured below.  It looks more like the variety called Milkshake, but it is not tall enough.  When I google images for Angel Eyes, this is NOT what the plants look like, but here is the tag that came with the plugs:

I wanted the shorter variety of coneflower and white.  I went through a period where I was in love with the white coneflowers.  I will double check today when I go to the garden.  I pulled out most of my echinacea this year, there were too many for the small space.   Look at all the weeds between the bricks, UGHHHHHH!!!

My beautiful geranium has outgrown my garden

I've always considered this geranium (see blog header picture) to be the center showpiece of my garden.  It blooms early and stays all season.  The rain storms this late Spring caused the heavy plant to seperate and remain open.  The plant is just too large and tall to hold up all the weight.  I do have several offshutes growing in different spaces in the garden.  At the end of this year, I will have to pull this mother plant out and start over with the "babies".

Long View of my garden plot

I am very disappointed in my garden this year.  I tried to do something different by thinning out a lot of the annuals which keep coming back each year.  The grass type weeds have taken over and I am having to use the pitch fork to turn over the soil and pick out the clumps of grass!  Back breaking work.  In the Spring, the garden is beautiful with the Lupines,Delphinium, Candytuff, Dianthus and Columbine in bloom.  An early stormy wet period took its toll on my garden.  If you click on the picture, you can see the grass weed and where I've started turn the dirt over again.

Before and After 2011

This is photos of my garden in early April of this year and today.  I did some major rearranging of certain plants and just ripped out certain ones.  I was tired of all the Echinacea "cone flowers", so I pulled the front ones up.  I left one plant, but still may pull it up.  I added a Moss plant, Artemisia, which will quickly outgrow it's garden spot, but for this year, it will be OK where I planted it.  I added some marigolds for color and bug control, the rest of the plants you see are perennials.  Click on the photos to see up close.

Before and After in Lees Little Garden

 This is what faced me today when I went to the Community Garden for the purpose of working for the first time in 2011.  I thought I had cleaned up in the Fall, but I soon realized, I could have done better.

This is what the garden looked like after 3 HOURS of weeding and raking leaves.  Since my garden is the first one in from the Orchard, I tend to get a huge cover of leaves in the Winter to my garden.  I don't mind as the leaves help shield my perennials during the long Winter.  Click on pictures to get a close up view of before and after.