Water Garden by Larix Landscaping on April 7, 2025

 

The view along the old sidewalk, with the spring bulbs in bloom. on both sides.

The beginning of creating the viewing platform and drystream.  

The beginning of replacing the plants along the edge of the masonary and showing the beginning of the drystream with the large mossy rock in place.  The above photo shows a large mossy rock and primulas beside the begining of the viewing platform and the steps to the sitting area under the deck.

The revision of the fieldstone stepping stones that lead under the deck from the round stepping stone path that goes around the fig tree garden room.

The view from the new masonary at the entrance to the water garden to the round stepping stones path that leads to the old sidewalk, between the grass around the apple tree and the fig tree garden room.

closer up of the stone masonary at the entrance to the cutting garden and the water garden.

The waterfall is not yet running as there may be some adjustments made to the pond by Larix in May, 2025.

The water level just beneath the mermaid.  This is from all the rainfall we have had recently.  At this time I have not run the waterfall as I am afraid it will drain the water out of the pond.  Hopefully Larix will have had a look at it and fix any problem there might be, in May.  

Photos  of the artistic waterfall.

Photos of the plants currently in the pond showing the water level covering the tops of the pots at the right level.  Now, on April 19th the water hawthorn is showing growing out of the lower level blue pots.  And I am happy to see that is in two of these lower level blue pots and is even in bloom.  Also happy to see that the marsh marigold is growing out of one of the pots and is blooming in yellow. 

The addition of stepping stones around the Fig Tree Garden Room in 2008

 While doing up the Fig Tree Garden Room photo album, I spent a few hours searching for the photos of the creation of the stepping stone path that goes around the Fig Tree Garden Room.  I eventually found it in the April 2008 Pictures folder.  Unfortunately, I did not start keeping garden notes on my computer until 2012. I cannot find any day to day notes before 2012, but have many diagrams of the garden, and lists of plants going back to the beginning of the garden prior to 1992 and a few photos starting in 1999 when I start using my first digital camera.  So, I will do this blog post so I can record this renovation of this area of the garden.

I put down the round stepping stones and filled in around them with pea gravel and sand.  I have some plants ready to plant along the edges of the stepping stones path.  There is now primulas, epimediums,  and others growing in the moss along one side of the stepping stones, and other perennials and self seeding columbines, honesty, etc.  under the fig tree.We see the bulbs under the fig tree. 

Creating the Plum Tree Well in 2022

This is the bottom of the plum tree in April 2022.

This is the plum tree in May 2022 after creating the tree well.

This is the plum tree in November of 2022

This is the plum tree well with crocuses in March 2023

This is the plum tree well with some scilla in  the foreground

This is the plum tree well in June of 2023.  The June drop of the fruit has not started yet.

 A good source of information for creating a  https://www.edmondok.gov/1401/Tree-Well-Maintenance 

  tree well.  Finished making the tree well around the plum tree on the 28 April, 2022.

It has boards along the Pees side to keep his freaking weed eater off the roots of the tree, I hope.  I moved the little yellow leafed veronica -- a piece to the little back rockery, a piece to the front little rockery, and another piece to the rockery next to the pond.  After weeding, somewhat, and cutting back the wild hawthorne bush, I put in the boards with clay backing on my side and some stones and the left over grass stuff on the Pees side.  I stuck little honeysuckle pilea cuttings in along the side of the boards and hope they catch hold.  I added compost from the old bin, and then some leaf mulch from under the bench on top of the compost.  I put in 3 fertilizer sticks around the roots about 4 feet from the trunk.  Still more weeding to do.  It rained overnight on the 29th, so this should all be good.  I may add some more soil of some kind over the leaf mulch to hold it down.  Perhaps some clay from under the deck, with sand added to it. Kept the tree watered over the 2022 year.  Cannot find where we had plums last year, though.

