The garden, 2014

I've been hemming and hawing about posting this.  I am not altogether thrilled with the garden this year.  Some things got too tall and others died over the very cold winter.  But, it's that way for gardens across the country I guess.  I did finally find a butterfly weed, but it's on it's first flowering year so it's not very big.  No agastache though.  And it's going to be a few years before I can start enough lavender to fill in where the winter left holes.  I picked up an All Summer Beauty hydrangea to fill in one of the holes on the left side for $12.50 on sale at Home Depot.  That made me happy.  But even better was a small Forever And Ever Together hydrangea from Lowes for $17.  THAT made me REALLY happy.  It's really pretty, with neat double flowers.  But really it was the name that made it exciting to me.  I'm going to have to take care of this one.  Why?  Well, this year is our 20th anniversary, so this little beauty is in honor of our first 20 years and the many more to come.

I spent another few hours moving things and planting things before taking photos this year.  I even gave up on my hanging baskets because the wind up here this year just destroyed them-so I planted the scraggly remains in the garden to add some color, and in hopes that having their roots in the ground and other foliage around them might allow them to thrive a bit better.  I split the red lily because the clump got WAY big, and behind it was the extra tall monarda and bacopca.  I moved the really tall monarda, leaving the red and some shorter pink then added the butterfly weed and some petunias from one of the baskets. The hummingbirds LOVE the monarda, so even if it's tall, it has to be here somewhere.

Here's the new Forever and Ever Together Hydrangea!  I am thinking of trying to turn it blue.  I love blue hydrangeas!

So...*gulp*...without anymore ado...here are the photos, starting with year 1.

Here's a new bed we just created for some hostas.  I used to HATE hosta.  Then I found out they weren't just green or green/white.  So then they were ok.  THEN I saw hummingbirds nectaring on the scapes, then I decided I liked them.  The bricks are left over from laundry room, they make a neat old looking pathway.