Greetings to my fellow gardeners. I just don't know where the summer went! Apparently the last time I posted here was back in May.... But I recently had a chance to take a few snapshots of my gardens right before dusk (which arrives much earlier now).

In May, I was working on my new garden area, which I've been calling the Triangle Garden, or sometimes the Diagonal Garden:

The Triangle/Diagonal Garden back in May before planting

As you can see in the top photo, the new garden has come along well since then. I planted three groups of stripey cannas in each bed, as well as a couple of orange dahlias, a packet of zinnia seeds, a few marigolds along the sidewalk, and a purple celosia that became impressively large and has flowered all summer.

And I was surprised that a number of flowering tobacco and climbing petunias have already seeded themselves in the new garden. They have generally reseeded themselves in a neighboring bed, but I thought it might take longer for them to move to a new bed. Nope, by July you could hardly see the things I deliberately planted there because the "free plants" were so big -- I've had to hack them back several times!

It's really been a beautiful annual flower garden, immediately visible to people coming to our front door. (I think the mailman and the Amazon drivers have enjoyed it!)

Here's another view from outside the fence. You can see the stripey cannas and zinnias here.

Moving further down the fence, there's a red hardy hibiscus and one of the many
red dahlias that I have planted in many of my garden areas.
The tall corn in the fields is almost ready to harvest.

More of those red Dahlia 'Jaipur'. I bought a tuber from Brent & Becky's Bulbs 
about five years ago, and it has been the most amazing plant -- I've divided them
numerous times and have at least 20 in several garden areas.

Here's the Paradise Garden, in which I also have several 'Jaipur' dahlias, as well as lots of self-seeded flowering tobacco and petunias, which, unlike the dahlias, have the most heavenly scent, especially at night. This is a wonderful place to sit after dark.

Another view of the Paradise Garden. A few roses are still blooming here -- I've been trying to fertilize them this year , and they've looked pretty nice since May (the Japanese beetles aren't as bad this year, perhaps because of the drought we had for about six weeks).

Here's another place to sit, under the pergola we built about five years ago. I grow tropical plants, in pots and in the ground around this patio next to our house. My houseplants seem to be very happy in the partial shade under the pergola. (And more self-seeded petunias and flowering tobacco.)

Anyway, that's what's been happening in my gardens. I've recently been working on removing a long border, as discussed in my last post, and moving plants around on the west side of my house. I still have a number of projects that I hope to finish, moving more plants, building a couple of small patios for benches using paving stones leftover from the Triangle Garden, and others. I hope I'll be able to finish those and post one more time with some photos before winter settles in.

Hope your own garden projects are going well for you, as we finish out another gardening season this year. Thanks for reading! -Beth