Six on Saturday – 19/06/2021 – Hello Summer

OK, I’m a day early, but what’s a day amongst friends? Summer starts tomorrow in the northern hemisphere, bringing an end to a spring with gardens in my part of the world bursting with more colour that normal (it seemed), more ravenous insects than normal (it seemed – lookin’ at you, aphids and Gypsy Moth larvae!), dryer than normal (a fact, although the garden so far hasn’t minded much) and cooler than normal (also a fact, although I haven’t minded that at all!). I think for me, one of the most thrilling things in my garden this spring has been the birds. Robins, in particular, have become less and less afraid of me and have hung around a lot, building nests really close to the house, eating bugs and worms, waking me with their song around 4:00 every morning (and then, mysteriously, going silent around 5, as the sky starts to lighten). I’ve also enjoyed hearing geese, swans and loons as they pass overhead, and I’ve been enthralled and a bit afraid of the three humongous wild turkeys that have been passing through the yard recently. Anyway. It’s time for Six on Saturday – six things happening in your garden right now, a theme started by the Propagator, where you can find scads of other Sixes from around the world.

Three different daisy-like flowers with hot orange, summery petals start out my Six. This is Gaillardia – blanket flower. They self seed quite readily in gravelly soil that gets dry in summer.

Coreopsis has just started. It self-seeds even more readily that the blanket flower.

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This is my earliest blooming Echinacea. A local plantsman hybridized it a few years ago and gave me some seed. The orange rays will get fatter in the days to come.

I moved two of my raised beds closer to the house to make watering easier. One has garlic and spinach and the other one has this mish mash of edibles and flowers. At the far end are artichokes, then yellow bush beans, carrots and chard. The large green things are strawflowers, the small green things close to this end are zinnias and of course marigolds are at the corners. And a dahlia! There’s a dahlia coming along in the front right corner, where the stick is. I kinda love this bed.

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Snap peas will soon be ready to eat. Or snack on. These are Magnolia Blossom – really sweet and delicious, with gorgeous flowers as well. I’ve saved seeds (dried up peas, of course) for these for three years now.

The final official Six – this is Stock – Matthiola incana. I’ve never grown it before but I’ve seen vases of cut flowers with it and thought I’d give it a try. Most of my plants are nowhere near blooming yet, but this little guy has started. The seed packet says the colour is ‘Vintage Brown,’ but it looks kinda pinky to me eh? I just discovered this flower is in the cabbage family Brassicaceae – which makes me wonder if they will attract the small white cabbage moth. We shall see.

Before I go – just wanted to share a couple bird shots. I’m not a good bird photographer. At all! But I did mention robins and wild turkeys so thought I’d share. On Friday I posted a few pictures of my Clematis texensis ‘Gravetye Beauty’ blooming a lot earlier than normal. Yesterday I realized a pair of robins have started to build a nest in the middle of the thick vines covering the tutoir. And on Friday morning, while I was in the middle of a video meeting, I looked out the window to see the three turkeys calmly strolling across the yard. I wish you all happy strolling this weekend!

Can you spot the robin?

Cell phone photo from quite a distance…But you get the idea, right?