The oaks have filled out and created a “mansion” in our back yard. And I have greeted a few more old friends who reside in this verdant palace.
Lily of the Valley, amidst ivy.
A single purple iris about to bloom.
Bluets, a tiny wildflower. We only have this small clump, but some people’s yards are full of them.
Water iris growing in our miniature “pond.”
Linnet Moss 
Love the idea of a mansion created by a canopy of leaves. How rich and lush it looks LM. Lots of gardening for you or is it self managing?
Lots of gardening for the Long Suffering Husband! LOL. He won’t let me hire gardeners after the last lot promised to be organic, then billed us for a gallon of RoundUp.
Beautiful post and gorgeous pics… best wishes and happy weekend! Aquileana 😀
Thank you, happy weekend to you as well!
I miss Lily of the Valley. Those are so charming.
Yes, and they have a lovely scent. But the desert has its own beauties. Once I was in Tucson when the cactus forest bloomed. I’ve never seen anything like that.
Yes, very true. And I love having my lavender grow like a weed. But sometimes I get a hankering for hostas, rhododendrons…grass. Especially grass. (Although I have to admit, I love not having to mow it.)
The one curse of living here is the constant roar of motorized blowers, motors, clippers, edgers, baggers… it’s really terrible. They all wear ear protection but don’t give a thought to their neighbors trying to enjoy a peaceful meal on the back porch.
Lavender does not grow well here… it must enjoy dry sunny weather!
Oh we have our share of those too. We don’t have the edgers or mowers, but we have those annoying blowers. The landscape guys always seem to be blowing nothing, as if to just stand around making noise.
Back when I lived in Vermont, we switched to a simple manual mower—noiseless. My husband loved that (and so he mowed the lawn more, which was great for me!)
Yeah, I tried growing lavender in Vermont just to see what would happen. It died very quickly. Lavender is my favorite scent, so I’m super thrilled about the way it grows here. I dry the lavender and make little sachets with dryer sheets and use it for laundry. Plus, we can grow it in the front since the javelinas don’t eat it. Same with rosemary, which is used all over the place in commercial landscaping and grows into these huge bushes. So there’s one herb I never have to buy. Even if I didn’t have it growing myself, I could just wander over to someone’s yard or even clip some from the parking lot of a grocery store. For some reason, I rarely see lavender grown in this way. I have no idea why since it grows so well. It could be because it looks terrible in the summer, so commercial landscapers probably just think it looks dead.
The world could use more lavender 🙂 I love the scent too. And rosemary. It grows as a perennial here, but takes a real hit in the winter. Better to have it in a pot and bring it indoors during the coldest months.
That thing where they stand around blowing nothing–I really don’t get it!!
So the blowing thing is universal then, huh? I thought it was a phenomenon that trickled in from California. 🙂
I love the sound of your mansion, Linnet. It fits my idea of earthly heaven. In fact, very much like you, the long driveway up to our house grows so crowded with greens that it canopies like a giant tunnel–so much so that the UPS trucks can’t manage their way through it in the summer. They just dump their packages down at the bottom and paste on top a note of ‘See you in the fall and maybe find a lumberjack, eh?’
And I adore Lilly of the Valley. Favorite fragrance–Muguet.
Mmmm. Makes me wish I could wear perfumes. Too allergic, but at least I can smell and enjoy the blooms 🙂
Very fond of all green canopies!
you have some beauties in the garden! love lilly of the valley, they are some of my favourites! used to have a big patch in the garden in the house i grew up in, blossomed every spring and smelled so lovely. After we had to move i bought them in the market, sadly can’t get any round here.
I was glad to find them in our yard after we moved to this house. Like meeting up with an old friend!