Weird bugs that have invaded my yard the last two summers. No idea what they are, but they are kinda cute.

The new batch of baby Blue Birds. Aren't they cute?!

A friend on Space Coast Cool Deal

A red Sunflower

My favorite type of Zinnia - Peppermint Stick

Well, today L and I went junking. I totally scored! I got 2 spindles to mount bird houses on. An old wooden ladder back chair to grow a plant through in my new un-started flower bed. A picket to make a sign out of. And this very cool piece of iron. It used to be a corner post on a front porch. It's all ornate and rusted. Very cool. The first place we went junking at, had one that looked identical to this one, and they wanted $95. for it. I got mine for $25.!! Yeah!! I am so excited to get this new bed started now. The yard is really going to be the cottage garden I've always wanted.... One day... Just wish it wasn't so hot!! It's supposed to be over 100F this weekend. Yuck!!

Double Hollyhocks

These are the tipsy pots I made. Pretty neat how they stay all crooked, eh?

Dunno what this is, I bought this before I knew I would be hooked on gardening, so didn't bother remembering the name of it. It came back from last year tho with a bang!

This little flower will not stay in the ground. It keeps popping up!

Mark Janssens

Very pretty unknown. The camera did not capture all the details this one has.

Palace Station

Breed Apart - I love this one! This is first bloom, so it should get better.

This was my disappointment of the day. A lovely disappointment, but still.... This was supposed to be "Siloam Merle Kent". A small light purple daylily, with a darker purple eye. As you can see, it is nowhere near purple! I called the farm I bought it from, and they are giving me a credit. I sent them this picture too, and hopefully they will be able to tell me what it is. My main daylily bed has all named cultivars in it. So it would bum me out to not know what this one is, since it's in that bed. :(

Well, if you can believe it, we've had over 4 inches in of rain in the last five days. We got even more rain today. I would love it if there was no more rain at least until Saturday!! Things desperately need to dry out!

I've been planning my berm, and will hopefully get that started next week. Yeah!! Lisa and I are going junking on Friday to find a trellis or something for it. Should be fun!

more flowers

Pretty unnamed

Uppermost Edge

Cleome

Mae Graham

Coneflowers

More pink Hydrangea

Interesting happening in the garden...

Well, my friend L was over, checking out the new batch of baby Bluebirds that hatched yesterday. On our way out of the garden, we found this spidery looking dude. K took a japanese bettle, and plopped it in front of the spidery guy. We stood and watched these two for a while. We weren't sure who was going to eat who. From the looks of it, the beetle had a hold of the spidery guy. It was very interesting to see the spider dragging the beetle all over the rose tho. We eventually got bored and left them to sort it out. I am desperately hoping that the spidery guy won tho. I'm sick to death of JB's! They are chowing down on everything in sight! Grrr.

Summer has definitely arrived here tho. We've had temps in the upper 90's the last few days. I've been having to water every day. C is not happy. Hopefully we'll have one of those Carolina downpours soon.

Got the lawn mowed today. The other night I chopped down the climbing rose over the arbor into the garden. It was looking very pathetic. Today, K and I planted some morning glory seeds, and some moon flower seeds to climb up to keep it from looking empty until the rose can cover it once again.

Also taught K how to prune the Butterfly Bushes. She was tickled with that. She is also my official tomato harvester. That girl loves playing in the dirt as much as I do. It is such a joy to see her so excited about the small things out there. She keeps me smiling in this nasty heat.

Little Fantastic

Ed Brown

Decatur Cherry Smash

Siloam David Kirchhoff

Wild Mustang

Wind Frills - My only Spider... so far! :)

Red Candy, a new one from our DL trip

Strawberry Hill - Another new one

Wish Fulfillment - another new one

Jolyene Nichole - another new one

Seed pods are showing up everywhere! Jewel in a crown, Daring Dilemma, Ugly, two or three un-named cultivars, etc, etc, etc... I will be building a new raised bed to put all the seeds in. I want them to have the best start possible. Guess I will have to do that in the next few weeks.

Everything seems to have survived all the rain we had. I actually had to water yesterday. Will do again today, treating the right side of the yard with miracle grow. I am pleased with the way things are shaping up.

Sunflowers on one stalk

After the fall

Chicago Apache

Border Crossing

Mini Mauve

Finally a sunny day! Hopefully things will dry out now for at least a few days. Then I can determine if I lost anything to the rain.

Also, one of the daylilies, "Little Fantastic", which has yet to bloom, has had a baby! Yeah! Hopefully all of them will increase this year. But the first one is always exciting. Tomorrow, C, the second N, K, and I are going to a daylily farm on the SC/NC border. I plan to pick up at least 7 more, but we shall see. I'm bringing a list with me, but I want to see them in person before I decide. Should be fun and educational for the girls.

Turtle that found his way into our garage this afternoon.

Datura blooming the other night.

More stinkin' rain! We are going through the remenants of Tropical Storm Alberto right now. So it's breezy, and rainy. Everything in the yard is flooded. Hopefully we'll have a long drying out period after today.

Moonlight Rasphody

Cat Whiskers

Coreopsis

Sunflower

Well, the Japanese Beetles are out in full force now. I hate those stupid things. They are eating the roses, fruit trees, and various flowers all through out the yard. I can not wait for them to be done and gone. I can't remember tho, if it is six weeks, or eight. Whatever it is, it will not be soon enough.

This morning I played bee with Watermelon wine. I put it's pollen on every single daylily that was blooming. So I hope to see some pods soon. I was a little late getting out there this morning. After having 3 boys sleeping over for Nick's birthday party, I didn't get to bed at my usual hour. But maybe tomorrow I can play bee again.

I took out the foxglove, and a few other flowers that had done their thing. So things are back looking a bit empty. But hopefully things will fill in faster now that the warm nights have arrived.

Jason Salter

Collector's Choice again, this time with friend.

Holly Hock

Passion Flower

June 5th pics

Hydrangea - Yeah! It's pink!

Hosta - I have two like this from last year. This thing is massive!

Cosmo's

Rubekia beside and unknown orange lily. Looks nice together.

So lets see. Saturday we had major downpours. Sunday a break. Monday morning, a downpour. And this Monday evening, rain for 4 hours, complete with on and off downpours. I am scared my flowers are toast! That was a lot of rain! Supposed to rain tomorrow too! :(

Today Lisa and I went to check out the new nursery in town. Stupid place isn't even open yet, and 85% of their plants are either sick, or dying! They didn't have what I was looking for, so we went to lowes so I could get more lawn fertilizer. And then we went to Earthworks, where I found out the mislabelled lily below, is most likely Siloam Double Classic. I think I agree with that.

Came home, and I made a phone call, and then was off to Carolina Home and Garden. I finally found the plant I had been searching for! Toad Lilies!!! The flowers bloom in the fall, and they are only 1 inch across, and a very weird flower. I can't wait to see them bloom. Also got some coreopsis, two plants I can't remember the name of, and an annual called "Cat Whiskars". It has a flower that looks like ... Cat Whiskars! I put one out from, and on in Sheldon's area. I thought that fitting since he used to nurse kittens.

So, thats all for today!