Comparing Garden Years

My first year in this house on JBLM was 2009.  That year it was a scorcher.  Temps that summer reached 100+ and my garden thrived.  My sunflower were above the window sill by June and growing even taller by the end of the summer.  Tall enough to hide tree frogs.

I planted three varieties of sunflowers that year. Red velvet which looks rather a rusty color, teddybear ones that are more of a tall pom pom and the generic yellows.

The pom pom ones reached the tallest heights while the yellow generic and red velvets reached the same heights.  I was okay with that since my garden looked beautiful.

June 2010 the temps were a lot cooler.  I still planted the yellow and red sunflower varieties along with the pom poms. When compared to 2009's crop my sunflowers didn't reach the window sill at full maturity.  Most died off.

The purple violas and strawberries did quite well last year.  Wish I could say the same for this year.

This year my sunflowers have yet to reach the height of the second brick.  Our temps are reaching a blistering 69 here today.  Highest we've had all month is in the low 70's.  Not much sun here this year either.  My strawberries are hard green berries still and not looking to produce much of edible delights.  The only thing in my garden that is growing well would be the rhubarb.  The rhubarb seems to love the cool, wet weather we have here.  I should go cut some and make some rhubarb crisp this weekend.  Maybe I'll get a second cutting of it before summer is out.

This year for splendid display I've had to go out and buy hanging baskets.  I like having a nice dwelling.  My green onions are growing though slowly and the tomatoes have a few buds on them.  I doubt they'll produce anything of size this year.  The pepper plants have no fruit yet either.  Oh well.

So this is my hanging garden on one side of the house.  The hummingbirds sure do enjoy it and I'm happy that someone is getting something out of it.

See if you can find the sunflowers in the back row.  Yes they are that small.  Pretty bad when the yarrow and lemon balm in the front row dwarfs the sunflowers.    Also in the bed is green onions, strawberries, dahlias, snap dragons, hollyhocks and campanellas.

The rest of the flower bed in front.  With the same flowers I mentioned above.  I do have more photos of the two other beds but lets face it, they aren't spectacular.  Just rhubarb, lemon thyme, parsley, rosemary, campenalla, carnations, birds foot ivy, snap dragons, delphinium, poppies, forget me nots, pansies, and tomatoes.  If only my garden would grow as lush as the years before.  I need some sunlight and warmth for my plants soon!