This week in the garden: the heat is on!

Posted on June 19, 2021 by John Kevin Hickey

Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.


Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rhapsody in blue: this duet of blue bearded iris and blue columbines harmonize in the backyard.

The first day of summer is tomorrow, but here in the Vintage garden the summer heat is already making it’s presence felt.

While much of the American West saw less than average rainfall in April and May, the Colorado Front Range looked and felt more like the Pacific Northwest with all the rain and cooler weather that we’ve received.

Well, all that cool weather and moisture came to abrupt stop as soon as the Memorial Day weekend ended. It was like ol’ Mother Nature flipped a switch; I went from having to wear a heavy jacket and gloves on Memorial Day to wearing shorts and flip-flops two days later.

Now the temps are reaching the 90’s almost every day, and we’ve hit 100 degrees a couple days already. And it’s not even summer yet! Sheesh.

In spite of the weird spring, most of the garden is looking pretty good. Let’s take a tour.

MrsVintage’s peonies are bursting into bloom.
Jupiter’s Beard bring a pop of red color in the backyard long border.

In the photo below you can see that the late spring/early summer border in the backyard is in full swing right now. I planted this border three years ago, and it is finally reaching its full potential. Overall, I am pleased with this border, but only middling so. I planted several Jupiter’s Beards to provide some red color to complement all the blue and yellow. Unfortunately, it looks like they didn’t make it through the winter.

When the local nurseries put their plants go on sale later this summer, I’ll pick up a few Jupiter’s Beards to round out this vignette. Of course, I’ll have to wait until the temperatures drop in the fall before I plant them.

What used to be the vegetable bed is now the late spring/early summer border. Looking pretty good if I do say so, but I feel it needs a little more red. What you see here is ‘Coronation Gold’ yarrow, ‘May Night’ salvia, ‘Walkers Low’ blue catmint and the only surviving red Jupiter’s Beard. In the far right you can see a couple of blue irires.

Looking through all the photos I took for this post, I’ve become aware at just how much blue/purple dominates my garden in late spring and early summer. Which is cool, because I like the color blue. But as summer progresses, yellow and orange will come to rule the yarden and will continue to reign until autumn arrives. Then purple/blue will return to share the throne with reds.

Baptisia, also known as false indigo, creates a pool of blue in front of the house.
A blue penstemon, variety unknown, along the front walk. I didn’t plant this penstemon, it made itself at home here.
Deep blue “May Night” salvia and blue oat grass hold court in the driveway border.
Another blue beauty, “Grand Mesa” penstemon, which is a Colorado native, blooms in the birdbath garden. You’ll note that that the flowers are flopping toward the birdbath. I suspect all the rain the Vintage garden received over the past two months led to too much growth. After it finishes flowering, I’ll cut this penstemon back so it’s not leaning like a drunken frat boy. Sorry that the photo is out of focus.
Blue alliums are closing out spring and welcoming in summer.

It’s not just my plants that have been exploding into bloom. The weeds, especially bindweed and thistle, have been on a rampage this spring. I suspect that all that moisture we received in April and May caused them to run riot throughout the garden. While I try to go out everyday to pull weeds, I am not ashamed to admit that in some cases I have also employed chemical weed control methods.

As the heat of summer carries on, the weeds will slow their roll. I just need to stay on top of them in the meantime.

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