  There was a lot of June drop from the tree, this year, in June.  And still lots of plums on in September.  Some kids were under the tree with their ladder picking plums.  Pat had a word with the people (Syrians ?) next door, and told them that the tree was ours as we planted it and take care of it so they are not allowed to pick the fruit.  Haven't seen any kids there since.  But we came home from grocery shopping a couple of weeks ago and that demented old Pee was out under the tree pulling down branches.  His chair was sitting under the tree.  I was furious.  I had to physically throw him off my tree.  I haven't seen him there since.  We have managed to get quite a few pounds of plums this year, after all this hassle.  I have made 2 batches of plum sauce, each of about 2 cups.  We have had a huge pie with another pie plate of sliced plums frozen.  And then I have 5 more cups sliced and frozen in 1 cup little baggies.  We have been eating them fresh, for about 3 weeks now, too.  So, making the tree well and keeping it watered, despite the drought has been a success.

The taking down of the Virginia Creeper in 2022

 In 2022 we had many renovations done in the garden.  And the heat pump installed. Some of the garden renovations are shown on the composite of the Synopsis of the Journal entries for 2022 included below.  The taking down of the Virginia creeper was not mentioned on the composite... just too many things done in 2022.  As I am starting to do up yet more gardening pages I am doing this post so I can link it to the page about the Driveway Strip garden room https://www.mmmee.com/listDWS 

The text is an excerpt from my daily garden journal.

August 11, 2022: 

 Pat was complaining about the magnolia and the tree/shrubs on the other side of the driveway, including the virginia creeper. He has to get up on the ladder once a year and bring it down so that it does not get up on to the wires. Poor Pat! So after talking to him about taking it out or keeping it; I think I compromised at bringing it down to manageable height. I started this chore at 3:00 and came in at 5:00. I have a lot of it pulled down. There was a squirrel's nest or two under there. It has a lot of dried out vines. The ivy is very healthy. When I got to the top of the vines I see that the ivy has grown into cracks in the post. So, it is a good thing we are taking it down, I guess. I am now contemplating cleaning out the area around the post, entirely. I do not know if round up kills ivy, creeper or St.John's wort. 

August 12, 2022:

 I have the piles of debris along the driveway with the virginia creeper stuff. So, it is quite cleaned up.  I worked at taking down more of the virginia creeper from about 3:00 to 3:40... came in for iced cappiccino and a cookie. Was back out till about 5:45. I have about 3/4 of the thing taken down. Pat and I do not know just yet how much of the creeper we are going to take down. Ground level would be good for me. The lower I go on clipping down the stems the thicker the stems become, so I do not know how much of this I can do with the long handled pruner. It has been a very good tool, but I think this bashing and crashing the creeper is taking its toll on it. This year has been full of this 'taking trees and shrubs down and cleaning up over-grown things', and renovation everywhere. 

August 16, 2022:

Was 18 degrees when I went out to the garden to continue taking down the creeper. I have it down to a knarly bunch of stems that look like a stump. I think I will leave it at that. Need to get the St. John's wort mowed down. Then I should be able to find someone to hall away the debris. The Davey Tree arborist comes tomorrow morning. Pat thinks I should ask them to take this debris... Would be nice if they could. 

August 17, 2022:

Saw Ben from Davey Tree this morning about 10:00 ish. We got all the things listed that I want done: copies of everything in the gardening folder.

August 20, 2022:

 At about 9:00 Ben came by with his silver pick up truck and his tools. He has a good big hedge pruner, rake, shovel, broom and a tarp. Also has a pressure washer and other things I don't know about. He used the tarp to load debris onto, folded it and lifted the stuff into the truck box. He clipped the St.John's wort; on the Saanich property and up to the agave. I said I would do the rest, as there are plants in there that I do not want clipped down. It must have taken him a couple hours. The truck box was full and covered with the tied down tarp. I got his private phone number and his wife's cell. He uses his cell number for Davey Tree stuff, and the ipad they gave him. He uses his private phone with Davey so he does not need to be answering several different phones. $150. paid. 2 more months and he will be able to form his own company. I don't think Davey Tree minds him doing this side work, as long as he is not doing tree stuff that Davey would be able to charge for. 

