August: Bloom Day!

I am just now realizing, I have an awful lot of yellow flowers. Oh well!

North edge garden


Rudbeckia triloba, brown-eyed Susans


Rudbeckia subtomentosa, sweet black-eyed Susans, and Agastache scrophulariaefolia, giant purple hyssop


Garage garden


The 11-foot volunteer sunflower continues to amaze us, and hosts SO many bees, flower flies, and butterflies, the rest of the neighborhood must feel left out.


Eurybia macrophylla, big-leaf aster. Remember the good old days when asters were just Asters?


Well, this is a terrible picture, but it's my prairie dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum, with flowering stalks reaching high above my head.


Foley and Lucy, my favorite two flowers of all!


Thanks as always to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day!

August: At least the leaves are pretty

Hello, and welcome back to the GROW project! The foliage on the Spitfire nasturtiums has recovered from its crispy sunburned state of a month ago, possibly due to more watering or less intense heat and sun. My plants are still sparse on flowers, but I love the nifty peltate leaves of nasturtium and would almost be willing to grow them for that reason alone.

I moved the potted plant to a shadier spot, and it looks a little more alive now.


The plant vining up the alley fence looks good. It gets sun in the afternoon but the roots are shaded.


The plants I meant to go up the railing are also turning into a very pretty, yet flowerless, groundcover.


Part of that same plant, going where I meant for it to go:


And so you don't think I have zero flowers, here's one! (it's not quite that red in real life)


From the side... note cool nectar spur:

So how do your Spitfires grow?

I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project. Thanks to Renee's Garden for the seeds.

July: Bloom Day!

Is it that time again already?

Biggest. Sunflower. Ever.


Seriously, what sunflower has a trunk??

ETA: I measured the sunflower and it is 11 feet 4 inches tall, 4 3/4 inches diameter where my hand is. On 7/16 it has 4 flowers open and about 20-ish more buds. The thing is a freakin' TREE. Did I mention it's a volunteer? Why are my best plants accidental?

Monarda didyma 'Violet Queen' and Schizachyrium scoparium, little bluestem grass, in the prairie garden


The double cosmos 'Rose Bon Bon' seeds from Renee's that came with the Spitfire nasturtiums have just started to bloom.


Do I ever get tired of taking pictures of red admirals? (Answer: no)


Or swallowtails? (again: no)


Ox-eye sunflowers, Heliopsis helianthoides, in the prairie garden


Speaking of the prairie garden... This view just makes me so happy!


My favorite weed (good thing, because I have a lot of it): Commelina communis, the Asiatic dayflower


And let's not forget what's happening indoors! I lost two of my African violets and a third is in its death throes, but this guy still loves me.


Even the City of Chicago celebrates Bloom Day!


Thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting!

July: Wordless Wednesday: Keeping an eye on the library

July: New plants!

I made a secret gardening vow not to spend any money on perennials this summer. I didn't tell anybody about this vow in case I started buying plants. However, it is now mid-July and I've stuck to it so far. Except the $5 I spent on two daisies to replace the two that died over the winter. Shush, that doesn't count.

Today I planted seven wonderful new plants without breaking any vows. How did I do it, you ask? Well, I entered a contest at In The Garden Online for a $50 gift certificate from Annie's Annuals, and I won! I wandered through Annie's lovely on-line catalog, which is filled with plants not usually available here in the Midwest, and found seven that I just had to have.

The shipping cost was pretty steep, but the box arrived quickly and the quality of the packaging cannot be denied:


The plants arrived in great condition...

and with rootballs wrapped in plastic and damp paper, were very easy to remove from their pots and plant in various spots in the garden. They don't look like much yet, but just you wait...

Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis' and Heuchera sanguinea 'White Cloud' in part shade under the viburnum


Dianthus arenarius and Campanula medium 'Deep Blue' in the part-shade north garden


Echinops ritro ruthenicus...


and Linum lewisii (blue flax) in the prairie garden


and finally, Verbena bonariensis in the foundation garden. This one is technically Zone 7 and doesn't belong in my Zone 5b garden, but I put it in a warm, protected corner on the south side of the house and hopefully it will survive the winter. Incidentally, this is the very plant I said I wanted when I entered the contest :)


Wish my new babies luck! Many many thanks to Annie's Annuals and to Colleen for making these new additions to the garden possible!