In the Garden Lately

June 22, 2015 | terriaw

Views from our backyard and gardens from June.

Close-ups.I was excited to find a Monarch caterpillar hanging out in our butterfly weed patch. And the butterfly weed is going to flower soon!

We’ve had rain storms every few days, which provides a moist climate for mushrooms and moss throughout our gardens. Yet I can still find something as dainty as this decaying leaf.

I love the way flowers look when the flower bud is forming.

Even our spirea shrubs have beautiful flowers and colors.It’s pretty amazing out there!

Terri

Green

June 16, 2014 | terriaw

Green is one of my two favorite colors. (the other is sky blue) These pictures of our backyard in June are great examples of why I love green so much.

Backyard in June

Green in nature comes in so many tints and shades, textures and smells.

We’ve spent the past nine years making our backyard look like a park with the addition of new trees, a variety of flowers, new shrubs, bird houses and feeders, a raspberry patch, a strawberry patch, a butterfly garden, and stray benches we found on the curb before trash day. By mid-summer things get wild-looking; we love the informal (jungle) look everything grows into as it spreads out over the course of the summer growing season.

It’s one of my favorite places to be this time of year, whether I’m doing chores, eating lunch, grilling out or just watching the squirrels, birds and rabbits search for food. Do you have a favorite place to be in summer?

Terri

Inspiration Wednesday: Mother Nature

June 4, 2014June 4, 2014 | terriaw

Instead of sharing one of my latest art crushes on an inspiring artist, I decided to share some of my pictures of flowers that are inspiring me lately. This is the time of year when Mother Nature inspires me more than anything or anyone else, since everything is back in full bloom in this part of the world.

Some of my favorite things to draw are flowers and leaves, so this set of photos will provide reference for some great doodling and brainstorming future projects. Their petals all have similar shapes but their structures and centers are quite different.

What or who is inspiring you these days?

Terri

Garden Tour: June

June 19, 2013 | terriaw

I can’t remember the last time I showed you around our yard and garden, so I thought it would be fun to show you what it looks like in June.

Yes, things really are this green around here these days. (I swear, I didn’t do any adjustments in Photoshop to these pictures.)

Our rose shrubs are growing and blooming like crazy, due to all the rain we’ve had lately.

This rose shrub has more flowers on it than I’ve ever seen in all the 8 years we’ve lived in this house.

It’s producing the most beautiful cherry red roses.

Our raspberry patch is about to burst with lots of raspberries. I’m so excited! I planted a couple blackberry bushes too, so hopefully we will get a crop next year.

Our daisy patch just started to bloom. Happy to see my favorites come back each year.

Our new pale pink peonies are doing very well too. This variety smells even better than the traditional and more common hot pink peonies.

Our new butterfly garden is doing very well too. I planted black-eyed susans, which are about to bloom, coreopsis, which are blooming, foxglove, which are done blooming, Indian feathers, bee balms and more. There are lots of baby bunnies running around our neighborhood these days, so I’m happy we still have the fence around this raised bed or nothing would survive the bunnies’ ravenous appetites.

There’s always lots going on and changing in our gardens over the summer, so it’s fun to pick a few highlights to share every now and then. Thanks for stopping by!

Terri

Garden Update – Early June

June 3, 2012 | terriaw

It seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve done a garden update.

Since it’s early June, I thought it would be fun to share what’s been growing around here.

We have quite a few rose shrubs around here that seem to be doing better and better each year, meaning more blooms. Luckily, roses are easy to grow and require little maintenance.

Our clematis continues to amaze me with that bright blue-violet color and star shape.

We’ve lucked out with warm gardening weather about a month earlier than normal, which has been very nice. That means some of the flowers that usually bloom in early July are starting to open now, like our coneflowers, one of my favorites.

My favorite part of our garden is the entrance gate to our fence on both sides of the house. I love how this hanging basket looks, so charming and inviting. I’m so happy we planted them this year because last year we were too lazy.