Last day of June walk in the cottage garden

Now I should have been here 2 weeks ago with a mid June update. But my cottage garden was looking quite sad in dire need of a clean up. We have not had a normal Oregon summer. Usually temps are below 80f and a bit of rain. But this spring and start to summer we have had HOT and DRY weather 95f plus. Most of the flowers are 2 weeks ahead. So what you are seeing today is what I normally would show you in mid July!

False Queen Annes Lace, always a beautiful soft and lacy addition to the cottage garden, but it does need to be kept tame or it will take over. I pull handfuls of seedlings every spring.

 

The Hollyhocks are just bursting! Can you believe I started with only one plant 4 years ago? It was a mixed color and now I have all shades of burgandy, white, peach and pink. Most have just grow where they reseeded, but I did transplant along the back fence to fill out the garden.

newly transplanted this year from another part of the garden are phlox and bell flowers, they mix in nicely with the coreposis and white coneflowers

 

Hopefully I will be back in August with another beautiful late summer walk--since so many things were early, I am hoping for a repeat performance on some of the early bloomers!

Simply white in the garden

Seems when things heat up, the white in the garden seems to have a cooling effect, especially in the evening. Sharing some of my favorite photography of white in my garden this summer and a few from past summers.

Enjoy!

This week I am joining in on these parties
Make it Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

It’s Bloomin’ Tuesday @ Ms. Green Thumb Jean

Tuesday Garden Party @ An Oregon Cottage
Outdoor Wednesday @ A Southern Daydreamer

Garden Party @ Fishtail Cottage

Simple and sweet Fridays @Rooted in Thyme

Hollyhock time

Yep, they are in bloom. They surprise me every year. This summer, they are mostly shades of pale pink and peach. There is one dark red and one or two white.

Appears these two are taking turns.

 The bumblebees were loving these hollyhocks, there were hundreds of them. 

They didn't seem to mind me snapping photos this morning.

 

uh! I am not immune from Hollyhock rust either.

I love this study of white and green, so cool and soothing.

This week I am joining in on these parties
Make it Pretty Monday @ The Dedicated House

It’s Bloomin’ Tuesday @ Ms. Green Thumb Jean

Tuesday Garden Party @ An Oregon Cottage
Outdoor Wednesday @ A Southern Daydreamer

Garden Party @ Fishtail Cottage

Simple and sweet Fridays @Rooted in Thyme

August in my Cottage Garden

It was overcast this morning, so a great photo opportunity in my garden. Every year, I take photos and with a cottage garden, it amazing how things change and come and go, only to reappear a couple summers later. Below is a picture of my half moon garden. The tree in the corner is a Lollipop Crabapple, it is dwarf so it is a perfect addition to the cottage garden.

 You can click on any of the pics for full size

To frame the garden, we collected boulders for the last 6 years, many we found at the farm across the road.

The hollyhocks put on quite a show this year. I started with one plant from the nursery marked "mixed". It was white the first year, then the next I had burgandy. Since then, I get several shades of pink too. I love the surprise they bring. I just let them reseed naturally...along with everything else!

In the back, are "Kiss me over the Garden Gate" They are not booming yet--that will be a new post in a couple weeks, The daylilies will need to be divided this fall, they did not bloom well this year.

Amongst the coreopsis, one of my favorite features, a shepherds hook with a watering can appearing to be pouring into the bird bath. I have actually put large chunks of ice in the can when we have outdoor parties. The water slowly trickles into the birdbath. I just finished adding some heirloom Balsam seedlings for some end of August color.

My most prized clematis! Betty Corning . She never disappoints me. She spreads her wings and blooms all summer lovely little lavender blue bells.

This is one of my newer small gardens in another part of the property, I have a young Eden rose and a butterfly bush in back. I am hoping for a spectacular show next summer.

I hope you enjoyed this tour, cottage gardening is one of my passions and I love to share.

 AND

 

my pink details from the garden

So I shared some white from the garden last week....last evening I grabbed my camera to seek out all the pink. What I found was the pallet our creator presents in pink has so more much detail I had not noticed before. I took lots of photos, but just a few were presentable...Enjoy!

tiny upright fuchsia

Cosmos "sonata"

pale pink hollyhock

Mary rose

"kiss me over the garden gate"

garden pinks (dianthus)

did you see the bee in this pic??...

click on the pic to see full size