Talking outside flowers

Ahh summer!!!

I love summer, it is my favorite time of the year. I shared a post at the beginning of spring about sprucing up our yard. Here are some more mature pictures of the yard now that the summer has progressed and things have grown.

Everything is growing great this summer. The yard looks lush, and the flowers are blooming beautifully. My tip to a beautiful and manageable yard is perennials. My flower gardens are only filled with perennials. You only have to buy them once, they come up every year, and I really only trim back flowers and weed once a week. If you trim off the dead flowers from most perennial plants, you can force them to bloom all summer.

My favorite weed control is mulch. I rarely have to weed, and nothing looks dry. Definitely an investment I am willing to make. Every spring we add some new mulch, and every fall I move plants around to where I want them next year. I always do that in the fall so I can see the plant’s full size and know how much space to give them.

Some of my favorite perennials to use are:

Lilies, they are hardy, come back every year, and produce beautiful color. Coral Bells, they also come back every year, produce color the whole summer when the old flowers cut back, and hummingbirds love them. Coriopsus (I don’t know if I’m spelling that right), they bloom all summer and come back every year. Lavendar, they smell delicious, and have beautiful purple blooms all summer. Dwarf snow daisies, not the full size daisies. They bloom in the summer and add a beautiful white to the yard, kind of like snow. Mums, I love these because although they are a fall flower, they are full and green all summer filling up a lot of space in the flower garden. Catnip, careful this spreads, but I love the purple flowers that bloom all summer long. Hostas have got to be one of my favorite since they remind me of Logan. They love the shade and do well all summer if they are shaded. Honey suckle vines are great along the fence. They smell so good, and add a lot of privacy. Lilacs too are great for privacy and delicious smelling flowers in the spring. I love succulents…one of my new favorite. There are so many variety, and they are way hardy. Lastly, cone flowers, they get pretty big, and add beautiful end of summer early fall color.