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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July Glory

Mid-July is always a peak time in the garden. Too bad it's usually too hot to spend much time back there.

[Click on any image for a magnified view.]

The borders are filling in. This year, I've finally got the height I was aiming for. Maybe too much height, not enough middling and low? (Click here to see what it looked like in May.)
































I haven't mentioned the liatris yet -- also known as Blazing Star or Gayfeather. It is an American native. An interesting note: "Another old common name for this plant is Colic Root, alluding to its medicinal use as an antispasmodic for the intestines among other uses." I'll be sure bear that in mind.




















The daylilies are in full-throated chorus. I don't know why I love these guys so much. I'm so happy I found this particular yellow. The variety is Hyperion, in this case from White Flower Farm.













































The globe thistle is coming into bloom (if that's what you call it -- coming into fuzz?)
















The rose report:

































The sunflowers sprang into life while we were away. Here is one of them.














I always plant the type that have several heads per plant. In their appreciative exuberance, the squirrels tend to knock down the tall, regal, single-head variety. Then there's nothing left for me to appreciate. With several heads per plant, it's just the flower that rips off when the squirrels decide to hang from it as they gorge (and quarrel) -- the plant is free to keep on blooming.


The campanula -- a short variety.















I planted a taller variety this spring, but it doesn't seem to be thinking about blooming this year.

P.S. We've begun to lay out the pavers, with the help of our friend Douglas. The Tower of Power remains, however. It's just too hot to be moving heavy concrete chunks to the front and heavy concrete pavers to the back. But it will get done, eventually ...

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