Mid-July Garden Photos

Here are some recent snaps of our garden and around the neighborhood. Enjoy!

I wouldn't normally plant perennial liatris in a container, but needed to move them from the pollinator bed for new plants I wanted to try this year. The container needed color and I'm a fan of single specimen containers. This location gets plenty of sun and is a warm micro-climate too. The plants may winter over just fine since past perennials have survived in this same container. Time will tell.

Perennial Liatris

Honeybees were regular visitors to this outstanding mid-summer bulb bloomer - Allium 'Ping Pong.'  The smaller bee flying in from stage left visited often, but was so quick it wasn't easy getting a close up and I don't know the bee type. She seemed happy though.

Two Honeys and Another Friendly Bee

I walk by this house often with Ferris, a few weeks ago the bindweed was in full bloom. I now completely understand why the neighbors both north and south have the yellow insecticide signs on their lawns through the summer. Playing defense has a whole new meaning.

A friend of mine is getting into the flower business and she specializes in gorgeous centerpieces. She just filed all the paper work and when she has her website and social media all set to go, I'll let you know. The centerpiece below was one of her first creations and I'm more than impressed. Awesome!! Way to go Beth!!

Remember the blog I wrote back in mid-March about starting the organic carrot stubs for their flowers to plant outside and attract pollinators? The experiment more than worked. I ended up planting them in containers (two) and they grew so tall I caged them. The pollinators go crazy, so many that I have never seen before in our garden. The blooms seem endless, I love watching all the action!  Here's the blog from March, click here.

2020 was a very good fall planted garlic harvest year. Last summer we got hail in the night a few weeks before harvest that damaged the leaves extensively (I could have covered, but didn't, my bad, very bad). I've written several blogs about planting garlic in the fall and usually have a class on planting at Denver Botanic Gardens and an independent garden center, not this year with the virus. Here's my amateur YouTube I did a few years ago on planting garlic in the fall, click here.

Click here for my Denver Post video on harvesting fall planted garlic in the spring.

Click here for my blogs on the topic (can you tell it's one of my favorite herbs?)

Finally, the six tomatoes I planted are all doing pretty well so far this summer. Several flowers have dried up due to the extreme heat, so fruiting has slowed down quite a bit. Crossing my fingers, hail, thrips, psyllids and early blight will stay away, the four worst tomato problems my garden experiences.