After The Tulips
I’ve posted photos in the past of a park about a mile from me which is loaded with tulips in April.
But of course the tulips all fade, and by the end of spring volunteers dig the bulbs for storage and then replanting in the fall.
The beds aren’t left bare, however, and they are planted with annuals. They’re not as beautiful, to be clear, and there tends to be a considerable amount of bare space covered with mulch. But it’s still worth stopping by to see them.
In the spring, the park gets crowded with people viewing the tulips.
In the summer heat, it’s nearly empty.
But it’s still good to walk over to see what’s growing, and to compare it to what had been there and will be there again.
Our cut flowers area of the garden is very sad. Too hot, too dry, followed by short-lived torrential rains.
It’s definitely a subpar year. Everything here seems to go through weird growth spurts with rain and then sudden dieback with dry heat.
I need to make a post of our flowers, the dahlias & roses are going off right now. The giant sunflowers are just about done but the small ones are still going strong. The bee balm is on the downside but the lavender is still going strong. My wife has too many plants!
No such thing as too many plants, except for zucchini.
That park just looks great. Hats off to the volunteers who tend those flower beds.
When I lived in the Hyde Park area of Chicago by the University of Chicago, I used to always go on the annual Garden Walk because some of those old-timers in the neighborhood really knew what they were doing. There was a lady on my block who mainly planted based on the flowers’ scents and it always smelled like heaven walking by here house.