Summer is Here

The garden is really settling into summer, although with the recent hot weather, it is acting a bit more like August than June.

The lavender walk out front is in full bloom, and I think the wild hive five blocks from here must have died because there aren't as many bees as in past years. I was just comparing its current, attack-the-sidewalk state with how it looked shortly after I planted it two years ago. I do kind of go in for the big blowsy plants, but I'm guessing the lavenders need a pruning.

In the last week, the cobweb thistle out front has really started to bloom, and suddenly the remarks from passers-by have changed from "Did you know that's a weed?" to "Wow, those are really cool flowers!" I feel vindicated. Noel is still scared of it, though, and asks me how big it will get.

And the dahlias are all a-fluffle in flowers, too. They're rather short plants, but I'm very happy with the flowers. I love dahlias, even if they can be kind of a garden cliche and of course they are totally wrong for our climate (like the heat but hate the dry).

Among them is one of my garden gnomes (this one is called "Fly Away Gnome"). I don't understand why people freak out about gnomes: it's just a little bit of humour. I mean, unless it's like a whole miniature gnome landscape instead of a garden, and even then it's not my taste in gardening but they have to live with it, not me.

Technorati Tags: dahlias, native plants, plants, gnomes

posted by ayse on 06/23/06