Flower Friday: August 20, 2021

 

Happy Flower Friday!

An article I read last weekend called this part of August the "lull" time in the garden.  Sue somewhat alluded to that when she wrote me and said "Not much in my garden.  Getting pretty ratty."  But still she could send me this lovely photo of rudbeckia and phlox:

Sue also sent this photo from her daughter's garden in Maryland...except that her daughter didn't plant anything this year.  But her compost is full of a river of volunteer butternut squash!  Wowza!

I usually try to prepare for this time of year by sticking annuals here and there but this year there is only one bed where the annuals filled out.  Pots also help too but the annuals this year are disappointing.  The gardeners in my neighborhood are all complaining about the spindly plants this year which is most likely due to the high heat and infrequent rains.  But at least I have this border:

One annual that was new to me was this pink salvia:

This plant blew seeds everywhere and I am pleased to say it is fast growing and about to bloom in the garden:

Another annual that self sows is the 4:00.  I grew these years ago but eventually tired of it.  I was having problems with this annual too.  The flowers open right before dusk but it took until nightfall for the flowers to open.  Duh!  I finally realized that I needed to move the pots to shade and these flowers began to reward me:

Actually because the flowers are so fragrant when they open, I thought they were the cause of the dizziness I experienced last week before the big vertigo episode.  I had dizziness from a flowering viburnum we had to remove and Linda gets the same symptom from lilacs.  

So these days I'm staying inside more although I can walk the dog around the block now.  The garden is a bit of a mess.  Before the vertigo on Monday afternoon, my husband decided to replace the posts that support our garden gate.  That sounds nice doesn't it?  Except that our home is like the island of unfinished projects (his not mine) and he is notorious for drama while doing home repairs (the kids nicknamed him "Dr. Doom").  The last thing I saw before the vertigo was my husband removing concrete from the garden this way:

Yup.  Redneck c-ment removal.

No wonder I got vertigo...

😁😁😁

Have a safe and happy weekend!