Early Summer Gallery

It is an amazing thing when the yard slowly comes to life after the long, cold winter on the high plains. It's easy to forget what the trees and plants look like. Spring and early summer growth always appeal to me most because the colors are more vibrant. Please enjoy these photos, which showcase some of the plants gracing our landscape.

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These are volunteer violas that have migrated  from the neighbor's yard.

The ugly irrigation tubing is an unfortunate necessity in the arid West. I try to bury it, but it always works it way back to the surface.

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This is the inside of my greenhouse. The growth on the ground is spearmint.

2 years ago I planted some mint seeds in a small pot. Some of the plants flowered and went to seed before I could stop it. Now look at it.

Obviously, mint can be quite invasive. But it is probably my most successful crop, and I hardly ever care for it. I walk all over it and never water it. This plant has survived 2 winters.

I harvest it from time to time, using it in recipes and teas. I plan on trying to grow it outside the greenhouse and see if it will spread as a ground cover.

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I thought the colors here were wonderful. These are young pine cones on our blue spruce (which is actually green).

When cones are this young, they have this reddish-purplish color. Combine that with the magnificent blue sky and the green needles, and you end up with a great photo.

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Although I say I am not a flower person, I do have my favorites. Top of my list are johnny jump ups. Not only are their colors gorgeous, but these tough little guys survive all winter. I will often find blossoms poking out through the snow in February.

The flowers are also edible! Drop a few into a butternut squash soup and it looks fabulous.

We planted some seeds a couple years ago, and we just let them reseed themselves. Now they are all over the yard. This particular bunch have grown very tall and like to nestle up against the same blue spruce
pictured above.

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Most people think all columbines are blue and white. Not so. Here are some red ones.

They are a bit finicky about where they grow. They tend to like some shade, so I have this plant positioned so that it gets mostly morning sun and that's it.

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There are lots of things crammed into the back corner of the yard. In the upper left you see the corner of the greenhouse.

Next to it is a pear tree. This is very healthy Bartlett specimen which I hope will fruit soon.

Then there is one of my 4x4 raised garden beds. It is virtually impossible to grow anything in the native soil here, so the best approach is to build on top of the native soil. I fill the beds with potting soil, since these beds are pretty much huge pots.

The next tree is a flowering plum. As the name suggests, there will be no fruit, but it does have gorgeous flowers in the spring. The purplish foliage color offers a nice contrast to all the greenery.

Along the ground are our strawberry plants. These also do well in the high plains. They are the June bearing variety, and true to their name, they are currently loaded with berries. Soon I will have to put down the netting because I can tell the local robins are waiting for them to ripen.

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This is one of the lupines in the front yard. Their blossoms don't last long, but as you can see, they are quite stunning.

We have a variety of colors that look really nice. Pink, white, blue, etc.

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Here is another lupine, just to show the subtle difference in colors.

These plants also self seed and we have little seedlings all over the yard, even down in the basement window wells. However, these young plants haven't flowered yet. I don't know how old they have to be before they can put on a show like this.

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This last photo just shows that woolly thyme can flower. I had read that it is very rare to flower, so here's an example of such a rarity.

Now if only Bigfoot would walk through the yard...