Late July Garden Inventory

The rainy, humid and hot weather has broken; the July full moon, called the Summer Moon, has passed.  I was able to get out into the garden last evening to clean out and take stock of what has gone past and what is still in its prime.  I took out three plastic bags of plant material including daisies, hollyhocks, daylilies, and the old-fashioned bleeding heart.  The daisies grew chest high this year but have passed their first and hardiest bloom.  The hollyhocks had gone to seed so I sprinkled the long stems and pods around the back of the garden after cutting them down and threw them over the fence for the birds to finish picking through for seed.  The daylilies look half way through their season as many stems still have buds but others are finished.  The bleeding heart goes yellow this time of year and can be cut back to the ground.

Here is a visual record of what I found this evening in the garden bed.

The Balloon flowers look great with regular deadheading.

They show a variety of stages of bloom per stem.

 

The stems of the Blazing Star or Liatris mimic the deck post which supports them,

their stems are not straight or strong, perhaps due to the rain.

 

 

I waited a long time, but I couldn't get this busy bee to look at me.

 

 

The frog rain gauge recorded 2 and a half inches this week, but it seemed like much more.

 

There were a variety of lilies for Lily to experience her namesake flower.

 

The Cleome or Spider Flower successfully self-seeded, but not the Cosmos in the same area.

Maybe the sparrows which feed on the ground there were too thorough this year?

 

The Black Eyed Susans or Rudbeckia are in their glory now.

 

As are the Kopper Kong hardy hibiscus!

 

The Sneezeweed or Helenium is just blooming.

It remind us that pollen season is ahead!

 

The direction vane was almost lost in the overgrowth of daisies, but

clearing out the area allowed the other flowers to show their high summer colors.

 

I haven't seen many butterflies on the Buddleia or Butterfly Bush this summer,

but my days in the garden have been few due to extreme heat and rain.

Maybe I'll catch some butterflies to photograph in August?

 

A few daisies, some Black Eyed Susans, and a hydrangea

make a bouquet in situ in the later afternoon sun.

The best kind of bouquet--no cutting, no vase, no arranging.

 

So the garden looks as fresh as the few daisies that are left

after a good "space clearing" in the late July flower beds.

 

With some good fortune--and weather,

the rain gauge frog could exchange his umbrella

for a yellow yarrow bloom

as August approaches.