On August 18, 2023 I dug out some of the ivy at the base of the stump of the virginia creeper.  The creeper has gone wild, with great big leaves that are lying on top of the St.John's wort along the ground. I pulled down the pieces that have grown up the post to about a 6 foot height.  When I get the time I will move the creeper vines and cut back everything beneath them, and put them back along the ground again.   The St. John's wort also has been growing like crazy.

The Salton Sea

 This is a photo from our trip to California in 2018.  We are parked by what is left of the Salton Sea.  In that regard I am copying a recent article that describes the mining of Lithium from the area.

https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-technology-business-environment-and-nature-california-4870cb3b42d8292285130b66f56bc3ba 

Lithium  fuels hopes for revival on California’s largest lake

By ELLIOT SPAGAT

August 30, 2021 

Greg Shank hits golf balls onto a dried up boating dock near his home in Salton City, Calif., Wednesday, July 14, 2021. Shank used to sail a boat on the canals near his property, which have since dried up. Increasing demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium, critical to rechargeable batteries, from geothermal wastewater around the rapidly shrinking body of water. But decades of economic stagnation and environmental ruin have left some nearby residents indifferent or wary. 

CALIPATRIA, Calif. (AP) — Near Southern California’s dying Salton Sea, a canopy next to a geothermal power plant covers large containers of salty water left behind after super-hot liquid is drilled from deep underground to run steam turbines. The containers connect to tubes that spit out what looks like dishwater, but it’s lithium, a critical component of rechargeable batteries and the newest hope for economic revival in the depressed region.

Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal brine, salty water that has been overlooked and pumped back underground since the region’s first geothermal plant opened in 1982. The mineral-rich byproduct may now be more valuable than the steam used to generate electricity.

California’s largest but rapidly shrinking lake is at the forefront of efforts to make the U.S. a major global player in the production of lithium. Despite large deposits of the ultralight metal in the U.S., Nevada has the country’s only lithium plant, and U.S. production lags far behind Australia, Chile, Argentina and China.

Decades of environmental ruin have left some residents on the Salton Sea’s receding shores indifferent or wary. They have been disappointed before, most recently by solar plants that failed to be the economic engine many hoped.

The Salton Sea formed in 1905 after the Colorado River breached a dike and two years of flooding filled a sizzling basin, earning it the nickname “The Accidental Sea.” In the 1950s, the lake thrived as a tourist destination, drawing anglers, boaters and celebrity visitors including Frank Sinatra.

But storms in the 1970s destroyed marinas and resorts. Flooding wrecked many homes in the tiny, former resort town of Bombay Beach, and after the water dried, left an almost apocalyptic atmosphere that has recently attracted artists.

The lake level peaked in 1995 but, with little rain, has since been evaporating faster than Colorado River water seeping downhill through farms can replenish as farmers conserved more water.

Since 2003, the 324-square-mile (839-square-kilometer) lake has shrunk 40 square miles (104 square kilometers), exposing vast lakebed with microscopic wind-blown dust that contributes to poor air quality and asthma.

The sea has been a key stopover for migrating birds. But as the lake has shrunk, the fish population has declined, chasing away about 25% of the more than 400 bird species that populated it five years ago, said Frank Ruiz, Audubon California’s Salton Sea program director. Carcasses of oxygen-starved tilapia no longer blanket shores periodically with a stench that could reach Los Angeles because there are so few left.

In Salton City, a town of about 6,000, roads curve along empty lots, a legacy of its first developer who stopped construction in 1960. Street signs with idyllic names like Harbor Drive and Sea Shore Avenue mark a barren landscape of cracked pavement.

Pat Milsop, a 61-year-old retired restaurant owner, hits golf balls across a dry canal. His view is filled with dilapidated docks on bone-dry soil that harbored boats when his mother-in-law bought his house in 2004. He is skeptical that lithium will restore some of the lake’s glory.

“Are they going to do something good for the community or just buy up all the land and kick everybody out?” he asks. Nostalgic for livelier days, he plans to move to his farm near Lubbock, Texas.

