Foxglove Miss Kim Lilies There are so many photos I would love to share. The garden is exploding. It may be dry and windy and all the blooms are way early but they are here and I’m thankful. The Miss Kim lilac is in full glory with the alchemilla mollis (lady’s mantel) yellow blooms creating a lovely duet. You should all have this combination. Its difficult to come inside, I just want to look at it endlessly. The Miss Kim is a smallish lilac making it suitable for a variety of sites and its fragrance is intense. Keep it in mind. The thalictrum (meadow rue) is going to seed and I am determined to catch each and every one of the seed heads before they add to the masses that are already here. I have been weeding them out all season and have only made a dent. What happened is ~ the seed heads are gorgeous and I didn’t want to cut them. I thought ‘o, the warblers will eat the seeds’. Wrong. So very wrong. Won’t make that mistake again. Something has devoured the leaves on the columbine...

  Lilac Mecanopsis Thalictrum Middle of June with just enough rain to help plants along. The garden is thriving, the meadow in front of us is happy as can be. We may want more rain but what we have gotten is working to the environments advantage. Be thankful. It may be a little late in the game but it won’t hurt to pinch the center out of your perennials. This will encourage branching which in turn produces more blooms. I let the cosmos (three kinds) go too long but I pinched anyway, now we’ll see what happens. They are clustered around the peonies that are considering blooming. The plan was for all of them to bloom together. This probably won’t happen but whatever does happen will be just fine. Its that kind of season. There is too much thalictrum (aka meadow rue) everywhere. I really like this plant. Its tall with a froth of purple and a few white blooms that drift above everything else. I purposely didn’t deadhead (cut down the seed heads) last season because I really did wa...

Camassia Clematis aka ‘The Beast’ Lewisia Right now the most exciting plant in this garden is the Spotted Lady Slipper orchid, in full bloom. I got a trowel full from the Pratt Museum a few years ago when the botanical garden was experiencing a renovation. Lucky me. I’m hoping it will fill in under the hydrangea, which is looking promising. I’m gathering up the spent foliage with seed pods from the minor bulbs that are here and there throughout this garden. I’m tossing them under the red twig dogwoods where, for the first time, they actually took hold and there were a couple of blooms. I’m encouraged by this small success so will continue to toss seed pods under there. With that goal in mind I’m being cautious about leaving enough behind with the original clutch so those too will continue on. Excellent. The crushing snow load on the lilacs seemed, at the time, to spell doom. But no, they are all on the cusp of bloom and it will be a very magnificent lilac season. Keep an eye out so as ...

So, I hear our son Darren’s voice from somewhere above me, which is odd, I look around and sure enough there he is on the roof, taking a video of the third of an acre John and I call home. How cool is that? I’m hoping that our daughter Andrea (she’s in control of this blog, fortunately) can include this here. (*note from Andrea, no luck, but find Kachemak Gardener on Facebook to view video). What you will see is me in action, with an unhappy knee. I’m cultivating the vegetable plot. This is what we need to talk about ~ cultivating. I have peeled back the floating row cover on just one edge. Using the long handled cultivator I’m breaking up the surface of the soil. If you don’t do this the water (and I’m sure you are watering) will start to run off the surface instead of reaching the roots of your hard earned seedlings. I’ve been watering through the floating row cover since the plants went in and it works good enough but the time has come to make an impact. To make absolute sure that ...