The ‘Happy Summer’ Garden Tour

The ‘Happy Summer’ Garden Tour

by Alice Jane-Marie Massa

                After four days of temperatures of ninety-degrees or more, summer of 2024 officially arrived in Milwaukee with temperatures of twenty degrees cooler. Despite the extremes of weather during this growing season, I have now planted and greatly enjoy tending my (currently) seventeen containers. While I am not certain I will ever again have a garden as spectacular as last year’s garden, I am grateful and glad to have this year’s garden, begun in early May—around Mother’s Day. Starting off the gardening season with two lavender plants has become a pleasant tradition for me.

                Due to the persistent and plentiful rains, I have watered fully my garden only once this year. Surviving the heavy downpours must have made my plants stronger; so, I am pleased to take you on a brief tour of my container garden on this first full day of summer.

                If you ascend the three stairs of my front porch, you will be facing east (toward Lake Michigan); you will first encounter my fourteen-inch round container which is filled with marigolds that, from seed, have already grown to two to three inches. Across from the bench (in the cubby hole on the west side of the porch, to the south or left of my front door) is an end table on which you will find a container with a pretty pink miniature rose plant, with a few lovely blooms. (If only the thorns were miniature in size!)

                North of the aluminum bench is another matching end table on which, you will find one container of white geraniums and a larger container of rosemary. On the round end table are a container of medium pink geraniums with red centers and a larger container of basil. In the northeast corner of my oddly shaped porch is a café table atop which is my “garden-ian angel” who is flanked by a container of variegated sage and a container with a miniature yellow rose plant. Like the pink rose plant, the yellow continues to have at least a few delicate blossoms.

                On our hottest day—Monday, June 17, when we tied the record high temperature of 94—I initiated my first “musical chairs” garden game: that is, I moved around some of the containers to different locations so that the front porch ended up as described above. The area behind my townhouse has already had two additional “musical-chair” changes—somewhat due to my planting more seeds and, of course, the weather.

                As of this first full day of summer, I have no containers on the ledge of my deck. If you go out my back door and go down two wooden steps, you will turn right along the sidewalk. Against the partition between the neighbor’s townhouse back area and mine are two aluminum chairs with a lavender plant on each that faces east. In the rock area behind my town house and in the front of and below the deck is a small round end table with two café tables on each side. Atop the first café table is my statue of Saint Francis of Assisi with a pale lavender geranium on one side and one of my new additions to my garden—the Rosalie pale pink geranium. I love this relatively new type of geranium whose blossoms form a sphere—or, perhaps better explained, cotton-candy shape. What I most enjoy about these beautiful blossoms is that each petal feels like velvet. Next year, I hope to have more of the Rosalie geraniums in my garden.

                On the smaller table, I have a larger container of basil, along with a small container of yellow gerbera daisies. My “garden-ian angel” who holds a bird in one hand is on the café table in the southeast corner of the rock area; she is flanked by a container of pink gerbera daisies and a container of something else new to my garden—bachelor buttons which just sprouted from the tinies seeds on Wednesday (several days earlier than the average number of days for germination).

                At the opposite end of the rock area (near the decorative fence and sidewalk of the inner courtyard) is a little plastic table on which is a larger square container which I just planted last evening with tiny forget-me-not seeds—container number seventeen and the third new addition to my 2024 garden. Each year, I try to grow at least one new flower or herb; however, this year I am happy to have three new additions to my little container garden.

                Two of the several reasons why I especially like container gardening is that I can continue to move around most of my containers to create different displays and to accommodate plants during the extremes of weather conditions. Each day, with my little gardening assistant at my side (Leader Dog Willow), I turn the containers a half turn to allow for more even sun exposure. By touch, I check each plant thoroughly at least twice a day and almost always admire the flowers and herbs as Willow and I return from our daily walks. Especially this summer with the construction in all directions from my home, Willow and I enjoy the serenity of my small garden.

                How is your garden growing? I would love to hear descriptions of your garden.

Happy gardening! Happy summer!

Alice and Leader Dog Willow

June 21, 2024, Friday