August Doings

More action in the garden, in spite of the heat. We've had high 80s, sometimes 90s, with high humidity, for what feels like weeks and weeks. I think it has been weeks and weeks. Today, at least, is truly lovely -- 82o, very low humidity. Thank you, all buddhas and bodhisatvas in the ten directions!

[Click on any image for a magnified view.]

The clematis has now bloomed. One bloom. That's all. Did I do something wrong? I don't know. Everything is blooming less than it has in the past. I'm going to blame it on global warming, pandering to the uber-rich, and the war in Iraq.














Speaking of wars -- are you in the CLEMatis or the clemATis camp? Fine Gardening magazine says CLEMatis is correct. The dictionary (and the staff at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden) say both are correct. I'm following Fine Gardening, because I am a fine gardener, n'est-ce pas?

Other new faces:

Toad Lily (Latin Tricyrtis). This is one of my truly exotic plants, as it is native to Japan. Hence its placement near the fountain. I moved it forward a bit, and it seems to relish the extra light. I plan to save the seeds and see if I can get more plants going next year.

































Also newly blooming is the Liriope, aka Lilyturf. Apparently it is an aggressive spreader. That's why I put it amongst the lamium. They can fight it out. (Sorry for the combative subtext in this post. What is that about? Hmmm.)
















The nasturtiums are struggling along, blooming and then getting blasted by the heat. I've moved most of the plants to shadier spots. The flowers have an interesting structure.
































The fountain grass is blooming. I am probably allergic to it. Oh well.














A bloom emerges:


















Lost in a fountain grass world:















The daylilies are still going strong.



















Each flower lasts for one day. In the morning, I go out and pull off the finished blosoms. All that photosynthesis, osmosis, respiration, transpiration, and what-not, for a day's bloom.


This is what the butterfly bush looked like in May:



















This is what it looks like now:



















This is what it's all about:
















The fig tree next door also has grown quite a bit. Soon we will have ripe figs.



















And how is the morning glory doing? Just fine, thanks.



















We have a new addition to the hardscape. Someone down the street is cleaning out their garage and discarded this ladder. I've leaned another part of it against a wall of the house. Not sure what I'm going to do with it. Robert suggests using the two halves to build an arbor. I might just let a clematis or climbing rose have its way with it. Still thinking.



















Finally, sunflower siblings.
















Click here for a slideshow of the images from this post.

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