Flower carpet roses

Can you believe June is almost over?  My gardening season is half way done and I am just getting started!!  My fellow gardeners can understand that the tweaking and adding and subtracting and weeding in the gardens never end.  It seems though I am just weeding and adding more and more plants.  I don't think I have ever shown you my flower carpet roses before.  They usually are the last roses to bloom.   

This little rose garden bed is right by the road and there is a small patch of grass between this and my cottage garden.  

 

 Here are some of the colors from the front yard garden.  I find that by July, I have very few blooms in the garden.  I need to add more late summer blooming plants.

 

This is the view from my bedroom window...clematis filled arbor.

I added two perennial foxgloves last week.  We shall see if they really come back.

May your days be filled with blooms and may your heart be filled with happy contentment.


Love,
Victoria

Oh Delphiniums

My love for delphiniums know no boundaries.  I love them as much as my roses.  Delphiniums just scream cottage garden to me.

Every year I find myself buying more and more delphiniums to add to different gardens.  They can be seen in almost every picture behind almost every flower.

After a heavy rain this morning, I found some of my delphiniums on the ground.  As much as it breaks my heart to cut them from the garden, I brought a few into the house to enjoy.

Is there anything better than a cart full of fresh flowers?  They are beautiful as is but I find myself picking up a vase or two to place them around the house.

Our local nursery has a bunch more delphiniums and nobody buys them around here!  Most don't even know what they are.  I was told there will be a plant sale for the week of July 4th.  Can you feel the temptations?  

 Oh Delphiniums, you have my whole heart.


Love,
Victoria

Rise and Fall of the roses

Every gardening season I look forward to the return of my roses.  One day they are simply all green with little buds then after a heavy rain, the whole garden just explode in colors with roses.

 

 

I have different varieties of hybrid roses.  I wish I was brave enough to grow tea roses and antique roses but I am a bit intimidated by them.  One of my favorite roses is New Dawn climbing rose.  I wish they bloom as profusely as drift roses but I will take what I can get.

This was a new rose I added to my rose garden this year.  I find its coral color to be so charming.

I like to think I am done adding garden beds for the season but I find myself flipping through gardening books and finding more and more inspirations to create more gardens.  It truly never end and I love every second of it.

Here is one of the new gardens I planted a few weeks ago.  It will be mostly roses as you walk down the path.  As you can see half of my yard is completely shaded with big trees.  Now that you have seen the rise of my roses, are you ready to see the fall of it?  For the last few days it has been raining non stop.  I woke up today to find my garden covered in rose petals and most of my plants flat on the ground....kinda sad and romantic at the same time. I spent this gloomy morning dead heading the roses.

My front garden just look like a sea of blue and purple.

I would love to hear about your favorite plants.  I am such a novice gardener and I am learning as I go.  I think I might just do one more garden bed...I swear I am done after that!! I have been dreaming of a peony and rose garden.  I want to plant a row of peonies in the back with roses in the front.  That way when peonies are done blooming then roses can take over.  Can you recommend any roses that do well in zone 6?  I love medium size roses that look and smell like roses but not as high maintenance.  My little gardeners are ready for their summer vacation.  I imagine a lot of the summer will be spent traveling or simply enjoying nature.  I am quiet looking forward to both.

Happy Gardening,  my friends.

Love,
Victoria

Easy Turban Headband

I love turbans.  Turban of all kinds.  I love full blown turbans.  I love scarf turbans.  I love turban headbands.  I have to admit I wear turban headbands almost everyday.  They are just so easy yet oh so chic.  The girls, especially Aurora, has been known to spot a turban on several occasions.  Turban headbands are also very easy to make.  You all know how awful I am at writing up tutorials.  So instead of writing one for you and confusing you even more, I found a really good tutorial with lots of clear pictures.  Check out this tutorial  from  Life Is Beautiful blog. Yesterday was such a gloomy and rainy day and I thought it would be the perfect day to sew some turban headbands for us...matching ones, of course.

 I tried to get all three of us to be in the picture but it was near impossible.  This was the closet one I got.

Now go get your turban on.


Love,
Victoria

Gardening Obsessions

Won't you walk with me through the garden?  Dwarf mock orange trying to brighten a gloomy early morning.

Salvias are trying to soak up the late evening sun.

Little gardeners enjoying their late evening ritual of tending the garden.

It isn't any secret that I love to garden but this last week, I realized that it might be a bit of an unhealthy obsession.  I know what you are thinking.  There is nothing unhealthy about plants and flowers and gardening.  I have an obsessive personality when it comes to projects.  I have a vision and I will stop at nothing to make it happen as quickly and as soon as possible.  As much as I am in love with my front gardens, I have always been a bit embarrassed by my backyard.  I have a huge yard and I did nothing to it.  Weeds took over the grass.  Then I had a vision.  I wanted to make five garden beds and turn my backyard into garden rooms.  I did that in three days.  I didn't stop.  I removed the grass and tilled my side yard by hand.  It was ridiculous.   I went to bed in tears from pain but then I would wake up in the morning and couldn't stop myself from doing the same thing all over again.  It was truly an addiction.  Here are a few sneak peak of what I have been doing in my backyard.

The last of my peonies in the late evening light.

I planted a fairy rose and candy land climbing rose for a little arbor.

Here is the side yard that almost broke me.  A little path takes you into the yard.

The girls and I are making it into a fairy garden.  A little fairy house hides behind spring flowers.

I can't wait to add more delphiniums here.

Drift roses are starting to bloom.  They may not be as showy as knock out roses but they are so graceful in their beauty.

As exhausted as I feel, there is nothing more rewarding than being able to walk into my garden to cut bucket full of fresh flowers for my friends.....just because.

I am sorry my Instagram friends for me putting some of these pictures again.  I hope you guys can follow me on Instagram.  I post pictures there daily.  Happy Gardening, my friends.


Love,
Victoria