June in my garden

 Interesting light and shadows in the house.  I had to straighten this photo using the 'warp' effect in photoshop.  The wall on the right is a very pale rose color and the green of the carpet is much lighter too.  These are the colors as from the camera.

 The globe flower in a pot next to the water feature on the deck.  Its a beautiful flower.  I have another growing in a pot that sits with its bottom in the water of the pond.

 one of the frogs that are in the pond this year.  I think they may grow into bull frogs.  Now, they are about the size of a green frog.  I have not been able to catch any of these frogs in my pond, to move them.  Bull frogs are an introduced species and are very invasive.

 The white and purples water ires. 

 The beautiful big purple water iris. 

 An admiral butterfly.  These butterflies have been visiting my garden for the past 3 weeks.

The foxgloves are self seeding.  I am letting them grow all over the garden.  They look good in bouquets, too.

May - Irisis

 Iris - NOT.  The first swallowtail of the year.  It is on the wallflower by the front entry.  It spent quite a bit of time on this plant.  I will need more wallflowers.

 Dutch Iris that is in the boulevard garden in the rectangle bed by the plum tree.  I can add more of these blue irises and more pinks to the front of this bed.

 A royal blue tall bearded iris that grows along the driveway.  There is a bright yellow one in the same area.  I need to divide both of them and move them to the cutting garden or behind the garage, if I ever get the irises that are now there, cleaned up and divided so they might be able to produce blossoms.

 a yellow and white Dutch iris by the pond in the plum tree stump area.  There are lots of these yellow ones in this spot.  I need to get some other colors added.  There are pink and white foxgloves self seeding here.  They bloom at the same time, so some blue ones should look better with the pink and white foxgloves.

 Tall bearded iris.  This has been a very prolific iris.  It forms clumps very quickly.  I like the  color of it, but it would be nice to have some other colors.  This one grows at the back of the cutting garden, along the driveway, and in the boulevard garden.

While checking the ink levels on my printer, this photo printed up very well on just plain paper. 

May - Rhododendrons

 Might be Lee's Dark Purple.  This rhodo was first planted by the back steps along with two other ones and a red twig dogwood, and a few perennials.  As the plants grew they became very crowded.  At some time I removed the red twig dogwood.  In 2002 or thereabout, I dug this one out and dragged the whole big wet root ball to behind the old garage and planted it there.  It suffered neglect for many years.  This year after a bit more care and attention it is blooming.  There seems to be something eating its leaves.  I shall have to look into that.

Might be Catawbiense Boursault.  This and the other rhodos mentioned in this post were planted in 1989 or 1990.  As I started to build my yard into a garden they were planted in the clay soil with a lot of peat moss and other soil amendments.  This one is in the bed by the back steps.

 Might be Royal Purple.  This one is also by the back step.  This one and the others mentioned are blooming very nicely this year after an application of rhododendron food and attention to keeping them watered. 

 This is Hyperion.  It has very long branches and lovely big clumps of these flowers.  I is a taller rhodo.  Mine has become more floppy than tall.  I think it suits the attempt at a 'Japanese' look.  It grows in the moss by the deck support post.  There is a little white azalea that grows next to this rhodo in the moss garden.

There is a Cunningham's White and Cunningham's Pink growing on the Pees' side of the house, as well as a little fuschia azalea, a camellia, a rose, a purple jackamania clematis, Japanese Anemones, daylilies, lily of the valley, and some very aggressive violets and ground cover.  The area is about 5 feet wide.  The Pees have fits about any 'tree shit' falling on their 5.5 foot sidewalk which encroaches on my property.  They have trashed the privacy cedar hedge that is along that side of the deck.  I seriously need a survey and a chain link fence along that whole side of my property, as they are constantly coming into my garden and stealing anything that is not locked up, or throwing things into my garden pond, or chopping down my shrubs and plants, messing with my pond pump, and tipping over my garden ornaments.  I have reported this damage to the Police and they are keeping a running file on me. They have investigated some of my complaints and I noticed that old Mrs. Pee is no longer slopping chemical on her sidewalk, driveways and washing it down the storm drains that carry this crap into the Colquitz River that is a salmon habitat stream.  Also they are no longer dumping their garbage in the Park across the street.   My rant for the day!  So, all in all, for as long as I am going to be here before downsizing, I can let that side of my house go.  I never see it, except for the rose and the clematis that are at the front by the boxwood hedge. 

The pinks in the boulevard garden.  Today when I brought in a few flowers for a little bouquet, I cut a few blossoms of a very fragrant pink that grows by the  old sidewalk at the back.  I am going to have to propagate this pink around the edges of my flower beds or wherever I can find space for them. 

 We have a hawk living in the area.  He hunts the song birds, not very successfully.  I am not sure what kind of a hawk it is, but it is not very big.  This is a photo for my eventual "look up Victoria" album, on my web page.

This allium grows in the newly planted area behind the pond, along with self seeding foxgloves, and some Dutch irises.  There is an evergreen behind the bulbs and perennials.  I renovated that side of the pond  recently and it is looking very nice with these taller plants and the evergreen for a backdrop to the water plants.