Jaci Dawn

Since gardening is pretty much out of the question, I played with my camera.

I’d just cleared and seeded this patch next to the handicap ramp the week before I broke my foot. It was just a useless spot of grass, but is now awash with color.

Most of the color comes from the Clarkia growing there: mauve, pink, white. There are some other delicate flowers in blue, white, and pink as well, and some bachelor buttons just beginning to open.

The delicate Clarkia.

A Bachelor Button.

The evening primroses self-seeded in my yard from someone else’s garden. They remind me of my childhood, and I’ve allowed them to take up quite a bit of garden space.

The little sidewalk that just ends points toward my burgeoning blackcap raspberry plant. Last year, I trained it the other direction. This year, it is being trained toward the east. I had a banner crop, but they ripened right around the first day of summer, and so I let the birds eat them. It was a hard thing to do – I love wild blackcaps (but I hate the thorns!)! Shasta Daisies are in bloom now, with the foxgloves faded.

A hint on growing blackcaps – you need to alternate the direction of the canes every year. I’ll cut the old west-pointing canes this fall and dispose of them. I can promise that there will be cuts and scrapes – blackcaps are more dangerous than Himalayan blackberry vines. Next spring, the blossoms and berries will grow on the eastern canes and I will train the new canes up to the west. It makes the disposal of the old canes much easier every autumn.

Yellow evening primroses and yellow curry flowers frame the light purple of oregano. The honeybees LOVE oregano!

(The chair is support for my rosemary)

Looking back: the white chair holds up my Russian sage. The yellow is the curry. Rosemary is where the green chair is. Bumblebees LOVE the Russian sage!

The north flower bed is always the showiest with crocosmia lucifer, gladiolas, Bishop’s weed, pearly everlasting, black eyed susans, and Jacob’s ladder in bloom right now. Earlier, it was a show of peonies and irises. Later, the aster will add to the color.

I caught this female house finch enjoying one of my birdbaths.

I really miss my garden and being able to navigate the uneven ground of our yard with ease. But I have my camera!!