Around The Garden

Usually I do Around the Garden at the end of the week, but this week I am doing it at the beginning.  I am starting in the back garden, where things look pretty good.  There is more moisture in the back and except for the earwigs and japanese beetles the foliage looks great.

Blue Paradise Phlox keeps going as long as I keep deadheading.

Heliopsis Lemon Queen

Hibiscus Mango on the patio

Clematis Fireworks back but smaller than in the spring (see header)

Rainbow Knockout is beginning to recover from the earwigs and japanese beetles.

The impatiens are almost too big (looks like a smudge on my lens)

The Pineapple Coleus love this weather!

Gaura requires deadheading every so often to keep peeking out.

Plumbago blooming where I cut down the Becky Shastas

As I move towards the front on the south side of the house where it is a xeric environment, things do not look quite as fresh.  The tropical containers with crotons and sedums look great, gaillardia needs a haircut and dianthus firewitch does not look happy.

In the front Limelight Hydrangea is beginning to turn color and will soon be ready for cutting off those gorgeous blooms for drying. 

Limelight Hydrangeas is beginning to turn color, many different shades of white, green, pink and rose.  Cut them at different stages for drying if you want a variety of colors.

Unique Hydrangea

P. Allen Smith was on the Today show the other day and said to just chop those Knockout Roses for their last wonderful bloom, feed them, water and wait.  I did it and we shall see!  I have a yellowed yew which I think has been affected by the watering system.  I have shut off the particular sprinkler but don't know if it can be saved.  Sedum Autumn Joy has already flopped from all of the rain and I am going to have to support it.  Autumn Fire is a better selection if you don't want it to flop. 

Sedum Autumn Joy is beginning to change color but I am going to have to prop it up.

My Endless Summer Hydrangeas have not been great this year, a first flush of flowers and then nothing.  Euyonmous Wintercreeper has been growing like crazy many clippings, scale is back.  The hostas are pretty spent at this point, holes, brownish, not lush, but Solomon's Seal still looks pretty good.

Nasturtium under the dahlia

Just look at these dahlias that I transplanted to the veggie garden!  They obviously need a deep root system and lots of water.  I am all the way back to my hayracks which will work colorwise into fall, a few gourds thrown in for interest.