Spring, West Front Yard in Front of Fence

I am tickled it is spring, and we are seeing more and more coming up.  Not all of the milkweeds are up yet.  They seem to be one of the last to come up.  I went around taking lots of photos of the beds last night, because we were expecting a storm with hail, which we got, but thankfully, there was not much damage.  We are expecting a possibly severe storm tomorrow.  I hope we fare OK.

Our yard is going to be on our local Wachiska Audubon Society garden tour on Father's Day.  Because of that, I removed the plants that were in front of this sidewalk on the west edge of the yard, and put these steps from another spot in the yard here, so people can come out of the area where the tree used to be.  The path into it is narrow, and a "one way".  I am actually making a number of changes, mostly because of the tour, but am having lots of fun in the process.

I am trying to put the plant labels next to the first examples of each plant that will be seen.

Each kind of plant I have, such as one of my favorites, Fremont's clematis, is also in another flower bed somewhere in the yard.  Not all beds have every kind of flower, though.

Pussytoes and prairie petunia are also in several of the beds.  Prairie petunias are one of the last flowers to come up in the spring.

I don't remember where I got the couple of clumps of merry bells that are in this bed, but would love to find some more.  The foliage on the right is stiff goldenrod, which I thinned quite a bit, hoping there will be less leaning.

I don't remember what this is in the middle, but am thinking it may be a clover of some kind.  I tried transplanting one that was too close to another plant, but it came apart from the roots.  I have several prairie smoke geums, the plant on the right, around the yard.

I see gray-headed coneflower, New Jersey tea, liatris, Riddells goldenrod, and foxglove beardtongue in this photo.

Rabbits have been munching on this.  Do you know how to tell the different kinds of liatris apart?  I had some cultivars, Kobolds that seeded out some.  I am thinking with all of the natives ones I now have, I want to get rid of the Kobolds.

We are heading east, and seeing some of the plants I already named.  There are some bare spots I want to fill.

I am not sure what the two plants in front are.  I believe the middle one is white blooming flowering euphorbia.

Rabbits are eating on the foxglove beardtongue on the right, but not the one on the left as much.

Here is a closer view of one of the plants I'm not sure of the name of.

This is looking back to the west.

This is red root, a relative of New Jersey tea, blooming before the New Jersey teas even have flower buds.

This evening, I got Larry to help me finish digging out the spirea closest to the fence, to make room for the milkweed that came up in the area last year.  That's a Heuchera richardonii in the middle, a native coral bells.

I hope your spring is going well.  I'm thinking those of you in the north should be having some things up and blooming by now.  If you are in the path of the storms, I hope you stay safe.

View from the Corner

I sometimes do posts that show the view from our front porch.  As I was standing in the street, starting to take photos of the curb bed, I got the idea to take photos from that spot, and use my zoom like I do when on the porch to see what I can see.  After taking these photos, I decided to cut the liatris aspera plants that were way taller than the other plants in that part of the bed.  The purple poppy mallow plants are blooming away, and I've trimmed them to keep them from going too far out into the street.

Zooming toward the lovely fire hydrant, we see a good number of what look to be purple coneflowers.

Zooming across the sidewalk, to the west curb bed, there are more purple coneflowers, some baby's breath, and common milkweed, which is just starting to bloom.

Can you see down the sidewalk, that we have a neighbor who has no lawn at all?

I see phlox, switchgrass, I'm thinking, 'heavy metal', Mexican hats, New Jersey tea, liatris, little bluestem grass, and a common milkweed.

Zooming to the west, and into the back yard, the giant coneflower is blooming.  The baptisia is sporting seed pods, and the pale purple coneflower and yellow coneflowers are mingling.

Coming back to the east side, there are fewer purple coneflowers in this bed, because I pulled quite a few.  I have to watch for aster yellows, and so far, the pale ones have not had it.  The orange is a cultivar of sneeze weed.

Closer to the house, in the same bed, I think that's a gray headed coneflower getting ready to bloom.  I get it mixed up with another plant, that I'm not remembering the name of, but the blooms are very similar.  The orange blooms here are a daylily I've had for awhile.

Sweet black eyed susans should be blooming in a few weeks. The rattlesnake master is blooming shorter than usual.   

