Veggie Beds
The tomato plants are still large and overbearing, even after I chopped away at about half the plants that were toppling over the cages and into the neighboring bed. Peppers and eggplant continue to produce. The squash vine borers have gotten my second planting of squash, so I'm planning to cut my losses and turnover the squash bed to something that I might actually be able to harvest later this fall. The okra and basil are going strong, but the cukes and melons are withering.
Backyard Beds
The butterfly bed is a hot mess right now. Only a couple zinnias and cosmos are holding on. Not even the lantana wants to bloom in this heat.
View of the empty (new) backyard beds. Still need to get the gravel path down, clean out some of the beds that grew weeds and put in dirt, compost and mulch. Goal is to have that all done by the fall so I can get some fall and winter planting in.
The fig tree in the corner is huge, considering it was completely cut to the ground when we moved in three years ago. I can never get any figs from it though, since the birds and squirrels always get there first. The cannas are lush, and the tree that fell down in the windstorm is growing a bunch of sprouts from its roots. Looks like we'll be needing to rent a stump grinder soon.
The one redeeming bed in the backyard is the bulb bed. It is looking so fresh and so clean after the major weeding that went down the last couple of weekends. Let's hope I can keep it this way for awhile.
Courtyard
At least the plumbago is still going strong in the heat.
The wisteria doesn't mind the heat either.
Front Yard
Nothing blooming over here...
But look! I spy some color over here!
These pretty purple flowers are a welcomed sight among all the non-flowering plants in my garden right now.
Thanks for stopping by my End of the Month View. Be sure to stop over to the Patient Gardener, where Helen hosts even more gardeners' End of the Month Views.
The sage is blooming up a storm over here as well and you are right. It can get lost in the shuffle other times of year but right now it is one of the few reliable bloomers in all the predictable summertime heat.
ReplyDeleteGood luck clearing your beds - you and I will hopefully get things cleared out in our spaces to the point that next summer we won't be stuck doing all this in the blast oven of late July and early August!
I know - it is a very tedious process right now, and there is a lot of work left to do. I just have to keep thinking about the end product and how wonderful the beds will be, and how much fun I'll have planting once they are all ready to go.
DeleteI just love those new beds! I am so jealous of the space you have. Are those fig trees an evergreen in the winter here? I love how lush they look. Also, the wisteria you have growing against your house - does he try to suckle his way onto the wood and brick, like the trumpet vines do? I'm looking for a new vine...
ReplyDeleteThe fig isn't an evergreen. That corner of the yard is left with a bunch of sticks once we hit freezing temps. I definitely need to get some more evergreens into my landscaping...preferably ones that blooms and have berries for wildlife. The wisteria grows like crazy, so I do have to keep on top of pruning with it, I've been giving it a pretty serious pruning at least once, maybe twice a year. My wisteria hasn't bloomed yet in the two seasons I've had it. Not sure if it is because of the soil or partial shade - so I might suggest a different vine. Coral honeysuckle is next on my list - a native evergreen that attracts the hummingbirds and also produces berries for other wildlife.
DeleteLooking good up there! The wisteria is nice on that wall. I like your approach of tackling all that space in manageable chunks.
ReplyDeleteThe sages look so good in bloom, mine are blooming also. It's a nice shot of color.
Thanks, Shirley. I like the way the wisteria covers the wall in the courtyard. I just wish I could get the darn thing to bloom. I'm thinking it might be the soil composition, so I might try to send off some soil samples from my gardens sometime soon to get to the bottom of the mystery.
DeleteThat Texas Sage is a wonderful looking plant, and I love all the architectural plants you have in your front yard, they are just shrugging off the heat, aren't they! Those new beds in the back garden are an exciting opportunity, I look forward to seeing them develop.
ReplyDeleteThe Texas Sage is a lovely plant, especially at this time in the season when many other plants can't stand the Texas heat. I'm very excited for all the new plants I'll be able to have in my new beds. I just can't wait to finish getting them prepped so I can finally have some fun selecting plants and playing in the dirt! Thanks for stopping by!
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