Garden in Early June

Here's a pictorial of the garden over the past few days. We live in suburbia but have an ample yard. Skip does 98% of the work so I really can't take much credit. This is the side of the house facing toward the back fence at the south.

This Jackmanii clematis has never looked so good. So many blooms...

Here's one opened to the max.

And the same one after the rain last night.

These rust-coloured irises are early bloomers. They're not in a great spot - right at the corner of the house and by the wound-up hose but the blooms are spectacular.

Last week at Costco I picked up a tub of these Asiatic lilies. The three plants had tight blooms. This is the first one to bust out. We suspect our previous one was eaten by one of the marauding critters. (more about that later)

We have several species of peonies.

After the rain, I go out and shake the water out of them so they don't bend right over.

This plant with the creamy yellow centre has intoxicatingly fragrant blooms. I wish there was smell-o-vision so I could savour the scent all year round.

These Siberian irises are quite small and are on tall, spindly stems. Sadly the blooms don't last very long.

In preparation for monarch butterfly propagation season, the milkweed is heading ever skyward. Near the end of this month, I'll begin harvesting the eggs. This year, I will have a nursery (canning jar) for each egg. Last year I had them all in one jar and they ate each other. We have several individual plants that have sprung up around the garden so there will be lots of places for the monarchs to lay their eggs and lots of tender leaves for me to feed the larvae.

Our marauding critter is a baby bunny. Isn't he cute? Don't be fooled. Here, he is munching away on one of my campanula carpatica (Carpathian bellflower) plants. Skip continues to erect wire cages around many of our plants as we can't seem to keep the little buggers out of the garden. We have set a live trap in hopes  of relocating the little fella to a more welcoming environment.