Time for flowers!

Dahlia, Fountain Grass and Lime Potato Vine.  (Purple
Million Bells in the pot next to it.)


















Here are some beauties from my garden this year!  It was a great year for my Peonies, Hydrangea, Nasturtium and Clematis!  They did better than ever this year!  We're finally getting a break from the "hovering-around-100" stuff we were getting, so maybe I'll get out there and get rid of that awful ryegrass that gets in my beds!!  And, the crab-grass and the blackberries and..... ugh.... I do love living in a place where plants grow with wild abandon, but that means that *weeds* grow with wild abandon, too!!  Barkdust is a flower-gardener's friend!!  But, I've gone too many years without replenishing it.  I have to get these beds weeded and then lay down more BD this fall!  If a weed seeds itself in there, you can just pluck it right out!  And, it really keeps weeds *out*, for the most part.  Plus, it just makes the beds look so nice.  Hopefully, you can get the kind that I can get, locally - the Hemlock barkdust.  It's "splinter-free"; not 100%, but way better than the other types.



Crososmia "Lucifer", with Loosestrifes in back (yellow and
white)

I've tried to grow Delphiniums, with no success...but, I know it's because that dang grass gets in there and crowds them out.  They never come back!  :(  I LOVE Delphiniums!!  Well, it's true for anything that I really love and don't have in my garden.....Foxgloves (I have one, I think)...they should put out babies like nobody's business...but I don't get that lucky.  Lupines?  Something always eats them down to a stub.  Hollyhocks?  (The old-fashioned variety, not the double ones.)  Those should really be planted by seed and when you have cats and there are about 10 million other cats in the neighborhood, well, not a good formula for seeds.

My dream is a cottage garden.  That's what I strive for.  But, you can't really have a cottage garden without Hollyhocks, Foxgloves and Delphinium, in my opinion.  So, I have to work on that!  I've also realized, after poking around on Pinterest this morning, that I need some Allium in the garden!  But, I do enjoy the flowers that I *do* have, don't get me wrong!  I love having flowers, right outside my door, to bring inside, while still getting to enjoy the ones left outside.  I just need to get things cleaned up out there and add more!!  Enjoy your trip through my garden!  And, enjoy the day!

 ~ Teri


Lavender, of course.  Bumblebees were going crazy for it that day!

Buddleja - Butterfly Bush.....honeybees and butterflies love!!

More of the Butterfly Bush... I *love* when this thing blooms!!

Petunia hanging basket, from one of my sons.  :)

Black-eyed Susan Vine

Nasturtiums - they've done wonderfully this year! 

Lily

Sweet Pea, the perennial variety

One of my finds from The Farm Chicks Show (!!) in with those little, annual Daisy-like flowers....can't ever remember their name!!  :(

Hydrangea.... this was its best year, ever!

Yellow Loosestrife

Day-lily

Clematis...this was the best year for this plant, too!

Lewisia, an Oregon native.

Mimulus, "Monkey Flower"

Ah!  A garden visitor!  This is a perennial dianthus - Carnation.

Speedwell with Day-lily in back

Gooseneck Loosestrife