July Flowers

The North Border has been a riot of flowers.

Hello everyone! July has been a very hot, and very busy month for me here in Iowa. Weeds seem to spring up and grow to chin height in just a few weeks during this time of year -- they are a constant challenge to gardeners, as is the muggy heat index that makes us want to avoid all work outside.

But there have been some moments of beauty in our hot summer gardens, and I've been able to take a few photos of them, usually in the somewhat cooler evenings. Here are a few scenes:

The new Scented Garden around our patio has been a lovely place to sit in the evenings.

A closeup of scented sweet peas, petunias and
snapdragons.

Black-Eyed Susans in the Yellow Garden.

And some with green eyes as well.

The latest pot display near my front porch: Papyrus,
a Mediterranean Fan Palm, Agapanthus, white petunias
and blue-flowered Plumbago.

The White Garden, with 'David' phlox, Casablanca lilies and white coneflowers.

This is the first time I've been able to get Crocosmia to flower here. I planted bulbs one year, but they never even came up. I found three plants locally this spring, and they have put out flowers! I hope the relative warmth and good drainage in front of our south-facing house will allow these marginally-hardy plants to come back next year.

This flowering tobacco is monstrously HUGE in the Scented Garden. It smells wonderful,
but it sure does take over -- this photo was taken after I cut back many of the leaves and tied
it to the fence, to rescue the plants around it from being completely smothered.

As you can see in the last photo, the corn is getting tall around us -- summer is more than half over. I'm already making plans for changes to my gardens in fall, and thinking about fall bulbs, which will appear in stores in a week or two. Not long until school starts again too....

Hope you have been making the most of summer in your own gardens too. Thanks for reading! -Beth