During summer, the shade garden is a nice respite from the bright sun and heat.
The rains have come and gone throughout most of the spring and now well into summer. The garden looks overblown and flousy like a middle-aged woman in a flowery housecoat. Going to St. Louis and Buffalo has left her with her roots showing, and it’s now up to me to get her a pedicure and maybe even a massage.
Part of the back garden.
Spent daylily scapes have turned brown in the sun and stand like skeletons waiting for me to put them in the compost pile. A lot of talk in St. Louis was about daylily rust, but I don’t have any in my garden this year. Luckily for most of Oklahoma, the fungus, Puccinia hemerocallidis, still dies during our winters. Therefore, I’m not worried about recycling spent scapes.
The vegetable garden is full of very tiny blooms on parsley, dill and fennel. I let these bloom so that the smallest of the pollinators have their own buffet. If I want more parsley, I just plant some seeds about two weeks apart. Honestly though, I don’t eat or cook with parsley that often. I do like dill, and to have enough for the swallowtail butterflies and my family, I plant seeds more than once. The basil is producing great guns which is good because today I am making Too Many Tomatoes Sauce which can be found in Too Many Tomatoes, Squash, Beans, and Other Good Things: A Cookbook for When Your Garden Explodes
More honesty, although I know how to preserve via canning, it is not my favorite job. Summers are very hot here, and heating up the kitchen when it’s 98F outside is not my favorite thing. I’d rather freeze. I do make jams and chutneys though. Have you ever read the blog, Tigress in a Jam? No one writes more elegantly about preserves. I must thank Willi Galloway at DigginFood for turning me onto this gem.
Oh, wait, this post is supposed to be about flowers. I guess we’ll just consider this a “Dear Friends” post too. We definitely have flowers everywhere. It would be easier to catalog those not blooming right now. The daylilies are finishing up with the Reckamps and some of the other dormant varieties, and because of the rain, I have some rebloom. Most of the roses are taking a break from the heat. They spend their time saving up their energy for fall. However, ‘Carefree Beauty’ and a couple of others are still blooming.
Hibiscus 'Moy Grande' comes up from the ground every year to produce electric blooms from now through September.
Most afternoons I go out on the deck on the east side of the house (which is then in partial shade), and watch the butterflies flit from one Echinacea to another then turning somersaults in the air. These acrobatics fill my heart with joy, and I hope you get a chance to go outdoors today. A shout out to my friend, Dana, who works in a cavernous office, “Don’t forget to sit outside somewhere at lunch, and I’ll join you next week.”
Tomorrow, I’m off to photograph another garden which will be on the Oklahoma Horticulture Society’s Garden Tour for Connoisseurs to be held in the fall. It will be glorious weather then, and the gardens are so beautiful. I hope my local friends will come.
Black-eyed Susans, Rhapsody in Pink crapemyrtle, Rudbeckia grandiflora, and zinnias are now blooming in the meadow. Soon, willow leaf aster will join them.
The meadow garden bed is one of the prettiest during summer because of Echinacea purpurea and the black-eyed Susans who show so nicely. What would I do without my Susans to carry the garden into autumn?
Many thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day and Happy summer everyone.
Nice flower pics and nice garden – I wish I had one myself…
Cheers
Richard
Thanks Richard.
Your flower garden pics are beautiful! I love the Black-eyed Susan,s near the pink Crepe Myrtle. Lovely, lovely!
Kelly
Austin’s rain-tap seems to have been turned off, Dee… guess the middle-age woman in the housecoat here needs moisturizer even more than a pedicure ;-]
And what would she need if Puccinia hemerocallidis shows up? Preparation H?
Love the big Hibiscus and am glad you’re getting goodies from the garden.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Your garden is looking great this summer! In comparison mine is really tired & worn out looking from the heat and lack of rain. Oh well, that’s why I keep adding more and more drought tolerant plants every year. 🙂
“A middle-aged woman in a flowery housecoat”–lol, what a great way to describe the garden right now. Although, frankly, I can’t get enough of coneflowers and Susans–I’ve been watching the acrobatic butterflies on them, too. Like you, Dee, the parsley, fennel, and dill here are strictly for the butterflies, though I may need to use some of that dill soon for all the cucumbers I’m getting. I need to find that cookbook!
Dee, we are off to see the water gardens today too. Can’t wait!
Hi Dee, I’ve been gone a lot more then I like to be~and there are two more trips planned~This fall will mean a full spa treatment at C&L for sure! Praise those Susans and zinnias~~not many of us would have flowers in August without them~gail
Moy Grande is quite the scene stealer. Great color.
I’m with you on the lack of desire to can during the heat of high summer. It’s almost 100F here today – again… But there’s something about eating home-made tomato sauce during the winter that makes it worthwhile as you’re slaving over the stove on a 100-degree day! Are you making it with your own tomatoes? I only have one lonely little green thing so far – hardly the bounty needed to can!
I’m glad you included those other sites. I like visiting different blogs with interesting topics.
Thought I might try some chutney this summer. I have lots of green tomatoes.
Recently heard something on NPR about some disease effecting the basil crops from New England to Florida. So far I haven’t heard anyone in the Midwest complain of it in their gardens.
Marnie
With me suffering a serious need to get out of town and routine, my garden has gotten “flousy” too. But a few hours work will have her presentable enough for church (early service only). Happy GBBD!
I’m glad things are so happy in your garden Dee! I’d rather freeze also although I am now going to head over to the jam blog…can’t wait to see what ideas I may get!
I love the idea of pedicure and massage for the garden, and maybe root touch up as well? Your garden still looks lush and fabulous, so glad you are able to compost those daylily stalks since there must be a WHOLE lot of them. My garden needs some nip and tucking as well to get in shape for fall. My daylily guy at Champions said most daylilies would rebloom with a feed and extra water after the first bloom. Hard to do when we are gone, but sounds interesting.
That first paragraph had me cracking up! I guess I can relate. Lol. Middle age can be gorgeous, though…can’t it? Your garden certainly is.
Help! My zucchini has all died to squash bores. The yellow squash are just fine. The guy at Edmond Farmer’s Grain said he lost everyone and will not even plant it next year to try and stop the cycle. Do you have any suggestions?
High summer, indeed! I love the summery look of your garden, especially the black-eyed Susans, a plant that we share.
Happy Summer to you, too, Dee. Your garden sounds like it is in its prime right now.
Such different climates for gardening, but here in Connecticut our roots were showing too, and we too depend on the Susans to get us through the rest of summer 🙂
Beautiful! I was just out taking a few shots of our little space. Everything is just showing off it’s best right now. Thanks for the uplifting word and photos.
I am interested in a vegie trade if you are?