Summertime in the Gardens (A Virtual Garden Tour)

Today I have another garden tour for you – Summertime in the Gardens. At this point in the summer there’s something new popping everyday, and I’m excited to share my gardens with you. My hope is you’ll leave with some inspiration and new ideas for your own gardens. I wish every one of you could come take a walk through my gardens. We could bounce garden ideas off of one another and just chat about gardening. Since we can’t do that, we’ll have to settle for these virtual garden tours.

There are so many lovely garden pictures on the internet (if you don’t believe me, just do a Google or Pinterest search). Images of perfectly manicured shrubs and mass plantings of the same flower surrounding a lovely, large home. Those pictures are fun to look at and fun to dream about, but I believe most home gardeners are looking for something they can attain in their own landscape or gardens. So here at Gingham Gardens we’re all about simple home flower garden ideas that most of us can achieve.

As you’re scrolling (or strolling) by, please feel free to pin some of the pictures to your favorite Flower Gardening board on Pinterest. There are more pins for sharing at the bottom of the page.

Let’s get to the tour, shall we.

Some very lovely things are happening in the front corner flower bed. Here we have Happy Returns Daylilies, Walker’s Low Junior Catmint, along with Prairie Blossoms Daylily.

Flower Combinations and Color Schemes

Can we just talk about plant combinations and color schemes for a minute. If you read anything on Garden Design, there are so many so-called flower garden design rules. Most of those articles are written by landscape design professionals for folks who can afford to hire landscape designers. I’m a rebel at heart and have a hard time following rules, especially in the garden.

I believe if you come up with a combination you love in your gardens, then it’s perfect. There is no right or wrong when it comes to flower gardening.  Sometimes you’ll hit on a plant combination and it will be lovely, and other times not-so-much. The cool thing with a flower garden is you can always rearrange it and keep working it until you achieve a look you’re going for. If you’re looking for some simple tips on Flower Garden Design, check out the post when you’ve finished up here.

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Also in the front corner flower bed in this sweet duo of Astra Pink Balloon Flowers and Passionate Returns Daylilies.

 

I didn’t really purchase anything special for my whiskey barrel planter this year, so it ended up with a random mix of leftover plants – zonal geraniums, lantana, verbena bonariensis, vinca vine and a few statice plants that I grew from seed that haven’t bloomed yet. I kind of like the random mix. The Globe Thistle is looking pretty spectacular this year and the bees love it.

Summertime Garden Visitors

It’s always fun when we start seeing butterflies in the gardens. A pair of Red Admiral Butterflies made an appearance one day when I was out with my camera and I haven’t seen them since.

The pictures are far from perfect, too many shadows, etc., but I was happy to capture them and just kept snapping.  The butterflies loved these PowWow Wild Berry coneflowers. Now, if I could just get a picture of our hummingbird visitors.

Need some tips on attracting bees and butterflies to your garden?
How to Attract Pollinators to Your Garden

Gardening Products (and fun things) I’m Loving:

 

Daylilies – A Summertime Garden Staple

A few weeks ago, I shared a post on Daylilies. Well, they just keep coming and I can’t get enough of the daylily blooms. This is Daylily Alley along the back of our deck.

Here’s another angle of Daylily Alley. This year I planted zinnias in among the daylilies, so there would be some color in this flower bed when the daylilies stop blooming.

Fairy Tale Pink starts blooming a little later than most of my other daylilies. She’s loaded with buds this years, so I should have several weeks of blooms.

Lavender Rainbow Daylily is one of the chosen ones that made the move with us to our new home.

Summertime Flower Photos from the Tiered Garden Bed

Next are some goodies I’d like to show you in the tiered garden bed. This flower bed is a crazy mess. When things slow down a bit in the gardens, I will start making notes in my Garden Journal on the plants I want to move this Fall and next Spring.

Here’s a nice grouping of Oriental Lilies and Cedar Waxwing Daylilies.

The fragrance of the Oriental Lilies is heavenly!

Oakes Daylilies always includes a free plant with daylily orders and these Cedar Waxwing Daylilies were a freebie plant from them a few years ago. It’s turned out to be one of my favorite daylilies and a very prolific bloomer.

A few more heavenly smelling Oriental Lilies.

The Tall Garden Phlox are starting to bloom and I love their sweet fragrance too. These are Bright Eyes Phlox along with Zagreb Coreopsis.

 

A few weeks ago in the post, Garden Makeover (From A Weed Pit to a Beautiful Garden), I shared a picture of this birdhouse with deep red lilies blooming around it. Now those lilies have completed their bloom and these yellow lilies have taken their place. 

Cutting Garden Update

I want to share an update on my Cutting Garden too. This is the first year I’ve planted a designated cutting garden. The cutting garden is contained in one of my raised beds and because of it’s position, it’s impossible to get a picture of the entire garden. I may just have to try standing on a ladder to see if I can get a decent shot of the entire bed.

The snapdragons are lovely and definitely a favorite. These are called Rocket and they do have to be staked.

This is the first time I’ve planted Teddy Bear Sunflowers. They are a shorter, smaller variety of sunflowers and easier to cut for bouquets. Unfortunately, our resident squirrels love them too.

The State Fair Zinnias are a favorite of the bees.

Wow, if you made it this far, you’re a champ, or a garden fanatic like me! Thank you for taking time out of your day and away from your gardens to visit Gingham Gardens’ Summertime in the Gardens. I do hope you’ve enjoyed your stay and are leaving with some new inspiration or ideas for your own gardens.

Happy Gardening,
Joanna

p.s. Go ahead and feel free to “pin” these pictures. If you hover in the upper left-hand corner of the picture, you’ll see the little Pinterest icon. Just click it and pin away.

p.p.s I’d love to have you follow me on Pinterest. Lots of great gardening ideas and tons of gardener’s eye candy.

Pins to Share:

Some of my favorite garden decor pieces from Amazon (You’ll see most of these around Gingham Gardens):