Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Happy GBBD! (garden update)

Today is my first official Garden Blogger's Bloom Day! On the 15th of every month, good garden bloggers do a nice photo post of what is blooming in their respective gardens on that day. And I tend to be too much of a slacker to take part. But, partially inspired by my new fun magnifying filter (yes, I know a macro lens would be more fun but the price was right on this sucker), here is my first foray into GBBD...

Unfortunately, due to an EXTREMELY wet June that turned into an absolutely normal July (read: hot and dry), everything went crazy last month and kind of needs a trim now. So this is a close-up on my new beautiful blue salvia since it hasn't been cut back yet ;)
Here is my first actual flower on my now-huge bee balm! This thing was in a 4" pot and looked like it froze last winter, never bloomed all last year and has spent most of this year shooting up to a ridiculous height:

It's now much too large for it's current spot but that is only partially due to the surrounding shorter vegetation being trampled by two-year olds at a recent BBQ. They will fill in and it will look more sensible once I've done some more transplanting in the fall.

Here is a shot of my Achillea "Paprika" yarrow that I am in love with. Anyone know how easy/hard it is to divide yarrow? Because I am in love with these bright red ones and they are getting big...

This one is more for my own edification/a reminder for the future. These are my tomatoes. I bought cheap tomato cages and planted too close together (overenthusiastic, yes that's me) and now my toms are tippy and overcrowded. I'll go out and trim them tonight, and learn for next year, but right now there are a LOT of blooms crowded in there. And I've now tasted my first big fat homegrown tomato straight off the vine, and it is officially awesome. Also, my first tiny yellow plum tomato, and I need to plant WAY more of those next year. Just a little more spread out.

These are my ridiculous beans. I slightly overplanted since I didn't have any inoculant - my inoculated beans did so well last year that silly me assumed they would not be quite so happy this year. I was wrong. Darn. This is probably cheating, bloom-wise but I love the crazy shape of these things! I now have the gear to build better teepees so the learning curve is now starting to curve in my favor (did that make any sense?)

I love penstemon. Most of mine have been dead-headed so they will hopefully be blooming again soon, but this little guy was getting out-competed in his former spot so he was recently transplanted and I left him alone for a while. Hence, a few flowers left:

And just a little thyme:

I recently realized, my garden now has parsley, sage, rosemary AND thyme. And I couldn't be happier about it. Also basil and chives, among other herbs. I love me some herbs. Too bad I didn't make the June GBBD, that would have been much more impressive. Now most of my salvias and penstemons are past their prime and need a lot of trimming. However, this is still good camera practice, so I hope everybody else enjoys this 1/10 as much as I did! If I can make it in August there might be some different stuff blooming, but September should see a lot more stuff perking up as it cools off again.

5 comments:

healingmagichands said...

That's tomatoes for you, give them an inch and they'll take a mile!
Yarrow is pathetically easy to divide. I have gotten many "accidental" starts just because when I was deadheading it I pulled on a stalk too hard and it came away with some roots so I planted them elsewhere. All you have to do is that little, or you can be more "official" about it and dig the clump up and divide it like any perennial after it is done with most of its blooms. I'd be dividing that paprika colored one myself if I had it. It is next on my list of yarrows to acquire, I have white, sulfur yellow, pink and terra cotta so far.

Glad I stopped by today. Reno looks a lot more lush than I would have imagined. I guess all of Nevada is not a howling desert.

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

I love the color of your Bee Balm and your Penstemon. I can envisage a happy pairing of the 2 somewhere in the front of my house. Good luck with those tomatoes!

~~Rhonda said...

Your garden looks great! How nice to have all those wonderful herbs. And, yes, 'Paprika' yarrow is easy, easy to divide. I have the same yarrow in my garden. It's a beautiful color. After it blooms, cut it back and you may get a second bloom. ~~Rhonda :)
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Alana in Canada said...

What a wonderful garden tour!

Salvia and Yarrow--yes, please, I want some. Hopefully we'll have a few dollars next year for plants!--and then I'll do something for Bloomsday too. (Glad you clarified about it being a Gardening thing or I would have thought you a month late!)

Anne At Large said...

Thanks ladies! Things are a bit parched here, not nearly as lush as most of the GBBD posts I've seen elsewhere (sigh).

Now I definitely need to divide that yarrow and spread it all over (I wish I could mail you some, Alana) and make sure when I transplant more penstemon that some of it gets next to the bee balm (which is now going nuts, it may be the only thing going by Aug. 15). Thanks for the inspiration!