Ugly Period

My garden is pretty ugly right now. I've found that there's no way to avoid these awkward transition times.

The beautiful purple spring blooming ground covers have faded and the summer bloomers have not yet begun. We have not had rain in over a week and the grass is turning brown.

It's always such a let down to see it go.









I do have one new bloomer -- Snow-In-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum).

This was one of my very early seed successes.
If I can grow it from seed, you know it's easy to do.

Snow-in-Summer is so named because of the very white flowers that completely cover the fuzzy silver/grey foliage on this 6-inch high ground cover. It truly looks like a low mound of newfallen snow.

The only care this plant gets is a good weeding in early spring. Weeding is no easy chore, because just like creeping phlox, this plant forms a dense mat.
It can take a good beating, though, and digging underneath to release the grass/weeds does not seem to bother it at all.

It's very drought tolerant. I never water it and it's been coming back each spring for the past 15 years.

I would not normally be walking through my garden in flip flops because I am way too concerned about a snake or other insect touching my flesh. I had just given myself a pedicure and was waiting for the polish to dry so I ventured out (around the edges of the bed only).


Remember the ipomea pots I saved from last year? Those lovely large pots that were hanging on each side of my arbor?
Well, it's been a good 4-5 weeks since I brought them out and they have just begun to emerge.

At this rate they won't be large enough to put out for another month.
So are they worth saving ?

Without a greenhouse, not really.
I have had to lug them in out of the garage during the entire month of May.
Way too much work for something that will not even be presentable until my garden season is at least half over.

If you have an area to hide them for the first two months, then I guess they would make a free change of scenery later in the season.