Stuttgart – Page 4

Our August yard

August 16, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure3 Comments

Here are some mid-month pictures of our shaggy backyard on one side. (Click on any thumbnail image below to enlarge it.)

Shaggy. . . .

The pattern that I cut in the grass in May has blurred quite a bit, but I still enjoy it, especially in the morning light.

Our little corner bean-shaped flower bed has produced a surprising number of blooms this summer, considering that I had pretty much written it off last fall and had started using it as a compost pile. I thought this would kill off everything but the golden spirea and the “Fairy” rose, and then I could start over with better ground.

The ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum is just about to go pink.

The little ‘Fairy’ rose started slowly but is now covered in blooms.

This yellow rosebush has filled out several bouquets this summer.

A single self-sown black-eyed Susan.

Instead, the previously sickly looking hydrangea, hybrid tea roses, and sedums seem to like growing under at least 3″ to 6″ of half-rotted leaves and grass clippings (and some coffee grounds). I did smother a lot of weeds, but I don’t know what has happened to the mice that were living there too.

My plan to follow the Spielhaus Garden this year for Bloom Days and Foliage Follow Ups has not worked out very well due to travel, rainy weather, and a sometimes hurting foot — with surgery planned in a few weeks — but I hope I can get over there sometime this month and bring you an update.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up on the 16th of every month. And to see the mid-month flowers of other garden bloggers, please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

In a vase on Monday: roses

July 18, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure11 Comments

These white, yellow, and pink roses came from bushes that were in our garden when we moved into the house, and last summer they looked a bit sad and didn’t produce many flowers. But I mulched them well with fallen leaves in autumn and continuously fed them my used coffee grounds over the winter. Then, we had a lot of rain this spring and June, and, finally, some sun and warmth in July, so when we got back from France on Friday each bush had several open blooms.

The arrangement’s color combination, however, while cheerful in the living room, wasn’t very pretty in my pictures, so I switched to black and white.

To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

And if you voz to see my roziz
As is a boon to all men’s noziz —
You’d fall upon your back and scream —
“O Lawk — O crikey! It’s a dream!”

— Edward Lear

Wordless Wednesday: summer hellstrip

July 6, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure2 Comments

Karlsplatz, Stuttgart, July 2016.

GB Foliage Follow Up for May

May 16, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure8 Comments

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Grass as foliage — our backyard.

Thanks to Pam at Digging for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Follow Up on the 16th of every month.

. . . Each blade
the entrance to the grass city.

— Kathleen Fraser, from “Grass“

(And another poem about grass for a Monday.)

GB Bloom Day in May

May 15, 2016August 20, 2017 Cindy at enclos*ure11 Comments

in the pleatpetal purring of mouthweathered May.

— Karen Volkman, from “May“

The Chinese tree peonies are definitely the stars this month in the Speilhaus garden of the University of Hohenheim.

I took these photos yesterday evening.

The garden has around ten mature specimens.

Paeonia Suffruticosa Hybrid ‘Yoshinogawa’

Paeonia-Suffruticosa-Hybride 'Yoshinogawa' — Paeonia Suffruticosa Hybrid ‘Yoshinogawa’

Unfortunately, we had several days of rain last week, and the blooms were not at their best.

Paeonia tenuifolia 'Plena' — Paeonia tenuifolia ‘Plena’

The fern leaf peony shown above was new to me.

Looking across the garden to the Spielhaus.

Beyond the peony bed, I liked the combination, above and below, of light-purple geraniums and orange euphorbias.

Geranium tuberosum and Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fire Glow’

Euphoribia griffithii 'Fire Glow' — Euphoribia griffithii ‘Fire Glow’

Iris Barbata-Media-Grpuppe 'Antarctique' — Iris Barbata-Media-Grpuppe ‘Antarctique’

Nearby was a planting of bearded iris.

In the photo above, the bright yellow at the top, just below the arbor, is mountain goldenbanner, which is native to the western United States.

Thermopsis montana or mountain goldenbanner

White asphodel — “that greeny flower” — was also blooming in the garden.

The pretty blue-violet flower above was close by, but I didn’t get a picture of its label. I think it’s another Asphodelus. It’s a Camassia, a North American native in the asparagus family (see the comments below).

Looking south across the garden from behind the wisteria arbor, you can see the row of tree peonies. In the lower right-hand corner is a planting of yellow asphodel or king’s spear.

Looking across the garden from the east to the west, a beautiful pink blooming Judas tree draws the eye.

The tree is native to Southern Europe and Western Asia.

The flowers are edible and are said to have a sweetish-acid taste.

At the other side of the garden a Lithospermum purpurocaeruleum or purple gromwell drapes over the steps. The flowers emerge purple reddish and then mature to deep blue.