The end of June is not as exciting as high spring in the garden. The daffodils and tulips are long gone. Some of the allium is taking off, and there are peonies. 
The annuals are still little things without much drama, so we are grateful for the allium altopurpureum (those are the deep purple ones) and allium nigrum (the white ones - go figure!). The giant alliums have already gone to seed.
This is the first year for the peonies, and three plants have bloomed, but with only 1-3 blooms.
In the absence of flowers, we take joy where we find it.
Can you guess what these white ones are?
They are mushrooms!
The most exciting crop of June is Strawberries - These are Mara des Bois, a French strawberry with outstanding flavor. They are not very firm, which means they will not travel well, so they are not grown commercially. In June, we harvested a total of 9 pints.
Spring is mud season, and lace-up boots are difficult to remove to go in an out.
This is a handy mud remover.
This boot scraper is made of two industrial stiff pushbrooms, handles removed. They were cut in half and screwed to boards to scrape bottom and sides of boot at once. In the garage, it lives under a bookcase, and the string is used to pull it out easily. Then, when not in use, it is kicked under the bookcase, out of sight.
And it's time to anticipate summer blooms. This frame will support lots of dahlias, as well as some gladiolus and zinnias.
The Tibetan Prayer Flags make me smile as they send prayers in the wind.
We will enjoy the bench seen in the background all summer!
Other creatures enjoy the garden. During an afternoon of reading in the screen house, I looked up to see a cardinal perched on the apple tree cage.
His lady appeared right after he left.
It turns out, we had a nest of cardinals in the hedge. How cool is that!
(These photos were shot through the screen of the screen-house.)
This is a time to get the tomatoes staked.
Tommy just enjoys being out!
D's experiment this year is growing Brugmansia. This plant is often called Angel's Trumpet for the large, fragrant flowers that hang down to earth.
(That name is also often given to Datura, a closely related Genus, also in the Family Solanaceae. Datura flowers usually point up. Other members of this genus are Deadly Nightshade, tomatoes, eggplant, potato.)
We did not expect them to flower the first year, so this was a wonderful surprise!
1 comment:
Mushrooms come with the rain. Your Datura blossom is gorgeous! Is it fragrant? The strawberries are mouthwatering. I bet that are fragrant! Did you notice the fragrance of the alliums. You might think they would smell like onions, but they don't. I'm so glad to get a glimpse of David and the garden!
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