The lake is at the southern tip of the San Andreas Fault, which has shifting tectonic plates that bring molten material closer to Earth’s surface. The only other part of the U.S. known to have more geothermal brine available is on the fault’s other end in Northern California.

Rod Colwell, chief executive of Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd., oversees construction of what would be the region’s first geothermal power plant in nearly a decade. General Motors Corp. said it invested in the project as it seeks to eliminate tailpipe emissions from light-duty vehicles by 2035.

The lake’s southern shores are dotted with small, volcano-like pots of bubbling mud caused by geothermal activity. In 2011, Colwell walked about a mile in the Salton Sea’s knee-deep water — all of it now evaporated, with a fine powder below a white, cracked crust.

Lakebed is considered an ideal spot for lithium. The company says it plans to drill down 8000 feet (2,438 meters) for super-hot liquid.

“There is no brine resource like this anywhere on the planet,” said Colwell, who relied on years of extensive, publicly available reports analyzing the area’s soil.

He said the $520 million plant will start producing lithium in 2024.

Owners of 11 existing geothermal plants around the lake’s southern shores are retooling for lithium and possibly other brine minerals instead of building from scratch. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co. has state and federal grants for lithium demonstration projects and says it could begin construction for commercial operations in 2024.

EnergySource LLC opened its geothermal plant in 2012 and its sister company, EnergySource Minerals, has extracted lithium there on a small scale since 2016, said Derek Benson, chief operating officer. It plans to start building a $500 million addition for mineral extraction by the end of March.

An easily overlooked metal structure faces the plant across a two-lane rural road. Bolted down by tons of concrete, it drills more than 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) underground for steam that allows for electricity to be generated and delivered to the Salt River Project, a utility with 2 million customers in central Arizona.

Before it’s pumped back underground, the brine is “borrowed” for a few hours to extract lithium under a nearby canopy, Benson said.

Extracting lithium from geothermal brine has never been done on a commercial scale. There are two dominant production methods: mining for rocks and using cooler brine that bakes under the sun in large ponds for about two years until the water evaporates. The Nevada plant uses evaporation ponds.

San Diego-based EnergySource operates on the former site of Simbol Materials, a heavily hyped company that used geothermal brine and flopped in 2015 after negotiations collapsed over Tesla Inc.’s $325 million offer to buy it. Business decisions caused the company’s demise, according to industry experts and executives affiliated with the latest projects. Technology has since improved, they say, and so have market conditions.

Demand for lithium has soared as more carmakers shift to electric. California has targeted 2035 to achieve zero emissions from all cars and trucks sold in the state. The Biden administration hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

“This is the moment where a number of trends, the confluence of them, have finally come together,” Benson said.

Detailed environmental impact reviews, required by California law, have not been released. Benson says his company’s geothermal brine technology uses much less land and about one-fifth the water of evaporation ponds and emits one-seventh the carbon dioxide of rock-mining.

Unique geochemical characteristics bring risk regardless of technology, said Alexander Grant, principal at research firm Jade Cove Partners.

“It’s very easy to fall into this narrative that the technology is not proven, but that is fundamentally not the right way to look at it,” said Grant, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory research affiliate. “The fact is that it’s hard to build lithium projects.”

Smokestacks shooting steam at geothermal power plants are a towering presence amid flat fields of lettuce, melons and alfalfa.

Despite hugely productive land that stocks U.S. supermarkets with winter vegetables, Imperial County has a poverty rate of 22%, among California’s highest. El Centro, the county seat, perennially has one of the highest unemployment rates among 389 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Many farmworkers commute daily from Mexicali, Mexico, to pick vegetables in winter and melons in spring. In the summer, snowbirds flee stifling heat and people stay inside, making towns and fields look deserted.

Lithium has generated cautious optimism. EnergySource expects to contribute $80 million to $90 million annually to the economy, largely through payroll, taxes and royalties. Controlled Thermal Resources is expected to create 1,400 jobs, according to the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corp.

“How do we end up with this great opportunity before us but at the same time not get burned?” said Luis Olmedo, executive director of Comite Civico del Valle, which advocates for low-income and underserved residents, and a member of the Lithium Valley Commission, a state panel to promote the lake’s lithium resources.

