June in the garden

The pots on the deck are something new this year.  I was inspired to plant a butterfly and humming bird planter and the pots just seemed to keep growing from there.  I have 4 larger pots and 2 smaller ones of a matching set I had purchased some years ago.  I have 2 taller black pots and the cedar box.  There is a tomatoe and basil in one, the butterfly perennials and annuals in one, the tulips, comsos, delphinium in another, the hollyhock with a whitle perennial, scaboisia, one of the smaller ones holds a willow from the VIRAGS plant sale, a black pot with another willow, a black pot with a Japanese quince, and the cedar box with a few annuals.

Two of the rhodos by the deck that are looking good this year.

This is a close up of a drop on the water lily leaf in the deck water tub.. a closely cropped drop.

This snail lives under the deck.  I usually find them to be darker green and living on the moss garden.  There are not very many of them, so I don't mind seeing them in the shade garden.
Yesterday I watered and fed the house plants and deck plants.  I needed to change 2 of the grow tubes on the light garden.  My African violets are all in bloom, and there are now 2 moth orchids blooming.
We have had overcast but warm weather for the last couple of days.  I was hoping it would rain, but it looks like I will need to water.
I have managed to get a few critiques done on Megashot and have been slowly catching up on the meet and greet for new members.  We seem to have some very active newer members which is great to see.    Version 2 is in the works and promises to be faster, sleeker, and even better than the present one; which, in my opinion is very very good.  Its a huge portal with many features as well as photo upload and storage. 

Gardening in June

This is the view of my pond from the stepping stones along the primrose bed at the back.

This clematis climbs up the corner of the deck.  This year it is spreading into the plum tree above it.

The clematis on the deck decorating the water tub feature.

  This clematis is climbing up the grape bush.  Beneath it are the very bright pink oriental poppies for a good color combination. 

This rhodo is along by the deck steps with the primula bed in front of it and the stepping stones in front of that.  The dames rocket has self seeded itself in with the two rhodos that grow here for another nice color combination.

A close up of the two toned pink rhodo that grows along beside the pond.

More of the two toned pink rhodo

This is the white rhodo that grows along the 5 ft strip by Parmar's sidewalk at what I consider the back of my house.  Its a very tall rhodo and very full of flowers.

The white rhodo and the fuschia azalyea, which is also spreading and is full of flowers.

Another view of the white rhodo and the fuschia azalyia.

June Flowers

When we got home from our trip to Russia on June 2, we both had vicious colds. My garden was glorious, though. I imagine I missed quite a bit in May! I only took a few photos in June, though, as I seemed to have been unable to get out and otherwise busy. There were also lots of weeds that I am just now getting around to cleaning up.

We still have snow now and the weathermen say it will be here for another week to ten days. I made a scrumptious seafood chowder from left over salmon, a bit of red snapper, shrimp, carrots, celery, onion, potatoe. We have a meal of it frozen for another day. I made apple pancakes, bacon and eggs for dinner and enjoyed it thoroughly, too. Pat was out with the car to various places today, so the snow has not slowed him down too much in that regard.

Rhodo art

Today I managed to change the very grey water in this photo to this nice blue color but using a method that Dieter told me about in the Mega Shots feedback forum on Flickr. So, I am now trying to use Photoshop for all my stuff and become more practised at it, and less afraid of it. I can't break it, after all!. It really helps to have some hints. This one is a duplicate layer, image adjustments, cooling filter, erase the duck so it does not go blue, flatten image, then I tried to clean up with the clone stamp, as my erasing needs more practise. That's the easy method, apparently. There is masking and many other things to learn. Once you do it though it becomes just natural to know where to go... curves and levels are always fun.

I just like the way this rhodo turned out and I have not done anything to it, but crop. I like the bits of color in the corners.