T is for Thriving Summer Garden

 

In summer our gardens often look a bit tired. May usually is a striking month in the garden with blooming flowers galore, but when July rolls around some plants already look a bit spent. This year, however, is different - maybe because of the rather late rain in April we had. I'm out there working in the dirt every day and I take so much delight the way the garden looks right now.

Let me show you some of my favorites.

The hebe I bought several years ago at the jail which has a great program where inmates work in the gardens and grow and nurture drought tolerant plants that they sell to the public. You have to make an appointment and go through security, but the selection (and the prices) are excellent. At first I had planted the hebe in the front garden. It was very slow growing and when it finally displayed a few buds, the deer came rushing in and nibbled them up. In the following fall I moved the plant to the back where no deer can enter and it finally took off.

Coyote mint  (Monardella villosa) is a California native wildflower, drought tolerant and loved by bees. It's a rather low growing plant, sprawling widely, sometimes climbing. It grows well in both sun and shade. I can't imagine a garden without it.

One of my most beloved favorites is another California native, Red Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens). It is low growing with brilliant reddish pink flowers that bees go crazy over. It pretty much doesn't need summer water and thrives on neglect. I'm planning to plant more of them in the fall.

A drought tolerant garden is not complete without lavender - I have several varieties, but my favorite one is "Provence" (Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence'). The bees agree with me.

You might notice that I have many flowers in purple and magenta shades. They do mix so well with each other. In the garden bed in front of my kitchen Clary sage (Salvia sclarea) mingles with lavender, some other salvias, butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum).

But I also have plants in other colors, of course. Clockwise from top left: Helianthus annus Sunbelievable 'Brown Eyed Girl' (an annual sunflower), Verbena bonariensis, Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum), and Trumpet vine (Campsis radicans).

I also love small trees that don't need much water, but give some shade and thus cool down the garden a bit. Blue Elderberry (sambucus mexicana) is a California native with cream colored flowers in flat topped clusters.

My favorite tree, however, (I have four blue and one white) is the Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus). This one is "Sensational" - it attracts a wide array of pollinators. No extra summer water needed.

A hollyhock (my guilty pleasure) grows right into it.

The garden wouldn't be complete if there weren't some seedpods that I left standing on purpose - poppies (Papaver somniferum) and Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena).

My neighbor's Mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) is reaching over the fence, gently waving in the breeze. While I wouldn't grow one in my garden, I do take delight in it.

It probably comes as no surprise that I love to spend a lot of time in the garden. Yes, there is an enourmous amount of work to be done - work I love to do - but I also enjoy sitting in the shade of a tree, reading a book, writing in my journal or knitting. A drink is always there - here I'm having Karkade, the cool hibiscus drink I first had in Egypt 26 years ago and that I have been making every summer. It is so good. This is for Elizabeth's T Tuesday.

I hope you enjoyed this tour through my summer garden. Come autumn and it will look different again.