The lake depends entirely on Colorado River water gravitating through canals across hundreds of thousands of acres of chemical-laden farms. Amid growth, Arizona demanded its full entitlement of river water, forcing California to end its overuse. In 2003, squabbling California agencies settled on shifting large amounts of the state’s share to San Diego, meaning less water for Imperial County farms and, by extension, the Salton Sea.

Persistent drought tied to climate change raises the prospect of even less Colorado River water seeping downhill into the lake.

Longtime residents miss when eared grebes, cormorants and white and brown pelicans were more abundant.

“The noise was awesome,” said Carlene Ness, 74, who bought a western shore house with her late husband in 1999. “That’s what everybody bought for, and we have to fight for it.”

In Calipatria, a city of 8,000 closest to the geothermal investments, lithium may be the biggest boon since two state prisons opened in the early 1990s. On a stifling July day, a gas station on the main street was the only establishment with activity.

Ruben Hernandez, 54, has worked for an Imperial Valley landowner since he was 8. He and his wife own a Mexican restaurant in the largely deserted town of Niland. His wife wants to stay, but “there’s nothing here, no town,” he said.

Lithium project backers who come for breakfast tell him he could eventually be feeding 20 to 30 people and delivering lunches to their plant.

“If they are going to lift this town up, it would be great,” Hernandez said.

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April in the Garden in 2021

 

This is the new spillway added to the waterfall in April of 2021.  It is level and the water fall looks ok.  The surrounding area, that is:  the mountain for the waterfall still needs a lot of work to make it look more natural.  I hope to be adding rock plants to the sides, and make this side a more gradual slope.  The birds use the spill rock  as a drinking place and a bird bath.  All this bird attention seems to have added more nitrogen or whatever to cause a green algae to form.  I have just started putting D-Solv into the pond and does seem to be working to get rid of the algae.  We have also had some very windy days that add more debris to the pond.  

As well as the spillway I have renovated all the edges and the stepping stones.  The edging plants are coming along nicely to fill in.  I have moved the lantern several times, and it now sits at the end of the dry stream, which now ends at the curve in the stream that goes along the deck edge.  This part of the old dry stream has some of my best moss.  It grows over the wood pieces that line this part of the old dry stream.  The little fountain adds more aeration to the water and looks good.

I have been doing a lot of path renovations this Spring.  This is the much improved path that runs from the entry by the little rockery,  along the cedar hedge to the other side of the cut garden where it meets the path that goes between the cut garden and the 5 feet of that side of this area that has Irises, herbs, oak tree, lilac.; and goes into the entry to the pond  by the mermaid side of the waterfall.

This black squirrel, I think is the culpert that has been digging in the garden.  Its a mutation and is bigger that the other squirrels.  I haven't seen it lately, thank heavens.  I haven't seen the nice, smaller red one with the fine big bushy tail, either.

This great big beautiful great blue heron, ate all of the lovely goldfish I had in the pond! So, I have put tomato cages into the pots at the shallow sides of the pond with bamboo stakes through them to act as a fence to keep the heron out, hopefully.  The heron was even standing on the edge of the tub garden on the deck and ate both of the goldfish in there too.  The tub in the woodland had yellow flag water iris, that are invasive.  While emptying the tub I found a little comet gold fish, which got put into the pond, of course.  I have since added 2 white comets and 2 gold comets to the supply of fish.  One gold one in the deck tub.  That happened a couple of weeks ago.  I hope to resupply the sarrosas and the shubunkins. 

I have been renovating the little rockery at the front to add the saxifrages and the 2 small tufa rocks into the little gold wall rockery.  It now looks rather like a trough with 3 sections, (soon to be 4).  It has 3 levels.  The lowest level wraps around the middle levels to the back of the fourth level, and will eventually hold some taller plants.  I have the thyme circle cleaned up and some top dressing added.  It is looking quite good now. It could use 3 or 4 more new thyme plants.    I have to keep all these new renovations watered.  And we are in a drought!  The cutting garden is doing very well with the watering.  I have a very nice lupine showing a bloom now.  And the strawberries produced 2 berries.  We need some hotter weather for them to bloom, I think.   The trilliums all survived.  They are quite messy right now and that magnolia tree bed needs to be cleaned up; as well as all of the boulevard garden.  The woodland, too needs some more work.

