June Seems So Far Away

In June I was busy finishing my gravel paths and planning our two week vacation to Oregon, so I got behind in posting garden pictures. Here’s what was going on in June.

I think I said it before and I’ll say it again: I think my raised veggie garden (my traditional “Kitchen Garden”) was more involved than I knew it would be. But now that it’s all done, I absolutely love it and think it was worth all of the hard work. I’ve gotten SO many great, fresh vegetables all season long. From beets to romaine and lettuce, to scallions, swiss chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini, and herbs like flat-leaf parsley and sweet basil. The gravel paths really make it all look more finished and formal. I was so happy to be finally finished the paths!

Gravel paths around the new “Kitchen Garden” were completed in June.

I felt like my Kitchen Garden needed a formal entrance. Something to act as a transition area from the yard and flower garden area to the Kitchen Garden. I came up with a plan. I redid the edge of my flower garden so that it flowed better into the Kitchen Garden area, moving the rock edging and digging more. The gravel paths comes out into the yard a bit now. My plan is to plant formal topiary on both sides of the entrance with some dwarf boxwood. It’s too hot to plant shrubs now and boxwood does better when you plant it in spring, so that will be part of my spring chores.

New “entrance” to the Kitchen Garden.

As you can tell, my neighbors still haven’t put up that fence they said they were going to do over a year ago!

The gravel path in my flower garden was looking pretty sad, so I dug it out, put down weed fabric and re-edged it, then put down new gravel. It looks so much better now. Right now the path just leads to the statue we named Winnie. Eventually I want it to continue to the Kitchen Garden. 

Gravel path in the flower garden.

One thing I learned this year is my flower garden is pretty boring in June. Once the roses are past their prime, there isn’t much color. Something to think about.

Flower garden in June.

I have several different varieties of Hydrangeas in the flower garden and they start to bloom towards the end of June.

Nikko Blue Hydrangea and Winnie.

The lavender looks good in June.

Lavender with pink roses in the background.

I have a red Passion Flower vine in a pot – Passiflora Sherry. Since I don’t think it’s hardy to this area, I keep it in the greenhouse in the winter and bring it out in the spring. It blooms off and on in the summer. It’s a smaller variety than other Passion Flowers, only getting about 4 feet long. It really is gorgeous, although I think I still prefer the pretty purple ones. I AM a sucker for purple flowers.

Red Passion Flower vine — Passiflora Sherry.

Yeh, it really is beautiful, isn’t it?