Cosmos

 It has been a long while since I lasted posted.  I need to do some catching up.  So lets start with these beauties, Cosmos.

 A sweet gift from a dear friend, Bev had sent me seeds from Renee's Garden.  They were the Dancing Petticoat blend and I bought some seeds from Botanical Interests.  It was their Double Click Blend.  So I had an amazing variety of cosmos.

 Double Click

 Sea Shell

Versailles

 Amazing

 It was sad when their season ended.  I had hoped that the cosmos would have a longer growing period, but in my area this year, we had a very humid summer.  That brought a lot of powdery mildew to them.  But I enjoyed every bit of what I was able to grow and enjoy in beautiful bouquets.

Sitting In My Garden

 This has been a difficult summer for my garden.  The sudden heat wave that we had a couple of weeks ago was just too much for a lot of my plants.  I lost 3 of my cucumbers, scorched tomatoes and 7 of my roses, gone.  So sad, but maybe it is time to rethink my garden layout.  I will not replace the roses that I lost.  After the summer season I will do some adjustments.

 One of my Cosmo flowers just bloomed and it is a beauty.  A dear friend sent me a seed packet of a Cosmo mix called "dancing petticoats, from Renee's Garden.  The mix includes the blend of "Seashells, photo above, "Psyche and "Versailles".  The colors on the packet mentions a range of amazing colors.  So I can't wait for the others to start blooming.

The heat not only effected the plants, but our winged friends as well.  We found dead birds and bees too. The crows would sit on our lawn and pant.  I set up in my garden a makeshift bird bath for them.  I had to fill it up a few times on those extremely hot days.  For now, I will just leave it until I buy an actual birdbath, but I do not think they care what it looks like.  They love having it around.  When I step out into the backyard, there is usually one or several birds drinking from it.

 Sunset

A little bird thinking where it wants to go next or just enjoying the late afternoon.

 A rose bush trying to recover.  Let's see how the rest of the summer goes.

Gardening in June

Wow, where do I begin?  The garden is finally starting to take off and so far so good.

It is the first time growing bush beans.  I did plant a lot of them and I'm glad I did.  I have grown the long beans before and they did very well in my garden. But I thought I would give the bush bean a try.  I will let you know at the end of the season.  But what I have picked so far have been very tasty.  I hope they will continue to produce.

 These bright beauties are the "come back kid" in my garden.  These are "Cosmo bright lights" that I started from seed a long while ago.  The self sow themselves over and over again and they do well in poor soil.   I have a small area in my yard that has very sand soil and they to do very well.  There are a lot of baby plants right now and I have transferred a few around the bush beans.  Bees love them and the finches love the seeds the flower produces.   Seed packet came from Botanical Interests.

This is one of the babies.  They do grow tall and bush out.

Once again I am growing the cutest and tastiest (in my opinion) cucumber, Lemon.  Seeds from Botanical Interest.

 The weight on this one was 170g

I plan to sow a few more seeds.

 Deadheading the Cosmos I came across a Monarch chrysalis.  It looks heathy. I will keep checking on it.

 It blends in so well amongst the foliages of the cosmos

If all goes well, it will emerge into the world surrounded by beautiful colors. 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by for a quick visit.  Have a great day.

Fall Gardening

 I purchased a few small trays of Johnny Jump-Ups and Pansies.

I thought they would add a nice pop of color in this mini garden and along the house. 

This is a fun little patch of miscellaneous plants.

I am happy to have a nasturtium plant. A fellow Gardener gave me some seeds. I kind of miss having them around. 

There are three tomatillo plants that popped up (self sowed-themselves).  I'm not sure if they will continue to grow and produce any fruit.  I will leave them and see what happens.

 The last flowers on the Cosmo "Bright Lights" plant.  They have so far re-sowed themselves in my garden for a few years now.  They were started from a packet of see several years ago.

 One of the variety of the "Elves blend" sunflowers.  Seeds by Botanical Interests.

They are such a happy flower in any size.

These Calendula plants were moved a month ago and they are doing good in their new space. 

 The color pops along the house.  

The Calendulas look pretty next to the purple Pincushion flowers. 

 Here are some newly grown Pincushion plants that popped up.  They are not a good space, so I have transferred them into  containers. I hope they will continue to grow so I can transfer them into flower garden in the near future.

I think the plant, lower right, is a Cornflower.  

 Once again, the Monarch caterpillars are everywhere and so are the Monarch butterflies.  Love it!

The Monarch caterpillars and butterflies love the Milkweed.