Color in The Summer Garden

My summer garden is looking great.

But I am finding it hard to keep up with the weeds. Those weeds are holding a convention in my garden. My sun garden has a gravel bed and I am really seeing the need for some prompt attention. I will need to get my bottle of vinegar and hit them hard in this summer heat.

We have had so much rain that the weeds easily come back and I need to get a handle into the garden so I can get have a fighting chance of keeping them under control. I really like to go out in a gentle sprinkle of rain and weed the garden during the rain because the weeds are so easy to pull out then. But our rains have been such torrential downpours with flood warnings and such, so it is not really the greatest time to be out there.

I guess the good part is that I am not having to water the garden those days at all.  I mostly have to be sure that the containers got a good drink. I have my succulents in them, but here and there I have a plant that needs more water.

My Love-in-a-Mist looks so great. I didn’t plant these this year, but I have seeds that have self-sown from prior years which pop up in different parts of the garden. I think this is such an unusual flower and I love it. You know I am partial to blue, right?

Sundrops have done well and are almost finished.

I plan to dig some to put back in our forest edge so that they can go ahead and just naturalize back there. These plants bloom in late spring through the early summer, but after blooming I mow them down either with shears or pruners depending on where they are located. Back there we can just use the mower.  They can easily take over a garden if allowed, so I prefer that they naturalize back at the wood’s edge.

We have lost about thirteen trees and I really hated to see that. But I think the sundrops will make a pretty flower pop next spring. This  half of the yard is still full of trees and gives us a lot of shade and wildlife.  I really think some of these younger trees are stretching out since they have so much more room.  Most of what is left are maples with some walnut, elm, and black locust. So I still have a good variety.

Coneflowers are coming into bloom and seem very colorful this year. They have stood up well to the stormy downpours. This photo I took shows perfectly reflexed petals, don’t you think?

Color in the Summer Garden means Balloon Flowers.

I dug some up from another bed and planted them in the long wooden box planter that my husband had made several years ago from scrap wood. I had sedum in it and just pushed it aside to plant the Balloon Flowers. Using some old supports from an arbor, I put them side by side against the back of my garden shed. I am considering Sweet Autumn Clematis to plant there and vine up those supports. But meanwhile the Balloon Flower will do nicely.

I took this photo this morning because the Balloon Flowers have now started blooming. Are they just wonderful? Love Balloon Flowers.

It is getting late and I need to go weed before the sun gets too high. I hope you like the summer garden photos and I will update on the garden with more flowers later on. Meanwhile try and stay cool. Here in Ohio we have high 90s with a heat index in the 100s.  I think I will go to the Mall and hunt Pokemon critters.

Yes, it is humiliating. I am so good at it, I am level 2. But I have just started. And I have to play in Wi-Fi. So I think I should be cut a break here!