As busy as the birds and the bees

No wonder poets, song writers and yes, even garden writers pine on about June. It’s long days are packed romance, vigor, abundance and vitality and it all seems to come at once – especially to those of us who garden. Yet really, is there any other time of year so rich with life?

Around here, it’s all babies all the time now. Baby plants, baby bunnies, baby spiders – even baby canaries ( three eggs hatched last weekend!), but really, it’s the garden which is consuming most of the time right now. I imagine that for most of you, it’s pretty much the same. Here we are a week after Memorial Day in the US – traditional tomato planting season for the old timers, and the unofficial start of summer for everybody else.

This somewhat rare nasturtium – Tropaeolum ‘Hermine Grashoff’ is very special. It’s an old Victorian, sterile sport which means that it has been handed down for generations between one enthusiast to another as a vegetative cutting – it does not produce seed. It’s watermelon pink color is quite special too. It makes a nice potted plant for the summer terrace.

‘Puppy’, which is what we are calling the puppy since she has to leave us so, has decapitated a dinosaur in the gravel bed garden. I suppose it’s better than her decapitating any more lilies, as she has destroyed far too many nice ones.

A little yarn nest finally tempted the canaries to raise a successful clutch of three. Both mom and dad are feeding our three new songsters. Hashtag Canary Birds!

My collection of annual sweet pea species – Lathyrus species, is starting to grow nicely. I’ve transplanted a few of the taller species, and moved them to the deck which we just painted.

I am only growing a few rows of Spencer Sweet Peas as cut flowers this year, but they are starting to look fine. I am training them as single-stem cordons, in the English method so that I get long stems. Check out my Mandarin orange tree – it’s still covered in fruit – right here in Massachusetts!

Here is a slightly different view.

I have always wanted to try growing dwarf sweet peas – but the seed has been difficult to find lately. I found some this spring, and a pot is just starting to bloom. I can’t wait, they are so tiny!

While on the topic of bamboo canes, I have used some extra ones as early stakes for the dahlias. Name tags are essential here, as we plan to exhibit some at our local Dahlia Society shows.

Bamboo canes always look nice in the garden.

Weasley checks some of my spelling.

Joe’s nephew Curtis, who is staying with us for a while, has been a great help. He was fascinated with the bottle brush flowers on the Callistemon that he helped move out of the greenhouse.

A very nice chocolate Baptisia. Name tag lost, but I still like it.

More Spotted Trout Backed Lettuce in a raised bed. It stays so clean when grown in these beds, and – dare I admit, I don’t have to bed over to pick them (and the dogs can’t pee on them!).

A lovely alpine plants, this Saxifraga longifolia is monocarpic, which means that it will die once it blooms. Sad, but it does appear to be forming some runners. It’s blossoms are like a cloud of butterflies.