Garden

Garden Update – Late Summer Treasures

| terriaw

One thing I love about these mild late summer days is finding cool things happening in our gardens.

Some days turn into a treasure hunt in nature.

I like to think we have our own little eco-system going in throughout our yard.

We have been enjoying beautiful late summer days lately, with mild, dry, sunny and cooling temps.

I cherished a peaceful day off last week by spending an afternoon experimenting with the travel watercolor kit I received from my best buddy.


It was fun to mess around with the palette of colors that came in this little kit. At first, I thought it might too hard to paint an image with such a limited collection of colors. Once I got mixing and painting, I realized how fabulous this little kit is, with just the right about of paint colors, perfect little mixing trays, a water bottle, a mini brush just right for working on my art cards, and a cover that doubles as a water dish.

Hope you’re finding opportunities to relax and enjoy these late summer days too!

Garden Update

| terriaw

It seems like I haven’t shared a garden update in awhile.

Since my last post showing you our lily collection, we continue to have coneflowers, which last so much longer than many other flowers in our gardens.

The phlox have joined in the summer fun.

I always forget where these are planted in our gardens, so I have come close to pulling them, thinking they were weeds.

We had a super hot July around here, so I didn’t spend as much time hanging out in our yard as I would normally.

On those hot days, it was just refreshing to see so much green out there.

I never tire of looking outside, especially in summer!

Garden Update – Lilies

| terriaw

The lilies are here, the lilies are here! And they are everywhere!

My mom gave us an entire row of day lilies, which are blooming in several colors.

Plum colored lilies

I love these red ones with a radiating yellow center.

I also love these burgundy and cream lilies together. How stunning (and lucky) to have these contrasting colors planted next to each other.

Peach lilies

More peach lilies too

If I had to pick one favorite in the garden, I would choose this cream and purple lily as my favorite.

I love lilies, so I’m lucky my mom’s yard got too shady as the trees matured, and she had to transplant her lilies to a sunnier spot: my yard!Lilies needs sunshine, and our entire backyard faces south, so I guess our gardens were meant to have lilies. Thanks Mom!

Annual Retreat

| terriaw

Last year, I was lucky enough to go on a quilting retreat with a fun group of quilting bloggers.

I am lucky to get to go again this year, with most of the same group and a few new people, including Amanda Jean, Cindy, Rene, Rene’s sister Michelle, Shelly, Shelly’s friend Stephanie, Mary, Doris, and Toni. I haven’t done a lot of quilting this past year so I’m bringing a couple quilt tops I made at last year’s retreat to finish quilting this weekend. No more starting any large projects until my current pile is done!

I leave you with pictures of a couple lilies from our garden. Promise to give you a full report when I get back.

Garden Update – White

| terriaw

How about some white flowers from our garden this week!

We had white irises but I couldn’t find any pictures of them, so here are some bellflower white campanulas my mom gave us a couple years ago.

Our shasta daisies are starting to open!

We planted about five of these plants a few years ago, which we also received from my mom (thanks Mom!), and now they are huge – at least three feet high.


I found lots of these cool white wildflowers on the trail earlier this week.

Update: these wildflowers are Queen Anne’s Lace! (thanks Shari!)

I wish we had more white flowers to share with you, but I’m happy with what we do have. Sweet and simple!

Garden Update – More Purples and Pinks Too

| terriaw

Anyone up for another garden update? More shades of purple this time. Hope that’s okay with you non-purple lovers! There’s a bright pink teaser towards the end, so stick with me.

I love it when the alliums bloom. We have a little forest of them along our back fence line. They are the giant puff ball queens of the garden. One flower can measure up to 10 inches around!

We have two kinds of irises throughout our gardens, including these traditional bearded iris,

and clusters of Siberian iris, both gorgeous.

I found a couple big beautiful blooms on our clematis plant. I am always surprised at how big they get – about as big as my hand!

I also love having columbine flowers in our gardens because they are so delicate looking, and they make me miss living in Colorado where they are the state flower.

Our dwarf lilac bush is blooming beautifully! It’s been limping along for a couple years.

Now, on to our pink update. We have a row of wegelia shrubs on one side of our backyard patio which provide a nice hedge of privacy. They have been filling out nicely with these little flowers.

The peonies are starting to open! Aren’t they magnificent?

This is the first year our light pink peonies have bloomed since we planted them about five years ago. Didn’t think they were going to make it, and now they are amazing.

Always wonderful to find such an abundance of blossoms in our gardens throughout spring and summer!

Garden Update – Pink

| terriaw

Pink is a common color in gardens, especially in spring. It’s also one of those colors that you either love or hate. (I love it, by the way.)

I think pink tulips are so cheerful and charming.

Last year, I planted primroses in hopes that they would bloom early in spring. I was getting worried because I didn’t see any signs of life until a few days ago. Thank goodness! We have a yellow, white and pink variety lining the sidewalk up to our front porch.

So happy to see our magnolia shrub coming back to life. It’s a new plant in our yard, and we weren’t sure it was going to thrive.

I love this combination of pink and yellow tulips. Those yellow tulips have a delicate pink tip that looks like someone went out there with a fine tip marker.

Speaking of yellow and pink, these blushing beauty tulips are my favorites.

More pink flowers just started to bloom this week, including our bleeding hearts.

Most magnificent of all, our crab apple tree is blooming.


Many reasons why spring is my favorite time of year!

Garden Update – Yellow

| terriaw

I continue to find more goodies blooming in our gardens. For this week, my theme turned out to be yellow.

Some yellow buds are welcome sights to see, like this forsythia shrub.

Other yellow blooms are not welcome at all!

Some yellow bulbs ended up being a nice surprise. I love finding bulbs bloom in places where I didn’t plant them.

It’s going to be fun to find treasures in my garden based on a color theme. Most of our daffodils are still blooming like crazy, so the next round of bulbs to open will probably be tulips, which could take a few more days, since we’re still waiting for temps to warm up!

Garden Update

| terriaw

Since our weather is gradually turning warmer, I thought it would be fun to start sharing what’s happening in our gardens as things come back to life again.

I can’t decide if it seems early to have tulips opening, or if everything else is just late because of our cold, wet spring.

One of the most exciting finds to me is the buds starting to open on the trees.

I look forward to finding more blooming treasures in our yard in the days and weeks to come!