Clover

Took over the planter. Wow.

Tomatoes!

Finally! Two little tomatoes.

Balcony nandina

Is in bloom with open flowers

July Update

Crocosmia - only one of the transplants is blooming. The rest... well, they're still alive!
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Fuschia is happy along the fence. That's a plant I put in small this year.  To its right is a hardy fuschia from last year. I had two - a red one and a white one. The red one was ripped up repeatedly (I think by the dog? In any case, it was strange). This should be the white one. It's struggling and going slowly though; I don't think it'll bloom this year. None of the fuchias from last year are blooming yet, though they're leaved out OK.

Red flowering currant. Actually has some berries on it. Maybe the birds will eat them. I think it's baking in the sun, though; the leaves are crisping and parts of it just don't look so good, especially compared to the one on the western fence.

These fuschias are doing great. They're beautiful and growing like crazy.

Bellflowers keep reblooming, and the single blooming potentilla keeps blooming.

Shoulda staked the cosmos. The dark pink ones fell over. I tried to drive a stake in but the ground is too hard, oops!

I put in five Astilbe "Europa" (pretty soft pale pink) last fall from roots. They all did quite well this year, though the color is gone now. I plan to add more next year. This one is a good example of how they look -- four are pretty happy.

And one Astilbe is not happy at all. Should be getting the same light and moisture as the rest, but it's shriveling up.

Poor tomatoes do not like growing in the ground here, even in raised bed. If I try it again, I'll do like my neighbors do and put it in a black container!  My big tomato plant has no tomatoes at all.  The grape tomoato plant has two tiny green ones... maybe I'll get SOMETHING out of it.  I stuck some squash seeds in the ground nearby, no idea if they will sprout or grow any squash. It just isn't very warm or sunny here for more than a a couple of days in a row this year!

First clematis planted

Planted a clematis tonight. I don't know how it will do -- I had a hard time getting the bamboo stake out, and in removing one of the ties I did break off a small stem. I read that that's Bad for a clematis.  We'll see!

Took forever to plant and attach to the fence. It was about dark by the time I was done!

Clematis vancouver 'Danielle' from Molbak's

Cosmos

More annuals. Sonata pink and carmine. Hope they spread the 12" promised.  If not, next year I'll put them closer together.

Daylillies

Finally blooming and they're beautiful! Pandora's Box.

Nothing blooming from Purple de Oro or Bumble Bee. :-(  They're thinking about it. Maybe they don't get quite enough sun.

Hummingbird!

I've been seeing a pretty green hummingbird for the last few weeks.  Happened to just catch him on camera tonight (before my dog tried to go eat it) in the crocosmia:

Crocosmia

The red one I left on the west fence is happy and blooming.

Reblooming

Bellflowers, hardy geranium, potentilla are reblooming. Serviceberry is completely ripe. 

Blueberries!

Unhappy red flowering currant

Since the summer warmed up, the red flowering currants on the eastern fence are shriveling up and unhappy.

Daylily bloomed!

Fresh produce!

It's the Fourth of July!  We found the first ripe blueberries today. So far, no sign of mummyberry, and these were on the previous affected bushes just north of the vine maple.  Picked four ripe blueberries: delicious.

The peas are doing fine and I had a fresh pea pod today. So wonderful.

The short serviceberry bushes have some rusted berries, some still green, some red, and some blue-purple. The purple ones are ripe and juicy.  The taste is just OK. It's not offensive, but neither is it as enticing as a blueberry or a strawberry. The little seeds are annoying too. But they are pretty little bushes and they have edible berries, so they stay!

The thyme in the baskets on the deck hasn't done well. One went right to flower; the other died.  The basil has had a hard time too; the basil on the east rail has not grown, but the one on the north rail is. Slowly.  The strawberry on the rail is doing wonderfully. The chives are growing very, very, very slowly.  The dill is doing fine. The cilantro was OK, but has flowered. The parsley is very happy. So is the oregano.

Next time, I'll put bok choy and spinach in those baskets, away from slugs and where I can catch it before it bolts.  Strawberries, oregano, and parsley are definitely good to do again. Basil too, if I can figure out what it needs to do a little better. Chives and cilantro are maybes.

Something stole my growing cherry tomato and knocked over the cage. :-(

The patricia and album geraniums are still going crazy. They've completely covered one of the sunshine blue bluerry plants! Cannot believe there are so many flowers from two tiny little plants bought last year.

Nice day to be outside. Welcome Seattle Summer!