Well, here are some pics from my gardens the past few days. I have some pretty cool stuff blooming right now, and it just gets better until it peaks in July-August with all the prairie wildflowers. So if you got some photos of your gardens or others- let's see 'em.

WILD BLUE INDIGO- BAPTISIA

PRAIRIE PHLOX

PENSTEMON GRANDIFLORUM

PENSTEMON CULTIVAR- BEARDTONGUE

FRONT OF THE HOSUE

FRONT OF THE HOUSE

Thanks for looking and enjoy.
kent

kent that looks really beautiful. I wish I had the greenthumb like my grandma and dad. it looks like genetics for that stopped there. I especially dig the wild blue indigo.

VEEEEEEEEERy Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!!!

It's my first baby cucumber!!!

Could any first time mama be any prouder ???

well.....name, height and weight, boy or girl?

things just looked nice while sitting on the front step tonight



enjoy,
kent

Still trying to figure out exactly how to tell if it's a boy or girl . . .

Which would help in the naming, I suppose

I have dianthus and several colors of lilies blooming. My roses 4 colors and my marigolds and my hydrangeas. and my black eyed susans are just about to burst open... but the weeds are much more healthier than any of my flowers this year... Oh the time to get lost in the garden has been so few and far between.... I miss the solitude of the garden...

Mine doesn't look like much, but it smells and tastes fantastic!:)


oops! forgot to label the oregano!

Yum! Wish I had a spot for an outdoor herb garden. Don't get enough sunlight to do the indoor kind.

Cher

The prairie is starting to look pretty good- despite the total lack of rainfall, as you can see by the hill at the back of the photo. We've only had 1 significant rain since mid-May. Native prairie plants can survive because their roots go to 10, even 20 feet down.


IN THIS PICTURE ALONE YOU WILL FIND BLOOMING- PLAINS COREOPSIS, TALL MEADOWRUE, SPIDERWORT, SAINT JOHNS WORT, PALE PURPLE CONEFLOWER, BUTTERFLYWEED, WILD QUININE,
PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER, YELLOW CONEFLOWER, QUEEN OF THE PRAIRIE, THIMBLEWEED, HELIOPSIS, AND IN THE CENTER A RATTLESNAKE MASTER PLUS MANY OTHER SPECIES NOT BLOOMING YET- GRAY HEADED CONEFLOWER, SHOWY GOLDENROD AMONG THEM.


PALE PURPLE CONEFLOWER. THE SOLITARY TALL PLANT IS THE CENTER WITH THE YELLOW FLOWER SIDEWAYS ON TOP IS A COMPASS PLANT. IT'S ABOUT 10 FT. TALL RIGHT NOW, AND IS NATIVE. IT ALIGNS ITS LEAVES N-S TO MAXIMIZE THE SUN EXPOSURE, AND IN A FEW WEEKS WILL HAVE A CLUSTER OF 20-30 FLOWERS ON TOP OF THAT STALK. THE REST THATS ALL GREEN RIGHT NOW WILL BE BLOOMING IN A FEW WEEKS.

enjoy, kent

edit- spelling

Just a few from my garden this year.

Kent

those look great Kent
this gardening- must be a Kent thing, right Kent

Kent, it looks like you might be onto something here about it being a Kent thing.

Kent

To kent & Kent:

Awesome shots! The variety and colors are amazing!

: )

OK, I'm not much of a photographer.... but learning how to garden.

I was given a gift of a Sago Palm and a BUNCH of day lillies.... and here are the first blooms:

Looks great, Troy!

: )

now you've got me going.



















Ok enough for now.

Kent

nthegarden Kent-
So what is that you got growing there? Japanese maples?
It's definitely something I can't grow up here in the north country.
Thanks for posting them, they look beautiful.
(lowercase) kent

nthegarden... is your name Kent?

Your garden is insane... so beautiful. Wow.

Yes my name is Kent. And to the other Kent, yes they are Japanese maples. I collect them. I have over 100 of them. I'm just a bit nuts when it comes to JM and unusual dwarf conifers. I have over 300 of them. Thanks for all the nice comments. I really do garden for myself but it makes it so much more enjoyable when others appreaciate it also. I will post some pictures of some of my conifers.

Kent

I think the Japanese maple is one of my favorite trees, so beautiful. I've never seen some like that. Incredible. You're garden has a oriental feel to it, do you do bonsai? It looks like a great spot to just park myself down on a bench and just enjoy it. Up here we'd have to put the Japanese Maples indoors for the winter. My gardens have more the wild look, as I am a native plant and perennial fanatic.
kent

here is some conifer pictures

























OK, I must confess, the last isn't my garden. Just another picture from my hike up Mt Hood.

Kent

I am trying to learn bonsai. I have several things in process but nothing close to being finished. As to you growing Japanese Maples. I have alot of mine in pots. They all have to go into an unheated garage for the winter months here. I have about 60 in my garage every winter. I wouldn't suggest that for you but one or two would be worth a try.

Kent

Kent, you had said something about parking yourself on a bench and enjoying the garden? This is a shot of one of those spots where I sit quite often with a nice glass of wine and a book or even better with my ipod and OTR playing.



and this is the view from the bench. It is a peaceful spot to relax.



Thanks again for you kind words, oh and by the way, I really enjoy natural more wild places also. The shots of you place look wonderful. The shot of the purple coneflower is great.

Kent

here's some shots from today, it's getting close to peak bloom in my gardens, so the next month
is when the flowers are strutting their stuff











enjoy, kent

I love the forth picture. I wish I had enough space to have a prairie.

Kent

anyone wanna come over and sit a spell?

BEAUTIFUL, Kent!!

: )

And, yes, I do wanna come over and sit a spell!!

