It's July!

Even though this is the first day of July, you would never know it because the temperature is very cool. The sky has been overcast during the last three days but we have had only a few sprinkles. I was hoping that we would get a good soaking rain so that all of the plants would be thoroughly watered. Also, I have used all of the water in the rain barrel so it needs replenishing.

The cool weather has helped to expand the growing season for some of the early perennials such as the Bleeding Heart (see the picture). There are even a few flowers left on the plant and the foliage is still looking beautiful. The Victoria Blue salvias and the begonias are larger and have more blooms than they usually do at this time of year. The Shasta daisies are now in bloom.

All of the zucchini plants have sprouted. I thinned them to one plant per 3 foot area so there are now five in all. During the last few days, some of the green beans have begun to pop out of the ground. The carrots are also doing well and I look forward to eating them in a few weeks. Also, we will be pulling some of the green onions this weekend to enjoy with the barbequed baby back ribs and the pulled pork.

I bought three of the plants (shown above) last year at English Gardens. Even though all three of them came up this year, I had to dig up and discard one of them because the Obedient Plant had invaded it. However, the other two are beginning to bloom. Both the bronze leaves and spike flowers are very attractive. The only problem is I can't remember what the name of this plant is!That's why I decided to start this blog; it will help me to keep track of the names of the flowers that I buy.

The delphiniums are flowering. I have two different varieties and the second one has not yet begun to bloom but it has a lot of buds.

The blue and pink salvias, yellow Marguerite Daisies and Pink Wave Petunias look very attractive in the other small bed.

The pots of petunias are growing like crazy but they have not become "leggy". This photo shows one of the Purple Wave Petunias that I bought. I also have another one in the large pot by the front porch and it look beautiful. However, the ones that I planted in the large brick bed in the front yard are still small but they finally are starting to get new leaves. I think that they just had to take a while to establish their roots.

I found some Purple Wave Petunias that had self-sown from last year's plants in the bed by the front porch. Last week, I dug some of them up and replanted them in the four pots that I placed in the back of the tomato bed. I've been thoroughly watering each day. At first, they were experiencing transplant shock because they had such thin root systems but they are now beginning to look healthy.



Here's another picture of the Salmon Flambe petunias that I started from seed. I keep trying to capture the amazing color combination of the flowers but I am not having great luck doing so. The fringed flowers have a pink center that is surrounded by a pale yellowish cream edge.