Iris Season and Garden Update

Finally!  I love my yard.

It is nothing special.  Since I live in a PUD, there are constraints on what can be done, especially in the front.  But working within those constraints allows for breaking out of my pre-set patterns, and thinking of gardens in new ways.

It is still very much a work in progress.  It is very different from my previous yard as both the climate, landscape, and neighborhoods are all very different.  But it no longer looks like a dead mass of packed clay with scattered patches of sickly grass and weeds.  For this I am grateful.  I am happy also that not everything has been planned out.  There are plenty of empty patches, spots I can fill in with assorted annuals now while I dream and plan what they may be in the future.  No point in rushing that though.  The best gardens, like homes, and like people themselves, grow and evolve with time.

I am seriously thinking about some irises though.  None of the irises pictured here are from my garden; they are from the gardens of my neighbors, snapped during my morning walks with Tikka.  But they remind me of how much I miss the tall bearded irises form my garden in Hyde Park.

And so I am planning an iris bed, specifically a spot for reblooming tall bearded iris. Louisiana and Siberian irises have already been planted in the back, and I am looking forward to their season, but I miss these Grande Dames of the iris world as well.

And so the search is on.  I can admire my neighbor's irises, I can gaze at the irises on display, begging to be planted, at my local Lowe's, and still wait until I find exactly what I want. I still haven't toured local independent greenhouses and nurseries, and it is possible that I will find something I love, but if not, I know of good Iris breeders from whom I can order for fall planting.