With the exception of the milkweed pictured here, none of the flowers on my flower page are actually in my yard. (Although the blue/purple spiderwort was kind of poking through my chain-link fence:



You can visit http://www.jeannesphotos.com/flowers to see the rest if you'd like.

nice photos Jeanne, thanks for sharing them

the hillside prairie is looking pretty nice as it goes into full bloom right now, enjoy

Jeanne - the milkweed is really lovely!

Cher

I love that one! Great composition and color.

Cher

I hate the winter... I really do. I find no joy in it. It has no redeeming qualities as far as I can tell... well, except I notice that the women up north sometimes wear those amazing black boots that make my heart go pitter-pat. Mmmm....

Oh, ah, anyway... I hate winter. My garden is dying and the air is growing cold. Ick.

I did have some fun with my garden this year. I have about 18 tomato plants, and I usually grow a couple odd ones. This year I had a variety called German Johnson which was a mix of brown, green, and purple. It sounded great until I realized that when you sliced it open it sorta looked like it was rotten (because of the odd coloring.)

But this little green & yellow striped guy was my favorite. Tasted great and looked cool too.

from all the packing and @!*% i haven't had the time to tend to my overly-lame garden patches, but some good things have come out of 'em.

a pretty little tulip:


this guy was moving towards me so i shot fast and hoped for the best; he's not too blurry

Not mine ... my dad's:


Dad & Garden


Dad's Garden, Tomato1


Dad's Garden, Tomato2


Dad's Garden, Tomato3


Dad's Garden, Tomato4


Dad's Garden, Lettuce


Dad got this rhubarb as a start from his dad. He's had it for years and has it broken into 3 barrels now. He tends it like crazy and was worried that a hard freeze had taken it this year. As you can see, it's doing just fine. He's already cooked a mess and I will be enjoying some soon myself. Yum!


Dad's Garden, Rhubarb

things are a blooming




AN EARLY BLOOMING DAYLILY AND CORAL BELLS


BLUE INDIGO, SIBERIAN IRIS, GOLDEN ALEXANDER


SIBERIAN IRIS


RED PRINCE WEIGALA, PAGODA DOGWOOD IN THE FOREGROUND

the early season perennials and annuals are coloring up my gardens right now.
its an ever changing garden, with something new coming into bloom almost every day.
here's some of the fruits of my labor:


FRONT OF THE HOUSE- A WILLIAM BAFFIN HARDY SHRUB ROSE IS TO THE RIGHT


RED PIXIE ASIATIC LILIES


THE RED PIXIES FROM ABOVE


ORANGE PIXIE LILIES, BLUE SALVIA, GERANIUMS


A WONDERFUL NATIVE PLANT- PRAIRIE PHLOX


SEEDHEADS OF THE PASQUE FLOWER

From a friend's garden:


Threesome

Taken with the OLY SP-550UZ.

Thanks for looking!
Cher

Kent - lovely, just lovely!

Cher

Here's my first attempt at having a garden.

Enjoyed these tastey numbers this past Sunday!


While it was still on the vine


After cutting from the vine


Waiting to be combined with fresh basil, mozarella and olive oil.
The zucchini blossoms went into a salad.

Yum! I had a fresh one from dad's garden this week. As Rachel Ray would say, "Yum-O."

Cher

here's some shots from around the gardens at home today


FRONT OF THE HOUSE


PALE PURPLE CONEFLOWER- A NATIVE PRAIRIE PLANT


ECHINACEA PARADOXA- THE YELLOW PURPLE CONEFLOWER
A MIDWEST NATIVE PLANT

i haven't taken too many shots lately, finally got out in the garden with the camera last night.
been too busy getting ready for my first ever garden tour at my house by a garden club on sunday.
its been a tough year, we are in a drought, at least 6-7 inches below normal rainfall right now,
but the plants are hanging in there.
the dayliles are in full bloom as is the tall garden phlox.
the native prairie is getting close to full on bloom, maybe a few more weeks.











you can see more at flickr.com, then search for kentplants.
i'll post a link in my sig soon

all of your pictures are so pretty.... i wish i could come there, walk around, and take it all in.
very nice, kent.

Same here, Kent! Thanks for taking the time to post and label. Everything looks so lush and beautiful. Where I live things are so dry outside that the lawns are browned out and the trees are even wilted from such a lack of rain. Such a contrast to where you are...and the U.P., where everything looked richly green.

Y'all have got some great looking gardens---my flower garden is just a small patch and my veggie garden is not looking so good---my tomato plants are kind of small as are my peppers--but I do have a fair amount of both--I think that I need to do some major fertilizing this fall and spring because one of my neighbors has some huge tomato, zuchini, pepper and cucumber plants---


I'll post some garden pics if I think they look good enough!!!

I've been too lazy to post pics of the gardens here. I don't really spend time with them (but I spend a bunch of time watering), but they look nice. Rain has been scarce here. I'm gonna go broke with the water bill this summer...

I see that my tomato picture from last year is not far above me on this thread!

Well, I hope you don't mind, but here is one box of this year's tomatoes so far. I have about 3 boxes full and I'll begin canning on Wednesday because they say it'll be cooler then (my kitchen gets warm).

This is the best year for tomatoes I've had in a long time. The weather has been great, the rain has been evenly spaced, and I moved (humanely) all the chipmunks that went crazy and ate half my garden last year.

Here you will see the green stripey again (grown from seeds from last years crop), a big golden yellow, celebrity (red), and the groovy red striped one is called a firebolt. It has a very beautiful fruit, but the plant wasn't very hearty and it's already wilting. I also have a big orange variety and a white one that are not shown here. AND I have tomatillos coming in nicely! Hopefully I'll be able to get a good picture of them towards the end of the season.