The Gloriousness of High Summer

The old saying, "Knee-High by the Fourth of July" doesn't hold true for corn growing any more -- it's more like Head-High with modern growing methods.

What a glorious time of year -- it's the height of summer, when lilies, roses, coneflowers and shasta daisies are all in full bloom. The weeds are also romping non-stop with all the rain we've been having, but I guess we take the bad with the good....

We've finished fixing our pond edge after last week's disaster, and I think it will hold for a while. The edge is now greatly strengthened by our new timber frame, although I may eventually need to replace the liner after all, as it doesn't seem to reach high enough in the corners now that we have a definite and slightly higher edge height. The water drains out in the top corners because of this, and if we want the water level to be just under the paving stones at the edge, we will need to replace the liner. But not right now, as the water lilies are blooming so beautifully.

 


And we are also somewhat distracted as we are leaving today for St. Louis, where my husband is having hip resurfacing surgery tomorrow morning. Surgery is always such a worrying thing when it's ourselves or our family members, even though the overwhelming majority of surgeries are quite successful in these miraculous modern medicine days we are fortunate to live in.

Anyway, before I head out of town, here are a few scenes from around our gardens in these flowery days:

The rainbow effect can be clearly discerned in my Rainbow Border, with the lilies blooming in a succession of colors.

A closeup of the white ones ('Bright Diamond') in the
White Section of the Rainbow Border.

'Iowa Pink' in the Pink Section, along with some pink
obedientplant that disobediently seeds itself around this
section and is almost ready to bloom.

'Blackout' in the Red Section.

'Liberty Hyde Bailey' in the Orange Section.

'Yellow Whoppers' along with 'Stella de Oro' daylilies in the Yellow Section.

 I also planted some greenish lilies in the Green Section, but they are a later blooming variety and aren't quite open yet (and of course blue and bluish-purple lilies aren't possible for those sections).

Pink lilies and shasta daisies in the North Border.

Orangey-red roses in my rose garden.

And pink roses too.

This bed on the north side of my garage is coming along well this year. I think the pink impatiens go well with the astilbes that are blooming near them, Clematis 'Multi-Blue' are also still flowering, and Ligularia 'The Rocket' is about to follow.

This part of the White Garden is also starting to see some flowers: perennial Baby's Breath, white coneflowers and a few lilies are blooming.

I hope your gardens are showing much of the gloriousness of high summer too. I will not be around for the next few days to answer comments, but I do appreciate and treasure each one, as always.

Thanks for reading! -Beth