Because of  all these renovations I have not taken the time to take any pictures.  The rhodendrons were spectacular.  They are just finishing up now.  The roses are full of blossoms and fragrance now.  The lilac was full of blooms and fragrance earlier, and its blooms have gone brown.  Its time for its dead heading.  The oriental poppies are finished blooming and will need dead heading too.   We have had some cooler weather this week and I got quite a bit of the front garden weeded.  It is looking pretty good too.  The campanula in the little rockery at the back is in bloom!  I must get picture of that one, at least.   We are suppose to have rain tomorrow ... here's hopin'!

September in the garden

 

Pat found he could get a table that moved out of the path to the back from the front seats of the LTV motor home.  He contacted the factory and they sent him the mostly assembled table.  He installed it and it works very well.  We tried it out recently.  We should not have to pack it away under the bed, any more.  It can stay where it is and move around easily for when we are travelling and when we are eating.

I was able to get photos of the fish.  The is a sarasa and the only big shubunkin that I seem to have now.

This is a very unusual tiny fish.  It is older than 2 years as it has gone  to its gold colors.  It seems to be a miniature.  Especially when you see it next to the bigger gold fish..

Here are a number of the ones that are still black with the little shubunkin that has already changed colors.

Here is the bigger shubunkin with the smaller one and some of the smaller black ones.  

The bigger sarasa with the small shubunkin and the small black one.

Now this is another unusual size of a fish.  The big black one is bigger than the older light gold fish.  The black one is not yet 2 years old and I bought the light gold one a couple of years ago,  The big black is beginning to turn gold.  

                                        
 The big black one compared to the size of the smaller black ones.  Apparently the fish do not turn colors until they are at least 2 years old.

The two sarasas that I have left from the original purchase of two or three years ago.

This is a Kaffir lily or Schizostylis.  It is a good plant for some color in Autumn.  I am going to try to spread it around the garden a bit more.  It is in the iris family of plants and grows from rhizomes.

The Autumn crocuses are another good plant for Autumn color.  I am slowly getting quite a number of them around the garden.  The leaves show up in Spring and die down, and then the flowers come up and open.

Verbena bonariensis is a tall and slender-stemmed perennial. It can grow to 6 ft (180 cm) tall and can spread to 3 ft (90 cm) wide. At maturity, it will develop a woody base. Fragrant lavender to rose-purple flowers are in tight clusters located on terminal and axillary stems, blooming from mid-summer until fall frost.   It is self seeding around my garden.  The bees and butterflies love it.  This one arrived in one of the pots on the deck.  

July was very dry and I was watering quite a lot.  We were away for about 3 weeks in August and the garden did not get any rain.  It was very dry and most of the plants dried up.  We had some rain a couple of weeks ago and I did manage to get some time to water a bit.  I see that one of the gentians I thought was dead seems to be getting new little leaves.  It was a transplant from the back little rockery to the little rockery at the front.  The established rock/alpine garden plants all seem to be doing ok.  I won't be doing any more transplants to the little rockery at the front until after the leaves fall.  And then they can have the winter to put down some roots, and not be raked up when I collect the leaves.  The trees are just now starting to turn colors.    The garden needs weeding, as it got away on me in August and has not had any attention since then.  The apples are not quite ready, yet.  We did get a few grapes earlier.  There were only a couple of plums and no figs.  Hopefully, next year will be a better year.

Some of the plants in the boulevard, the driveway and the inner front garden rooms, in June

The crocosmia buds on June 19th.  These are some rather aggressive bulbs.  They are attractive to humming birds and easy maintenance so I have clumps of them everywhere in my garden

This little geranium or it might be called an erodium grows next to the stone path with the golden oregano on the other side.  In fact it is being overgrown by the oregano.

