Today is My One-Year Blogaversary!

I started this blog about my garden exactly one year ago today, on Sept. 5, 2009. Here's a link to my first post, about the changes I wanted to make to the back garden. I included a series of pictures, and I thought in today's post I'd show those pictures again, along with new ones showing what the area looks like now.

So, here goes.

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Well, my life in general hasn't changed much since then -- my son got married in October -- but the garden certainly changed a lot, didn't it? And I have still more planting to do!

Fertilizer Friday -- Dahlias and Other Stuff Grown From Seed

It's time once again for Fertilizer Friday! I have some new flowers to flaunt, starting with a couple of Dahlias that I grew from seed. The first is Dahlia 'Harlequin,' grown from seed saved from one I grew last year in a pot. The flower is slightly different from the parent plant, a different shade of red, and with a different "collar" -- those extra little petals around the center.

This one came from commercial seed, it's called 'Black Beauty.'

I'm surprised they flowered, given the strange spring and summer we had. I have plenty of others in the garden that have no sign of flowers yet.

This is another daylily, called 'Daring Deception', that I bought at Lowe's for $4.50, past its prime. It rebloomed for me.

A couple of Lupines grown from seed, growing together in a clump. One has a blue flower, the other pink.

In February I bought a bunch of bare-root native shrubs from the Pierce County Conservation District. I don't actually know when they are supposed to flower, I have a feeling that they are a bit thrown off by having been uprooted and then replanted. This Snowberry (Symphorocarpus), has both white berries and delicate pink flowers right now.

One of my Lonicera involucrata is also flowering.

 

 Well, that's about it for this week. Thanks so much for visiting! Please make sure you go to Tootsie Time to see all the other bloggers who have joined in to flaunt their flowers!

Fertilizer Friday -- Taking Inspiration for the Garden from Mt. Rainier's Wildflowers

For my Fertilizer Friday post, I'm going to be flaunting flowers that aren't mine. They belong to Mother Nature -- specifically, the big patch of Mother Nature that is Mount Rainier.

At 14,411 feet, Mt. Rainier is the highest mountain in the state of Washington, and in the Cascade Range, and is home to some wonderful wildflower walks. Last weekend, while my son and his wife were visiting from Philadelphia, we took the almost two-hour trip from our home to Paradise, on the mountain's south slope.

As young, fit marathon runners, they could have easily seen a lot more of the mountain than we did, but they were very nice to go slow so their old, pleasingly plump mum could keep up.

The Nisqually Vista Trail, which we followed, is a 1.2 mile loop that winds it way up and down through some very lovely wildflower meadows.

Blue Lupines and Fleabane.

Lupines and Indian Paintbrush

Indian Paintbrush close-up

Rosey Spirea

Fluffy Western Anemone seed-heads

Sickletop Lousewort

Pink Mountain Heather

While huffing and puffing to keep up with the young-uns, I found myself inspired by the beauty. There is an area of my garden, in the northeast corner behind the water feature, that I've been at a loss what perennials to plant.

Currently it has lots of native shrubs, but at the front there are some colorful Heucheras that will have to be relocated. The area directly underneath the Douglas firs is unrelieved shade, but there is a swath at the front that gets sun for several hours. I realize that many, if not most, of the pretty wildflowers that I saw on the mountain will probably not thrive in my suburban, lower-elevation garden. But at least I have a better idea now of the look I want to achieve.

It's going to take lots of planning and research and thought. It won't happen overnight. But it will be fun to get started.

I hope you enjoyed this look at flowers that aren't mine. You can find lots of other people flaunting their flowers for Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time. Check it out.

Foliage Follow-up

One of the advantages of starting over with my garden has been that I can put together a garden that shows what stage of development I am at as a gardener. When I first started gardening, I was highly enamored of big flowers -- daylilies, lilies, rhodies, glads, etc. I slowly added other types of flowers, frothy ones, daisies, etc., working slowly on mixing and matching colors (and I never really mastered that).  It's only recently that I started noticing that foliage matters. Different shapes against one another, different colors, variegation, etc.

So I've been able to start out with foliage on my mind, rather than trying to shoehorn it into place in a garden that was already overgrown with too many plants (and weeds).

Anyway, with that said, here are some of my favorite foliage photos taken recently.

Water droplets on Lupine foliage.

And on Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla mollis)

When trying to add interesting foliage, Heucheras are hard to resist.

Heuchera 'Pistache'

Heuchera 'Miracle'

A favorite combo, Persicaria 'Red Dragon' with Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'

I love black mondo grass, although why it's still so expensive, when it's EVERYWHERE is beyond me. I had a hard time figuring out how to make it stand out. It's the same color as the soil, and was hard to see. So I planted it closely with some Sempervivums and Sedums, which I think works well.

Sempervivum 'Black" (A full frontal shot)

And from the side

Gold and purple/burgundy foliage are must-haves. Not exactly cutting edge, but new to me.

Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold'

Hydrangea quercifolia 'Little Honey'

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'

Finally, Matteucia struthiopteris (ostrich fern) sterile fronds unfurling

I hope you enjoyed this look at some of the interesting foliage in my garden. Thanks for visiting!

Check out Pam's blog Digging for more Foliage posts.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day -- August 2010 -- In the Pink (and a couple of other colors)

I joined this meme, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden for the first time a couple of months ago, but then skipped July. Anyway, I thought I'd join again. Click the link to see the posts by other gardener/bloggers.

Flowering today in my garden:

Bright Pink Monarda

Larkspur 'Kingsize Scarlet', which is neither king-size (only 2 feet tall) nor scarlet (looks pink to me!) But it is pretty.

Flower close-up

Lupine 'Morello Cherry' (winter sown back in February)

Fuschia magellanica

 One of my Pia Hydrangeas has its first tiny bloom!

Clethra alnifolia 'Ruby Spice' smells wonderful!

Aquilegia 'Tequila Sunrise' is showing off a little bit of rebloom.

And my Meyer lemon tree is loving the hot weather we're having, it has put on quite a bit of leafy growth and is flowering.