Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sauntering Forth on Saturday - Back of the House "Lily Bed"

 When we moved here, nearly 10 years ago, this bed held three or four regular yew bushes and two uprights.
I dug them, with help, and moved them to a neighbor's house - along with a spirea from the front of the house!

In Early Spring 2011, the bed looked like this:



On June 3, 2011, it looked like this:
       
 












On June 8, 2011, it looked like this:














On June 28, 2011 - this:

And today, July 21, everything is weary and worn and looking stressed from the recent week or so of extremely hot temperatures and no rain.  (I'm watering, but just enough to get by.)

And, by the way, the lens got foggy due to going from air conditioning outdoors to the humid hot air outdoors.

'Summer Wine' (7/15/11) - Perky
'Summer Wine 7/21/11 - Pallid

'Purple d'Oro' - Perky - 7/15

'Purple d'Oro' - Pallid - 7/21

Unnamed - Perky - 7/15
Unnamed - Pallid - 7/21

'Miracle Maid' - Perky and no longer in bloom  7/15

'Tropicana' - Perky and no longer in bloom 7/15

'Fragrant Treasure' - Perky and no longer blooming.  7/10

Well - I know it's going to rain.  And yes, when the weather cooperates a bit, I'll be sifting my compost and adding leaf mold again to top dress ALL the beds!!!  :-)

9 comments:

Gardener on Sherlock Street said...

You have such a variety of blooms!
Hang in there. This heat is wearing on everyone and every plant!

Nellie from Beyond My Garden said...

Your lilies were great in full bloom. I had some of the same trouble with a foggy lens yesterday. I, like the lens became foggy myself when working in my garden. Such humidity!
nellie

Shady Gardener said...

Good afternoon, Gardener. Hanging in there... ;-)

Hi Nellie, It was a bit cooler this morning while I watered, so I weeded, too! ;-) At least for awhile.

F Cameron said...

Your lilies look so lovely!

I hear your struggles with the heat. Same here. I can keep the garden alive for one more week of 100 degrees, but I don't know if I can keep it up if the heat continues beyond that. Then, it will be survival of the toughest plants.

Shady Gardener said...

Sounds as though we're in the same boat, Cameron. Pretty rough.

Liz said...

Hi,

I hope it rains for you soon! We haven't had high temperatures like the US has been this week, but it's certainly in the early-mid twenties oC and we've had so little rain in my area for such a long time that when I attempted to move an Aster yesterday I had to soak it first for a good half an hour because neither spade nor fork was getting any deeper than a couple of inches into the ground.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Liz, Oh my! I can see you understand about dryness! We actually had a few minutes of raindrops (just a "dribble" in the rain gauge) this morning. The first precipitation in quite awhile!

Sue Catmint said...

I feel for you re the heat , it's very challenging gardening-wise and emotionally. In my experience the weather eventually changes and many plants are very resilient.

Shady Gardener said...

Hi Catmint, I very well remember your drought. Although I'm not considering our weather to be a true drought, we have not had rain (except for 1/16th of an inch) in the past three or so weeks. So, when it comes, it will truly be welcome. :-)