Garden Bloggers Bloom Day June 15, 2010

Gaillardias and Yarrow, south of the house, planted last summer.

Things are a bit late this year due to the unusually cool, wet spring. To further complicate our gardening, it jumped from freezing to 100 degrees with dry winds in a very short time which stressed transplants that hadn't had time to grow deep roots. I still have lots of planting and transplanting to do because of this. Some friends tell me that they haven't managed to get any gardening done due to the weird weather conditions.

Serious gardeners in Colorado learn to go with the flow and succeed in having attractive gardens when they learn to grow plants that stand the conditions without coddling or using too much water, which is getting scarcer as more people move here and try to grow giant size blue grass lawns. I love my native Blue Gramma Grass that takes much less water and doesn't have to cut often and grows well in our sandy river bottom soil. I've become a missionary to spread the word about xeriscape gardening, and I don't mean only hot rocks and gravel.

Ozark Yellow Evening Primroses that grow beside the Lilliaputian Prairie Pond.

Volunteer Coropsis that moved from prairie border to the herb garden, probably with the help of one of the birds that flock in the Locust Tree, next to the bird feeders, behind the herb garden.

Closeup of Yellow Yarrow planted south of the house last summer.

Gaillardias planted with Yarrow last year. Notice that I don't even try to grow plants like beautiful Delphiniums that don't do well in our hot, dry climate gardens.

Feverfew in the dooryard patio garden with the California Poppies and Lavender.

Violas and California Poppies in the dooryard patio garden.

Honeysuckle Vine behind the herb garden.

ChoCho checking out the newly planted Catnip, which has to be protected by a metal basket to keep the cats from rolling in it and eating it down to the roots. Our historic patch didn't make it thru this tough winter, but there are volunteers coming up in all kinds of places they shouldn't be.

Pretty yellow blooms on unknown herb which I planted last year and can't find the label this spring. Any suggestions on what it is are welcomed.

This Caroway Thyme smells exactly like Caroway. It's been here since planted in 2004 when it began as a tiny plant.

This Cilantro is working on becoming Coriander seeds. Everything tastes better with Cilantro, well... Mexican dishes do.

Yellow Prickley Pear peeking out from the edge of the Cholla that is trying to take over the mini prairie garden. These PPs are blooming all over the prairie right now also. I hope to add a Claret Cup PP to the prairie garden. There are some of them growing on certain prairie hills around here, but they bloom a bit later. I am trying to figure out how to armor myself to prune down this overgrown Cholla, which has wickedly painful loooong spines that hurt, and they reach out and grab you if you come too near. I'm thinking I need a long handled lopper and very heavy leather gloves and a long handled grabber of some kind. Joe tells me I need to use the flame thrower on it, but I'm afraid of that thing. Note the bindweed that I am reluctant to try to pull out of those small spaces between predatory spines.

Pink Chintz Creeping Thyme by the front gate. I had a brilliant idea several years ago to plant a Creeping Thyme lawn on this side of the small front yard. The weedy grasses, dandelions and bindweed that had had free rein here for decades pretty much crowded the thymes out. I should have sterilized the soil before planting the thymes here, like I did before planting the prairie and veggie gardens in the side yard. The first summer we lived here I spread heavy black plastic sheeting all over that area and weighted it down with concrete pavers and the huge potted plants I had moved here from my previous roof top garden. The heat sterilizes most weed seeds.

Some of my beloved volunteer Bachelor Buttons along the front fence. These have been favorites of mine since I was a small child. They look good next to the Blaze Climbing Roses.

This is the Blaze Climbing Rose I plated on the front fence last year. I may decide to put them all along the fence.

Check out what is blooming all over the world, on May Dreams Gardens, each month on the 15th day.