Port Potager

For years I was working with a very limited palette for the flower garden that wraps around the house: all white, with a few touches of red in spots . This was very elegant, but now that we’ve begun painting the house yellow, I’ve found myself leaning toward orange and blue plants. I love the yellow-orange-blue color combination, and we were really happy with how our swath of orange tulips worked with the new paint color this spring . As is always the case with a flower garden, plants don’t live for ever. This year when I went shopping to fill in some holes, I reached for some more colorful plants to mix in with those white ones. They’re not all blooming right now, but here are a few that have opened for a sneak peak of next year’s color palette: These apricot blanket flowers actually have orange centers, but it’s hard to tell in this picture. That makes them blend well with the little orange petunias I have sprinkled along the very front of the border: Since I have ...

According to the U. S. Drought Monitor, our corner of Massachusetts is officially in a severe drought .  This is a classic application of Murphy’s Law, since we actually planted grass in the front yard this spring. Those efforts were doing reasonably well a few months ago, but we haven’t had a good rain in what feel like forever, and now things look like this: In case you were wondering about our garden irrigation habits, I aim to make sure that the productive food areas get an inch of rain per week, while ornamentals, herbs, and the grapes get a half inch. I keep an eye on the rain gauge and make up the difference with water from the rain barrels or the hose.  Things are so dire right now, though, that I will have to start watering the flowers more regularly as well. To wit, the hydrangea I planted last summer: And that’s in a shady  spot. Did I mention that we are also on something like Day 5 or 6 or a heat wave? (Well, Boston is. Newburyport gets th...

Yesterday I wrote about the half of the perennial border that runs along the driveway . Today we'll walk around the corner to see the rest of it along the path that leads across the yard to the front door. Around the corner from the climbing roses, Siberian irises, and sedum ground cover is some white salvia. Behind the salvia is some red bee balm, which is just starting to bloom. The bees love  this section of the flower garden! There's also a male holly busy and another smallish peony (I really like the way these look even when the bloom is over, so I have a lot of them). Across the front is a wide swath of hardy mums that will bloom in the fall. Like I said, there are a lot of chrysanthemums here. Behind the mums are white lilies, Shasta daisies, and the female holly bush (that's the one that will have the berries in the winter). Beyond the holly the border widens near the front door. Across the back is a boxwood, rhododendron, and a big clump o...

Perhaps you recall that last summer I spent a month in Costa Rica . During that time, Kirk took care of the garden by himself. He did a great job keeping up with the vegetables, but there wasn't any time left for just one person (with a day job) to keep up the perennial border. So this year it needed a lot of work. All the weeds that weren't pulled last year went to seed, so I had my work cut out for me in that department. There were also some plants that didn't make it through the winter and others that were in serious need of dividing.  The best part of summer vacation is having the time to get lost in an outdoor task, and that's just what I did this past weekend. Or maybe week. It's nice to forget what day it is, too. Anyway, here's the result of the perennial border overhaul. This section will take us from the garden gate along the driveway to the corner of the bed.  Immediately outside the garden gate at the top of the driveway is a cl...

Back in May, I decided to revamp the little daffodil and hosta border in front of our three-season porch to be filled with more fragrant flowers. The idea here is that these plants are right outside the screened jalousie windows where the furniture is on our porch, so we could enjoy plants that smell nice right outside the windows. The challenge is that this area is also shaded by the sugar maple , which makes choosing flowers tricky. There are lots of leafy plants for shade, but not many flowers. Luckily, not all of the area is in darkness. The left is the shadiest; the right has more sun: So as you can see, I moved the hosta into the shady section, and set out a new hydrangea in the partial-sun portion. Hydrangeas don't smell like anything at all, but I love blue ones, and wanted to create a little vignette of my summertime favorites: blue hydrangeas, white daisies, and orange daylilies:  That should look better in the future when everything fills in and bl...

Ok, so there are still not all that many flowers left for cutting, but at least I found a nice new way to photograph them. The vases are set up atop the closed piano keyboard. Also, check out the big daisy that rebloomed — it's the only one to do so in the perennial border, and it's a good one! Artemisia and Shasta daisy. Snapdragons. Chrysanthemums, echinacea seed heads, and marigold.

Summer flowers are here: snapdragons, lilies, daisies, hydrangea. I'm especially interested in what color the lilies turn out to be, since I bought them in a mixed bag collection, something I never do. So far, so good. Snapdragons, echinacea, yarrow, and lilies. Hydrangea. Shasta daisies and hydrangea. Astilbe, snapdragons, echinacea, and Shasta daisy.  I would ordinarily have skipped the daisy in this arrangement, but it was a perfectly healthy hold-over from one of last week's bouquets, and it seemed a shame to throw it out. Also, I always think of daisies as our wedding flower, and it's no coincidence that they are flush at our anniversary every year — our fifteenth was yesterday!

Happy summer! This holiday has been filled with the beach, some touring, and a whole lotta heat. These were all cut back during the cool rains earlier this week.  Delphinium (blossoms pulled from their long spikes). Veronica lupine, white lavender, yarrow. Delphinium, echinacea (a puffy one and "Sunset"). Lavender and calendula heads. Lavender and Shasta daisies.

Another rainy week makes for fewer bouquets — again, it's no fun to bring in flowers once they've been drenched in a thunderstorm. Still, here's what I managed to put together before the lightning and thunder each night. Lupines, delphinium, and shasta daisies. Poppy, Veronica "Royal Candles," yarrow, and white lavender. Veronica, hosta, yarrow, and delphinium. Calendula and Munstead lavender.

Last time I showed you what was blooming in the vegetable garden. Of course, they are many other flowers around our house that are unrelated to eventual eating. Here's what's opened up in the perennial border: The Dublin Bay climbing roses I put in early in the summer are still way too small to require a trellis, but they have put out some fall blooms. This is a bloom of the hardy geraniums I got at half off at the beginning of August. They managed to survive their root-bound state and less-than-optimal planting time. The leaves are supposed to be brilliant red in the fall, so that is another thing to look forward to. Echinacea blooms. These are also doing well for having been planted in August, and for having been purchased from the Home Depot , of all places. I'm not deadheading these as the blooms fade so I can see if the seed heads last in an interesting way through the fall and winter. These are along the driveway, and that's a spot where winter in...