I've missed some
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Days this summer due to travel and so forth, but I have had flowers! And still have them, though things in general are looking pretty tired what with the absurdly hot (and recently dry) weather. I hear we'll be having temps in the 90s into October - well, thrills.
As usual in the worst part of the summer the weeds took over, but I have noticed the results of my work earlier in the year clearing and planting new areas. Yes, knee-high grass and other undesirables snuck in when I wasn't looking, but it took very little time to clean up in the places I'd paid attention to earlier in the year. Next year: even more mulch, and getting the ground covers in. The filled-in areas have hardly any weeds at all except for the #^*@@!! morning glory.
I'll start back there in the Food Forest Thing, which also includes a lot of herbs, native plants, and whatever else I feel like growing. One goal next year is to put in a lot more milkweed. I did have seed for both tropical and swamp types this year, and the tropical was planted in a fairly timely fashion and has done well:
whereas I just put in the few surviving swamp milkweed plants a week or two ago. And apparently some monarch butterfly found them and laid eggs, because they are getting chomped.
Which I think is terrific, except that they've completely defoliated one of the plants and are likely to do the same to the next; I hope they've rooted enough to come back next year.
Some of the other plants currently blooming in my yard (the others didn't photograph well):
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| Orange cosmos |
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| Borage |
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| Blurry hardy begonia, but I like the light through the leaves |
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| Cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum) is done blooming but had a great display |
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| Black-eyed Susans |
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| Bad photo, but this is balsam |
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| One of many zinnias |
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| Ceratostigma plumbaginoides |
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| Mint, in the sea of mint |
And the things that are not flowers:
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| Beautyberry |
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| Aralia racemosa, so glad I put this in this year |
Also, this is a rather successful (if unfinished) pallet garden considering that I haven't watered it at all:
And I got a bottle tree (shrub?) for my birthday:
Monarch caterpillars! Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI have never seen a zinnia like that one - very pretty!
Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!
Despite the heat, you have pretty of blooms for September and it is nice to see that you are planting milkweed the Monarchs. You must have lots of butterflies!
ReplyDeleteLooks like your milkweed plantings are a success! My hardy begonia is blooming, too, which I wasn't expecting. The foliage on this plant--especially when the sunlight hits it as in your photo--is enough for me. Happy Bloom Day!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that the Monarchs found the buffet you prepared for them! I bet it will come back next year - fingers crossed! :)
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