It's August, and it's hot outside. The weather has been in the 100s for three weeks straight, but good news is on the horizon. A couple of cold fronts are going to barrel into Oklahoma and reduce our temperatures to the 90s. Whoopee! The upper pasture looked beautiful and moody this morning with the cold front that came through. Meadow grasses and partridge pea. I saw a lot more partridge pea this year after the wildfire burned the meadow. By the way, it didn't hurt the meadow one bit. In fact, one came through this morning, and it made things less hot, but the tiny amount of rain created a very muggy atmosphere. I weed-eated the upper pasture fenceline with our new Stihl weedeater while it was cloudy outside. I took these photos of the upper pasture, which is full of beautiful swaying grasses. I also weed-eated the Johnson grass...

We opened our garden a week ago Saturday, and people had lots of garden questions. I figured my internet friends do too. And I have answers. A special thanks to everyone who came out. We enjoyed the visit. We put a lot of love and work into the garden, and it's nice to share it. Blue larkspur in the kitchen border. It was a glorious day. We even had a rain shower that lasted about ten minutes. People huddled in the garage until it was over. I wish I had taken photos of the visitors, but I forgot. I was busy answering garden questions. If you plant it, they will come. This beautiful artwork is from my good friend, Dana George. I love everything about it, especially the bluebird. As I'm writing, I hear a male Eastern bluebird singing in the trees. Male bluebirds have a very distinctive song. When...

Have you ever had a color crush? I know I have. Some years it's using complementary colors on the color wheel, like purple and gold (my high school colors, actually), or purple and orange. Zowie! Complementary color combinations give you action in the garden and create tension. The best kind of tension I think. Here's a good example of purple or red leafed cannas with purple and orange daylilies from 2021. See what I mean? Hemerocallis 'The Band Played On' (Stamile, 2006) with 'Orange Rocket' barberry and 'Australia' cannas. This year's color crush is harmonious. I'm having a romance with coral, which is a fabulous shading between pink and orange. I fill my wardrobe with it every chance I get, and I'm using pink and orange throughout the garden. It plays so nicely with my other crushes, too, like red and purple foliage and blue Salvia farinacea flowers. Salvia farinacea...

While these flowers aren't true ephemeral spring beauties in that they don't bloom and then go underground for summer, they don't last long, either. Because we had a very long, cool, wet, and verdant spring, I'm getting better flowers out of all the plants that are somewhat to very difficult to grow in my climate. I'm taking full advantage too. Sweet Peas When I posted the ultimate spring beauties, sweet peas, on my Instagram story, so many Oklahoma gardeners were stunned. Why? Because sweet peas are so difficult to grow in our climate. That bouquet in my hand spells victory! If you want to see the spring beauties in the galleries in a larger format, click on the photos. My other sweet peas on a trellis I received from Gardener's Supply. Isn't it pretty. 'Janet Scott' sweet peas. A bunch of sweet peas. Be sure to deadhead them and bring...