Garden Accent Heaven hosted residents from Fairwinds  Brighton Court retirement community who came to visit Linda’s Serenity Garden on Monday July 25th. The ladies had a enjoyable time walking through the garden and asking about the various flowers and other plants.

Cold weather protection.

When you live in the Pacific Northwest and this spring has been as cold and wet as last year, what is a gardener to do?

My winter reading of all those garden supply catalogs has paid off!  Under that cover are egg plants, Sweet Basil,  cucumbers, and zucchini squash, all plants that like hot weather.  The row cover raises the temperature 5 to 10 degrees during the day and keeps the plants warmer at night as well.  One more tactical move was to lay “green mulch”  down before planting which also keeps the ground warmer at night and during the day.

Bob cut PVC pipe the right height, stuck them in the ground, and the tension against the sides of the raised bed is perfect.   All I did was cover the hoops with row cover material.  When the plants bloom, I will need to remove the cover so the bees can do their thing!

I do not have to deal with too many insects so I was not concerned

Another variation of cold weather protection.

about a really snug fitting cover without holes.  I used medium pieces of wood to weight down the edges.  Did you see the old fashioned cloths pin hooks to keep the wind from blowing off the cover?  Pretty clever, huh!

Both the green mulch and the row cover were purchased from Growers Supply catalog.

Clivia Lillie from Africa, bring inside for winter.

I absolutely love flowers!  I have them everywhere.  Which translates in to “I have to have a way to say no” to all the beauty available in catalogs and at nurseries.  I had to set some parameters for myself.

I have a fairly small yard so only the smallest dwarf versions of shrubs can be considered. Being more diligent in purchasing plants that fit my light conditions was another given.  I needed to control my successes and failures better.  When buying perennials in season, most plants are $10.00 to $25.00 and that is for the more common ones. Some budget controls are in order.

No matter how much I might long for all the flowers in the catalog, I narrowed my selection of plants to blooms and seeds that attract birds, especially hummers, bees and butterflies.  I have selected plants that bloom at different periods during the summer to keep a food supply for the hummers. If the bloom has a fragrance it is more likely to find residency in my yard.

I try to reserve some space for winter interest with texture variations, height, or being an evergreen plant.

My mother had many iris so I have to have them, violating all my parameters.  And then there are the lilies with so many colors, blooming periods and varied heights.  Needless to say, I have several Oriental Lillies for their heady fragrance and long lasting blooms.  I planted a couple more this spring.  After all, they were on sale!

When I garden, I make my own rules and then bend them just a bit here and there when my resistance is low.  Mostly, every gardener needs to enjoy each and every plant.

Row of Day Lillies along front walk way, continuous blooms all summer.

Asiatic Lillies.

Asiatic lillies.

Asiatic lillies.

Tiger Lillies

Tiger Lillies.

Fragrant Nicotiana placed by the back door, started from seed.

Highly fragant Star Gazer Oriental Lillie.

Tall pink blooms are Bee Balm, simply loved by bees and hummers.

Asiatic Lillie

Iris

I grew these radishes this spring!  They are called Easter Egg radishes

Easter Egg Radishes I grew this spring.

for obvious reasons. I purchased all of my seed this year from Territorial Seed Company. This was my first attempt to grow radishes and they are really good.    As you can also see, I just planted them in the early spring in between some flowers, just to utilize some bare space.  I will remember this technique next spring!

My radishes ready to be harvested.

My preference is to grate my radishes in to my salad.  That makes their flavor blend in and provide an overall hot and spicy flavor.