I have campanulas of various kinds around the garden.  This one grows in a fairly shaded area in the magnolia tree bed, next to the cedar hedge.

I have a few of these Sedum, autumn joy, around the garden, also.  This one grows in the same area as the above campanula.  They both like more sun than they are getting, but they survive.  They bloom at different times and so provide some color in this garden room for a longer period of time.

This is the cleaned up clump of black bamboo.  When I took out the dried canes it makes the black canes more visible.  I like the look of the clump thinned out.  I will be doing more of this when I get the time.  The black canes look good with the build up of the leaves that turn white.

This is the rectangle bed on the west side of the boulevard garden room.  The lovely big white veronica grows too close to the cedar hedge, with the little erodium beneath its feet.  It is being crowed by the crosmias on the other side of it.  So, I need to get in there and dig out some of the crocosmias.

This is the, approximately 6 feet by 25 foot strip that runs across the front of the boulevard garden.  The French lavender is the star of the show for 2 or 3 months.  I have cut it back now and hope it produces more bloom in the next little while.  There are various other perennials in this area: lupines, foxgloves, achillea, irises, the blue grasses, pinks, all underplanted with thyme.The daisies keep coming back and so I have daisy boquets in May or June, until I get them all pulled out.  There is another strip in front of this one that is about 10 feet deep by the length of the boulevard from our driveway across to the neighbors driveway.  It is about 35 feet long, making the bottom 'green frame' around my front garden.

The blue grass, the pinks and the tall bearded irises.  To the right side of the photo there is a tall bridal veil spirea shrub that I keep pruned to a globe shape.

To the right of the Spirea shrub is another rectangular bed.  The front strip is quite nice with the lychnis, some more pinks, the self seeding verbena bodinaires, and the plum tree to the right (out of the picture).  Behind these plants the little rectangle became over grown with blue bells.  I put leaves on them in the autumn to try and control them.  I have transplanted some orange daylillies  in there.  They are in quite a lot of shade.  The orange colors brighten up the corner.  I need to clean cut back a tree that has been there since the beginning of the time the house was built.  It has got away from me over the last couple of years and needs to be taken down to ground level again.  

The virginia creeper goes up the telephone pole in the 5 foot deep strip between the neighbors driveway and our driveway.  It turns marvelous colors in the autumn.  It has st. john's worte planted beneath it.  I have some fairly aggresive plants growing in the driveway strip. 

The torch lily:  Gardeners should be diligent with watering during hot and dry spells. Provide a 2- to 3-inch (5-7.6 cm.) layer of mulch to help with water retention and for protection during cold winters. Cut foliage off at the base of the plant in late fall and remove spent flower spike to encourage more blooms

Kniphofia, also called tritoma, red hot poker, torch lily, knofflers or poker plant. 

The striking red hot poker plant (Kniphofia uvaria) is in the Liliaceae family and is also known as poker plant and torch lily. This plant thrives in USDA zones 5 through 9 and is an upright evergreen perennial with a clumping habit. Over 70 known species exist of this South African native plant.

As you can see I am not taking very good care of this plant.  I did not realize that it should be cut back to ground level in the Fall.  Nevertheless, this torch lily is a fairly tough plant.  It grows in front of the mountain ash tree, with a tall rose, volunteer oregon grape, nasty black berries and bind weed for competition.  

a close up of the torch lily blossoms.

 This is the Yucca, next to the Virginia creeper, with the st. John's warte and an Autumn Joy sedum.  The sedum and the Yucca are forming buds.

Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40–50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. 

Yucca glauca is native to central North America: occurring from the Canadian Prairies of Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada; south through the Great Plains to Texas and New Mexico in the United States.

This finishes the posting for my garden in June.  I have been away for 3 weeks, so I do not know if there will be a July in the garden posted, as I have a lot of catching up to do in the garden.

Blogger has been making some changes.  I guess any further photos will need to be much smaller to fit in the space provided.  It always annoys me why they have to fix things that aren't broken.  😞