... this year at my garden at the lake is what I thought I would share with you today... While I usually would have posted about my garden by now, especially throughout the summer months, I haven't done so yet this year because I honestly didn't spend a lot of time indoors in front of my computer as it was simply too hot, this being the summer of our very troubling heat dome in British Columbia!!... However, as I took a lot of pictures of my garden from spring onward, I thought it would be fun to throw them all into one post in an attempt to visually chronicle the seasonal changes in my garden -- so yes, brace yourself for a ton of photos in this post! I will however try to keep my words to a minimum and let the pictures speak for themselves..
As you can see, my April garden is all about lovely and fragrant fruit tree blossoms (apple, pear and cherry) and sweet and cheerful forget-me-not blooms; the latter have pretty much made themselves at home all over, whether it be in the hill garden or...
... in the flower beds by the house and enclosed veggie plot. Far from minding this blue invasion, I happily welcome it as it makes me think of the stunning spring bluebell woods in the UK...
April was especially sweet this year because, for the first time, I could start seeing how the stone steps I had been working on throughout the winter in a bare and dormant garden would look in a greener and lusher garden...
As I mentioned in a previous post, I started building these steps on the side of the hill to give me better access to this part of the garden; because of the steepness of the hill, I would often end up on my butt coming down it, especially during wet weather!... I used stone collected locally on the side of logging roads which explains the very wonky and rustic look of it all which I do like though! When I first starting this little construction project of mine, I thought I would just do part of the hill, the steepest part or the top half of the hill, but I've been loving working on this so much and loving the way it's turning out that I've decided to make steps along the entire hill all the way down to our access road...
Given all the stone-hauling up the hill and the often lengthy contemplation needed for the placement of each irregular-shaped rock -- the making of each step usually becomes a bit of a jigsaw puzzle --, it's been a rather slow process, and I'm definitely still working on it as I pen this post... I'm thinking it might all be finished by next spring, and what a treat it will be to walk down them, right under the apple tree with its gorgeous and fragrant blossoms!...
May is pure delight in my garden as many of the rose bushes I've planted over the years start making their presence known with stunning flushes of blooms...
... and who can resist all that fresh spring greenery everywhere, peppered here and there by flowery pops of lovely colour?...
And then there is that nostalgia-filled sweet scent of lilacs... Yum!...
June brings more of that green loveliness and more early summer stalwarts like gorgeous foxgloves which, this year, popped up by my enclosed veggie garden...
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... and at the top of my newly built steps!...
Well, and then there is full-on summertime, July and August, which looked like this in my garden...
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... a little aside here - dahlias like the irresistible pompom one below were a very welcome new addition to my garden this year,...
... and continuing with our midsummer garden visit here by the veggie garden...
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... and another little side note -- the creamy foamy-looking flowering shrub below is a Holodiscus discolor, commonly known as oceanspray, creambush, or ironwood, native to our region and an absolute favourite of mine; it has seeded itself here and there on our property... Isn't it lovely?!...
Onto September... in past years, I hadn't spent too much time at the lake in September, but this year was different, and I did not regret it as I realized that the garden has still so much too offer at this time of the year -- take a look at the dahlias, zinnias, verbena, coneflowers, sunflowers and roses which are still in bloom and very much part of the landscape...
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The maple and birch leaves are starting to change colour -- it must be October...
After a very distressing drought of a summer, the rains have come, making for some lovely gardenscapes with the sun breaking through the rain clouds...
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Now maybe I should have done a better job editing the next batch of photos, but I couldn't help myself because of one grassy perennial, Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Red Head' (Fountain Grass), which I've planted in different spots all over the garden in recent years and which, this year, charmed me to bits as its plantings have finally matured. You can see it below in a lakeside planting just as it is about to bloom...
... and then, when it blooms, it absolutely delights because, as you will see in the string of photos below, its bottlebrush flowers capture the light in magical ways, giving them a different colour depending on the light conditions... Take a look...
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So, what do you think -- isn't that so wonderful!...
Well, our little garden tour is coming to an end (thank goodness you're probably thinking after all those grass photos!...) and I thought it would be fun to end it at the stone steps where we began back in April...
Isn't it amazing to see how the garden has grown around these newly-built steps, making it look like they've been here forever?!...
As we moved further into October, more and more autumn leaves have fallen onto the steps...
... making them so lovely to sit on while watching the leaves slowly fall to the ground...
I do hope you've enjoyed this garden visit and, hopefully, I haven't bored you too much with my lack of editing -- thanks for partaking!!...
