Hello! If you're new around here, I garden in Eastern Washington, USA.
I think this is the first summer I've actually kept up on the End of Month View posts and Bloom Day posts. While there are changes, they tend to be more subtle, so I'm trying to put up pictures that aren't just repeats of what you've seen before.
We are in the dog days, friends!
It is just hot hot hot.
However, we did have a thunderstorm with some rain last week, which was very welcome (and unusual for this time of year.) Now we're back to high temps and no clouds in the sky.
Let's start out back this time.
Sedum buds in my back flowerbed.
These sedums are about all that's going on in this back bed right now.
I need to get some perennials with staying power to put in the empty spots!
Shed bed:
Overview
I am really loving this
Echinacea, 'Cheyenne Spirit.'
Look! Three different colors on the same plant!
'Little Lime' hydrangea buds opening up.
Shade bed is looking about the same as 2 weeks ago:
It's still surviving.
The vegetable garden is really where most of the action is at this time of year.
We've stopped buying onions, carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes, in favor of harvesting what we've got. We had our first BLT's with garden tomatoes on Saturday.
Heavenly!
Bottom vegetable garden terrace.
A little snapdragon joining the carrot patch.
I don't actually remember planting snapdragons, but hey--I'll take it!
Oregano in bloom.
Once it warms up in the morning, this whole plant is buzzing.
It is just covered with bees, wasps, and flies of all sorts.
Next to the onions, we have cosmos, basil going to seed, and zinnias.
Nothing like a mixture of things!
As I mentioned earlier, we've started harvesting tomatoes!
Yay!
You know, it's hard to beat these marigolds for staying power and sheer cheeriness.
Vegetable garden, middle terrace:
Our straight-neck yellow squash has begun producing.
[The cutting garden will be a separate post.]
Vegetable garden, top terrace:
Cucumbers!
This variety is long and the kids keep picking them skinny.
Cucumbers don't have very much flavor as a rule, but garden cucumbers are so much better tasting than store-bought!
Top terrace overview.
It's sort of a wild place; everything is over-running everything else.
Look what else I found up here?
A volunteer tomato plant--and it's blossoming!
Potato patch. Yes, I need to weed up here. Badly!
I think it must be my 'Yukon Gold' plants that have already died off.
They tend to go early.
This next one is from--the LAWN.
I think pink clover is really pretty.
I actually don't mind it in the lawn. (Shhh! Don't tell my husband!)
Am I the only one?
Moving over to the East-side terrace now:
(Yes, all terraces around here!)
Pie cherry tree in good health.
East-side terrace, looking towards the front.
My butterfly bushes are still blooming, though you have to look a little harder for the blooms.
This time
last month, this terrace was dominated by daisies.
They were starting to look pretty ragged, though, so I finally got out there and cut them all back.
What do you know?
You can actually see the lilac bushes again!
My catmint has bounced back from the drastic chopping I gave it last month.
It's recovered to a pretty little mound, and it's flowering again.
Okay, moving around front.
This is in the front porch flowerbed:
Hosta blooming.
Yes, I put a picture of my oakleaf hydrangea on here almost every time.
Look how pretty those blossoms are, though!
Now they are all turning that deep pink color.
Front flowerbeds, top terrace:
overview
Middle terrace:
The Echinacea are starting to fade a bit, and the mum is beginning to bloom out.
Still in the middle terrace.
Rose is still going!
Front, bottom terrace:
Bellflowers are about done.
I just noticed my English laurel bushes were flowering.
That's usually more of a spring phenomenon, isn't it?
This daylily has bloomed more than I ever remember!
Finally, out by the mailbox:
This verbena is really outdoing itself.
It makes me happy every time I pull in to the driveway!
What's blooming in your garden right now?
