Thursday Thirteen - 223 - 13 Views of the Garden 2011

1 - Biggest garden thrill this year: I planted two lilac bushes several years ago, and this year one of them bloomed. When I first saw the buds early in the spring, it was like spotting-my-teenage-heartthrob time.

(That would be Les McKeown, from the Bay City Rollers, in case you didn't already know that.)













2 - The next big thing for us was the emergence of our daffodils. I'd planted these a few autumns ago, but they'd never turned up the following spring. Mom and I chalked it up to raiding squirrels and left it at that.

Suddenly, this spring - voila. Daffodil.













3 - Forsythia and tulips in the front rock garden.






















4 - Kolkwitzia, a flowering shrub we planted in the backyard beside the deck






















5 - Pink clematis in the backyard, a gift from my sister, and dark blue clematis in the front yard, which came with the house













6 - Lady's mantle, which just appeared all on its own













7 - Angelica, which I planted outside the backdoor































8 - The Monster Rose Bush, otherwise known as an American Pillar rambler rose along the side of the house (which I grew from cuttings,) a delicate Rugosa rose which my sister and got from the side of the road by Grand Pré in the Annapolis Valley (in the front rock garden,) and the Aunt Sheila Rose, also known as a Subzero Brownell rose.






















9 - My mom's container gardens, featuring some gorgeous purple lobelia and her favorite, pansies






















10 - Orange lilies, originally from my husband's great-grandmother's Ontario garden, daylilies in the front garden and heritage lilies at the backdoor which I got at a farm museum plant sale.

















11 - Hostas in the back woodland garden













12 - Wild asters near the rugosa rose bush













13 - Balsam near the back door, at the edge of the woodland garden

Wordless Wednesday - 151

Jennifer Leeland says Gorgeous!! Especially the blue ones!!!

Janet says Um, when did you say you and your family are coming to work on mine?

Anne MacFarlane says Julia, your garden looks lovely. Those pink tulips are beautiful.

Thursday Thirteen - 76 - 13 Highlights From My Garden This Season

My husband and I live with my mom, so our garden is shared between my mom and me.


1 - My beautiful forsythia, which I bought as an 8-inch cutting from the Yarmouth Garden Society when we lived there. I dug it up and brought it to Cole Harbour with us. The bush is 8 years old.


2 - Mom's bleeding heart, tulips and heuchera in her front garden, with shasta daisies, liatris and yellow loosestrife just coming up as greenery.


3 - Red leaf Japanese barberry in the front rock garden, plus white alpine flowers, purple creeping phlox and tulips about to open.



4 - Mom's morning glories which she grew from seed, wrapped around the trunk of one of the maples in the front yard. That's the leafed-out forsythia in the background.



5 - Lavender and strawberries from my wildflower garden in the side yard.



6 - Hostas and astilbe in the woodland garden.


7 - English ivy beside Brad's and my entrance to our apartment.


8 - Lady's mantle on the slope beside my wildflower garden.


9 - A glossy dark euonymus evergreen shrub, a new rugosa rose from my sister's boyfriend, a wonderful hosta and purple clematis at the edge of Mom's front flower bed.



10 - Feverfew and ferns in Mom's back flower bed.



11 - Yellow loosestrife, plus a rose my sister gave to me. These are in a bed in the backyard which my sister's boyfriend dug up for us. So we call it Newt's Garden.



12 - Pink phlox in the side flower bed by our neighbors. I got these from my other bus buddy neighbor a few doors down, when she was splitting up her perrenials.



13 - Rosy sedum at the edge of the woodland garden.