Views of the Gardens

I'm so excited! I've just posted my first pictures, using Hello, to the blog with......D...S...L....yah! It went SO FAST!

Yes, we finally have it and oh, what a relief it is! There were complications with a cable that needed to be fixed, so we had to wait until Tuesday for the final hook up. The technician came last Friday and set it all up, but then couldn't get a signal. Arrgh! What a letdown! Once the cable was fixed we were all set, but waiting from Friday until Tuesday was murder!

You can well imagine how much we love it after using dial up for the past 6 years! It's fantastically fabulous! Speedy Gonzales, that's us! It's such a blessing!

The heatwave that has been bothering much of the US has now descended on NY State. We haven't had temperatures as high as Sue and her hubby suffered through in CA last week (she mentioned temps of 112ºF {44ºC}), but for New Yorkers 98º {36º} is pretty hard to take. Today was a little better, but not much. We had a tornado warning on Saturday, which caused us to run around like mad chickens, carrying all the containers and hanging baskets to safety. The storm turned out to be just that...a storm. NO tornado, thank the good Lord!

Our daughter, Kylie came again for the weekend and helped her father finish off our porch. They put up some beams over the part that doesn't have a roof. We didn't want roof over the whole thing because it would block out too much light. They did add a short piece of roof over the sliding doors to keep the rain from them. It's so nice to look out now and see a finished porch! Of course, now it needs staining...that'll be the next project. We'll probably get to it in...oh...another 5 yrs or so....(we really aren't Speedy Gonzales when it comes to getting projects finished). I'm kidding about the 5 years though. I hope we'll get it done before the cold weather comes again.

Our younger daughter, Kathy, came as well, on Saturday for a visit. She was due to move to NY City on Sunday and wanted to spend a little time with us before she left. She and I were about to do some planting in the vegetable garden when the tornado warning came. Needless to say, we didn't get it done.

All in all, we had a lovely weekend with the girls!

I know how much I love to see views of my blogger friends' gardens and yards, so I thought I'd post a few of ours for you. There's lots of green in these views, so I think Alice might enjoy them. She's a green fiend :)

There's that lovely "Cleo" lily again.

My brother in law and some friends are putting up hay. It's been a long, drawn out process in between all the thunder storms and rain this summer. Usually second cutting is being done at this time but a lot of farmers are still struggling with first cutting.



Looking across three gardens in the front yard



The new garden my husband made this spring. I've planted three of the new lilies in here, and one 'old' one.



Looking up from the road.



The coneflowers are looking bright and beautiful. In the foreground you can see another of the new lilies. The pretty pink plant next to it is Veronica.



This is our culvert on Saturday, July 22nd, the second time it flooded. The flooding was much worse about 2 miles up the road, which caused the road to be closed all day.



The fence garden is so full of gloriosa daisies that everything else is practically smothered. I meant to thin them out, but the rains prevented it. they're lovely, but I like it better with fewer of these, so the other plants have a chance to shine a little.



Another view of the fence garden, from the driveway. Val, I thought of you as I was posting these pictures because I know how much you love fences. So these are for you :)

Sharing The Flowers!

This has been such a busy week! I've been thinking of you all, but I'm sorry to say I've hardly had time to visit anyone or answer any e-mails. I miss visiting your blogs and finding out what's new. After today though, things should get better! We're switching to DSL (high speed Internet). No more waiting for ages while pages load with dial up. I can't wait! I hope to be able to post more often and visit more often!

I've enjoyed the gardens so much more this summer, being able to share them with all my blog friends. It's so much fun seeing what others grow in their gardens all over the world. We learn a lot!

It's raining here again today. We had another big storm yesterday afternoon...the second one this week. Last Saturday our road flooded again and there was other flooding in the surrounding areas. The rain fell out of the sky so fast, it was amazing, and most of it on Saturday morning. The floods receded quickly this time and didn't do as much damage, thank heavens. The road crews had just fixed our culvert 2 days before! I feel sorry for them having to do it again...and so much more to fix!

I'm posting some of the dozens of photos I've taken over the past few weeks, mostly of the day lilies. The new ones are all planted and all but one have bloomed, so I'll be posting pictures of those too, later.

Believe it or not, I thinned out these shasta daisies last fall. I need to do it again! I give them away, right, left and center but there's always more!



Astilbe is such a pretty, feathery flower and wonderful for shady spots



This argyranthemum is new to the garden this summer. It reminds me of the Marguerite that my mum used to grow, so naturally I had to have it in my garden!



Malva is the tame version of the wild mallow that is looking just beautiful on the roadsides this summer, along with the tiger lilies and other wild flowers. Apparently they're loving all the rain we've had.



The gloriosas (Black-eyed Susans) are biennials which sow themselves liberally. Yes, Zoey, they are rudbeckia hirta. They put on such a wonderful show! They're funny...sometimes they come back in droves and sometimes there are not many, sometimes none at all, as you experienced. Keep trying! Maybe next time you'll have better luck.



The red monarda (bee balm) looks pretty with the shasta daisies. I have several shades of monarda, the others are mostly pastel pinks and purples. I love it, and as I mentioned before, so do the bumblebees and hummingbirds. I love the scent! It's part of the mint family.



This was an unnamed lily given to us free with our first purchases in 2004 at Hawthorn Hill Farm. I just found out during last Sunday's visit that it's probably Bali Hai.



By Myself. Another one bought in 2004 from HH Farm



Cleo, which I've showed you before, is yet another from HH. She's tall at 48"



An unnamed lily I planted over 15 years ago. Pretty, soft color.



Another unnamed lily planted at the same time as the previous one. This has been such a vigorous grower and bloomer. I love the color!



Chicago Star. The bloom is huge at 8". Another from HH. It's wonderful!



This lovely pink is one of my 3 originals planted with the other 2 all those years ago. It looks suspiciously like Catherine Woodberry, which we just bought. I didn't realize this until we brought CW home last Sunday! Maybe CC a little more lilac than this one, hmmm, don't know. Some of them are so close.



Ruffled Apricot - another beauty from HH



Janice Brown from HH. She was my first choice during our 2004 visit...it was love at first sight!



You can see the clematis on the other end of the enclosed side porch. It's beginning to wind down now, but has been blooming for more than a month.

That's Toby coming for a cuddle



And this is the top end of the side porch



After much chasing, this tiger swallowtail actually posed for quite a few seconds for me. A very cooperative butterfly indeed! Or maybe it just felt sorry for the idiot chasing it :)

Hope you all have a great day!