Beth Billstroms GrowNow 2015 Blogging Event
Today for Week 10 of #GrowNow2015 I’m going to share with you my morning garden walk out to my back gardens around the greenhouse. This area is full sun and has plenty of clean up being done after drastic changes in weather and normal mid season gardening. I hope you enjoy my photo collections and be able to use some of the gardening tips concerning clean up I’ve shared on this post today. f
Heading Out To The Garden
Out the back mud room to the greenhouse garden the hosta plants have some what taken over the landscape walkway this year most likely because of the rain and cool temperatures. In this same area I had 2 older Knock Out Rose varieties that were hit pretty hard with the last two winters and now have been crowded out by hostas. I’m not sure I’m upset about that … the hostas are really pretty and the blooms are enjoyed by humming birds and bees.
Don’t be afraid to prune off hosta blooms that don’t seem to be attracting pollinators. It won’t hurt anything to clean those up and I believe it makes the root system stronger if the plant isn’t trying to push a bloom.
The blooms on most of my hostas get kind of ratty and rough looking and I had made it a habit to cut them back shortly after they arrive in mid-summer. The blooms that are taller and larger like pictured above in this post are enjoyed by humming birds so I let them grow till they drop over.
About 20 feet out from the mud room of our home is the greenhouse were I grow year-round. I’ve planted many of my favorite veggies, annuals and shrubs in these gardens around the structure. Each year there are different herbs and veggies added to the raised beds making this garden a work in progress.
Where I grow Year-Round : the greenhouse gardens are filled with many of my favorite veggies, herbs, annuals and shrubs. It is a working garden meaning there is always something new being planted year-round. Today for this post I’m going to share with you a few of my favorite plants for this week.
I love this growing space…. I’ve mixed containers, raised beds and landscape gardens. The hibiscus container is being prepared for our county fair. I help decorate our 4H clubs horse barn with a few large containers and window boxes I will share later this month. I don’t regret adding the stone as a walkway. It can be a pain sometimes I don’t keep up with the weeding. I’ve been getting down on my hands and knees with a throw rug and pulling the grass and weed that pop up on occasion in this area. If I keep up with the pulling it doesn’t get that bad. I also use a cultivating tool to move the stones around and break off the weed.
In the image above I’m plucking off the old blooms of this tropical hibiscus. This container plant enjoys to be fed ( I add a natural calcium to the soil every 3 months) and the dead large blooms can be messy so pick them up and add them to the compost pile.
In the photo above is the raised bed just outside of the bunny barn / greenhouse window. My window boxes aren’t doing as good as they should be just because I haven’t been watering them as much. When it rains they don’t get watered as much as the landscape does because the building protects them. I just love that raised bed filled with tomatillo, marigolds, dill, statice flowers for drying, and chives.
The tomatillo kind of looks like a weed – right? Hopefully it will stay warm and dry enough to get a harvest or two out of these six plants I have growing in this raised bed. I love making salsa verde from this variety of tomatillo.
I started growing statice about 10 years ago after discovering it at a local garden center. This is a plant that gives you color for a long time if you harvest the blooms and dry them for indoor use. I’ll have to remember to share with you how I dry and save mine in a later post.
It looks like a mess from this side of the raised bed but the scent is amazing. Mixing dill blooms and chives is a delight to weed!
The doubling Blue Chiffon Rose of Sharon ( by Proven Winners) has got to be one of my all time favorites. YES it attracts that evil Japanese Beetle but I really love the shape, size and color this shrub adds to my garden back in this location. Another highlight is I never have to weed out new starters that have dropped – this shrub doesn’t reseed. I’m very sure I’ve shared this shrubs with you on past Growing Now post!
For the past four years I’ve been putting tomatoes in this raised bed featured in the collection below. There are many different tomatoes, herbs, peppers and annuals that grow in this 6’x4′ structure that do well.
I’m not sure if it is from too much rain and cool tempatures but I’ve got plenty of dried leaves / branches on my tomato plants.
prune off all dead or unhealthy looking leaves on the tomato plants to encourage new growth and avoid disease.
Plenty of watering to do in this garden now that we haven’t had rain in close to a week. I’m not complaining!
It has been so much fun seeing what everyone is sharing each week from their gardens on blogs and social media. You should join in on the hashtag #GrowNow2015. Stop by Beth’s site and see who is featured for Week 10 on #GrowNow2015 .
Garden Clean Up and Plenty of Blooms : #GrowNow2015 Week 10 Beth Billstroms GrowNow 2015 Blogging Event Today for Week 10 of #GrowNow2015 I’m going to share with you my morning garden walk out to my back gardens around the greenhouse.
