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A couple years ago, I began posting one or more long views of my gardens nearly every Tuesday.  I dropped the habit last summer when pesky health problems kept me from my gardens.  Recently, looking back over my blog’s entirety, I found that I really enjoyed those weekly views, to see how things changed not only from week to week, but from one year to the next as well.  And so, I begin again!

Here is the Terrace Garden in the bright early morning light:DSC_5006

There’s not a lot of color in Becky’s Bed (the area at the far left, named after Shasta Daisy ‘Becky’) right now, with just some Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ and Nepeta blooming.  The bed holds a great deal of promise, though, with many of the plants heavily budded and poised to bloom in a week or two.   Very near the middle of the picture, Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ is just beginning to bloom on a trellis against the wall.  Looking down the hill, in the midst of Shrubbery Row, you can see the pale pink blossoms covering the Spirea bushes.

Now here is the Terrace Garden, looking up the hill, from the still shaded Dogwood Corner:DSC_5005

If you look carefully, you can see a few blossoms on the Kousa Dogwood tree.  You can also see all the shabby remains of the daffodils and camassia!  Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow!  Usually at this time of year, this area is filled with self-sown Cleome seedlings.  Not so this year!  I blame the lack of snow cover over the winter.  (Very few Cosmos showed up either.)

Let’s walk back up to the driveway and take a look at the rock garden in the back yard:DSC_4997

The Dianthus are at their peak now, and the white rose ‘Alba Meidiland’ has just begun its summer-long bloom cycle.  My ‘May Night’ Salvias suffered some from last year’s neglect, but there are a few blooms hovering above the foliage of the thread-leafed Coreopsis.  The splotch of red near the middle of the photo is Penstemon ‘Riding Hood Marble Cream’.  One lone foxglove blooms at the far end of this garden.

And now we’ll go farther up the hill, to the lasagna bed, where A LOT of work needs to be done, not the least of which is pulling up the spent daffodil foliage!DSC_5012

Green is the name of the game up here now that the flush of early spring blooms has passed.  The Bleeding Heart and Lupine foliage are thriving, and so are the weeds!  The Heuchera and Astilbes are a bit behind where they should be, probably from a lack of water.  I’ve committed now to watering this bed well at least twice a week; thus the hose!

Here’s the lasagna from the opposite side:DSC_5014

I love the foliage on the Heart Leaf Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’, and the variegated foliage of Lamium ‘Beacon Silver’.  You may also be able to pick out a few Heuchera among all the daffodil detritus!  As I said, much work to be done up here!

(In my own defense, the past month has been exceedingly busy, with my son graduating from high school and the many special school events associated with that, followed by a beach vacation–don’t be envious, it rained two out of the four days– and then a large graduation party this past weekend at our house!  Now that those things have passed, I should be able to fall into my preferred routine of playing in the gardens for an hour or so nearly every morning before the weather gets too hot.)

Tune in again next Tuesday to see what’s changed in a week!  Or maybe I’ll show you an altogether different view!  One never knows what Tuesday’s Views will be!