I backed off of the zoom to show a fuller view of the front bed, and the side of the house.

Here's a closer view of the east side of the house.  I like my zoom!  The spiderworts are getting a bit ragged.  The alliums will be soon.

False sunflower and coreopsis provide some yellow.  The huge green plant is an amsonia.  I think this is the best year the garden phlox have had.  I think all the rain we had this spring may be the reason.

The phlox are on the south side of the driveway.  The other plants are across to the north side.  I am not remembering what the huge, white blooming plant is, but we decided to take out the gas plant after I got burned from trimming this plant, even though I thought I had been careful not to touch it.  Larry was also worried the grandkids would get hurt by it.

I hope you are having a good start to your July.  Spring went by way too quickly for me.  I hope we get enough rain, but not as much as we did in the spring.  It's been hot enough, that the soil has gotten dry, though.  I saw some pretty big cracks last night, so the little bit of rain we got in the night was very appreciated.  (I wasn't consistent in providing links, because it is getting late, but the Lady Bird Johnson site is a good resource, and if you are curious about any native plant, you can do a search there.

From the Front Porch, August 15, 2014

I looked to see what things looked like in July, when I did a post showing photos taken from the front porch.  There have been enough changes to do another post.   This post has been a few days in the making.

The Butterfly bush is now blooming, smaller than the last few years, because I kept cutting it back so it doesn't take up so much space.

Rattlesnake master looks good all season.  This is the second season for the Sweet black-eyed susans.  The pollinators and I sure like them.  The Hibiscus is kind of out of place now, but I let it do its thing, and have seen some insects on the blooms.

I love where the Kiss me over the garden gate plants seeded this year.  They sure are tall, too!

The Joe pye weed is one of the favorites of the bees and butterflies, as are the Liatris ligulistylis, which you can see in the background here.  This Joe pye is 'Gateway'.

I trimmed back the lower stems of the Joe pye weed, so they will be blooming a little later than the upper ones.

Next, come Wild quinine, Mountain mint, Allium, Liatris, and Meadow rue.

These are the same plants as above, with some volunteer Stiff goldenrod, not blooming yet, and Coneflowers.

Oh, there are also seedheads of Golden alexanders.

I sure included some repeats!  In this one, you can also see a bit of yellow from a Mexican hat plant and the leaves of the cup plant.  Birds have been eating the seeds of the Coneflowers.  It's fun to come out and see them before they fly off.

The Purple prairie clover is finished blooming.  I'll keep the cage around it because the rabbits have been doing lots of munching, and this is one of their favorites.

We'll cross the sidewalk to the west side of the front yard.

I'm thinking the grass here is Sideoats grama.  The white is Wild quinine.

Whorled milkweed is one of my favorites.  This is a Switchgrass cultivar.

This Liatris is later opening than the others.

The Cup plant sure is tall.  I love it!  Illinois bundleflower is in front of the porch, with the yellow blooms of Gray-headed coneflowers on the other side.

I love the seed pods of Illinois bundleflowers.  The blooms are in the next photo.

Back to the Cup plant, the pollinators are loving it as much as the Joe pye weed.

There are two or three Monarchs that have been flying around the yard, nectaring mostly on the Liatrises, Joe pye weed, and the Cup plant.

I keep forgetting the names of the bees, but I'm pleased there are a number of different kinds.  These lovely blooms are Sweet black-eyed susans.  This is their second season here.

That may be Stiff goldenrod almost ready to bloom in the background.

I am sad that the Wild sennas are finished blooming.

I had a number of seedlings come up this spring that I was able to share.  I hope there will be some next spring as well.

The Prairie dock is blooming this year.  The blooms look a lot like Cup plant blooms.

We've been continuing to the west.  The grass is another cultivar of Switchgrass.  The strawberries have done pretty well in this spot.

I am glad the Joe pye weed that I was able to divide from the original clump is doing OK in this dryer area next to a sidewalk.  I didn't get the Beauty berry plants cut back this year.  The yellow blooms are Helen's flower.

I forgot what kind of Helen's flowers these reddish ones are.

The Rudbeckia laciniata hortensia plants have needed to be deadheaded and tied up so they won't flop over as much.

I hope you have been enjoying the views from your porches, too!  Enjoy what's left of summer.