Backyard Tour-June 12, 2008

Starting behind the garage (facing South) there is 6 rows of popcorn and three tomato plants in cages. The peonie with white flowers has been ravaged by all the heavy rain and is a bit flat right now. Once things dry out I will tie it up with some twine.
Turning the corner around the garage landscaping, and then looking back toward the pool, there are three items to talk about. First and the most obvious is the multiplying cactus. It is filled with new growth that I am hoping will flower this summer. Further in the distance there are day lilies that have filled out nicely and should be forming chutes soon. Also at the corner of the garage are the tiger lilies which will have brilliant orange flowers before too long now.
Turning south, is our retaining wall with a multitude of flowers.
This view is as if you were standing in the corner of the previous picture and looking longways down the retaining wall (looking west).
Tighter shot of the Peonie and Iris. This Iris plant unfortunately bloomed just prior to the 7.5 inches of rain that battered the area last weekend. It got a little beat up, but is still pretty to look at. Notice the small red flower toward to bottom of the iris. That is our Dianthus which was moved from the front yard to the back to allow for more sunshine.
Walking down the south wall now, we come to our next blooming dianthus and a rapidly growing sedum.

Same Dianthus, but a little friend came by for the tour as well. I have not seen this dragonfly in the yard before, but it was very unique in color and wing pattern. He sat there long enough for me to get a few pictures.
Close up of the dragonfly.
Walking past the dragonfly, we get to the Sugar Snap Peas. The taller of the two plantings just started to develop flowers, so new peas are not too far off. The Romaine Lettuce in front of the peas is finally starting to grow. Finally some warmer weather to support growth.
We have reached the corner where the south and west wall meet. This is taken standing along the west wall looking south. The back corner is filled with lilies that have not bloomed yet.
Close up of the bearded iris, which also got beat up by the rain.

Moving down the west wall away from the corner, we have lettuce and Swiss Chard in between the two Peonie plants. It is kind of hard to see the Swiss Chard in this picture, it is still very small. To the right of the white peonie, is the bush beans. I'll be posting more of the beans later on as they continue to grow.
Moving north along the west wall, we come to a brilliant peonie and the pole beans. If you look carefully, you can see the tendrills of the pole beans climbing the green poles on the left. More to come on this at a later posting.
West wall showing all the plants I described above. This is looking northwest at the west wall.
Last but not least, is the potatoes at the far end of the west wall. These were visible in the above picture, but this is a closer shot. I mounded them with dirt, leaves and hay as they were starting to really get tall. Should have little purple flowers soon.
That concludes the tour for now. Come back later for some updated photos.