"Pocket" meadow

The plants in the pocket meadow out front are such a nice mix, flowering sequentially throughout the growing season.  This is somewhat (although not entirely) by design.

It was heartening to see how many of them survived the exceptionally cold winter -- and the ones that didn't; well, their spot just gives me an opportunity to plant something else.

The hybrid Penstemons, even though they were western species, were casualties, probably from the wet summer more than the cold, but the species Penstemon now in flower (also western species, I think), are a lovely lavender.  An single P. hirsutus, planted last week, makes a nice contrast to the others and filled in a gap. And the white flowers of P. digitalis "Husker's Red" will be open soon; the purple foliage adds to the mix.

The yellow Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) have flourished - they're huge this year. Interestingly, I just read that the flowers and foliage were edible -- it wouldn't have occurred to me!