It’s easy to forget, year to year what your plan for the garden was. Taking pictures through the summer helps remind me what I liked and want to grow more of, and what I need to pull out and compost! Here are some random pics from the past couple of months.
All the agastaches (hummingbird mint) are keepers. Blue, red, pink or yellow, we love them! And so do the pollinators.
Rudbeckias make great plants for the garden or large pots on the patio. They say SUMMER with every petal.
Our new sign really classes up the joint.
It’s been a pretty good year for tomatoes, despite the cold, wet start in May. We were too busy, and then the weather was weird, so I didn’t get plants in the ground until the second week in June! They’ve caught up, though, and we’re getting a good harvest.
The hummingbirds are starting to leave for warmer climes. We’ll miss them!
Hummingbird at Agastache ‘Joyful.’
This week we started replanting the slope garden. This little garden has been the bane of our existence. Like anyone who has grown plants on a slope knows, it has its challenges. It’s hard to water, so we’re trying to only do plants that can withstand drought. And the gophers! Just when things get going, they tunnel through and destroy stuff. They don’t like everything, though, and we’re finding some plants they can’t–or haven’t yet– killed. It’s a work in progress, but I think it’s going to look pretty good next spring!
We listen to you, our friends and customers, when you tell us you are looking for something special in the nursery. As you walk through your own garden, and muse on plants that did well or plants that failed, take notes! Send us your thoughts. We already have a long list of requests, but it’s not too late to email us with something you want for next spring. We’ll do our best to grow it.
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Hummingbird at Salvia ‘Hot Lips.’ Picture by Carol Rich, Portland, OR.
When I saw this picture of Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ I knew it was a plant we needed to grow. We plan to have lots of these at the nursery this spring.
There’s a hummingbird garden here at the nursery, and starting in late April, the hummers are our constant companions. Plant some hummingbird plants near your patio or deck, or even in a big pot on your deck, and find out how much fun they are to watch. We planted this purple flowered agastache in a big barrel and the hummers and the butterflies loved it!
Hummingbird at Agastache ‘Black Adder’
Many of our native penstemons (AKA Beardtongue) are also pollinated by hummingbirds. Some of my favorites, including P. barbatus and P. pseudospectabilis, are also favorites of the hummers. By providing this natural nectar buffet, we entice them to nest here and raise their babies. They are so tiny when they hatch! Usually there are two eggs in each nest. Here are two young ones we saw last summer, their little beaks pointing up, waiting for mom to bring food.
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