Summertime Catchuptime!

Well I think it's about time to get this party started! Don't you? How is YOUR summer going? Personally my free time made me lethargic, lazy and unmotivated. Could NOT get myself to update this blog! Too much effort.... But ah ha! I have overcome! Because here we are right?

(By the way most of these pictures were taken in June?ish?)

I haven't gotten as much done this summer as i wanted to but my bum didn't get TOO soft (is that what happens when you sit on it too much?). This is something i have been trying to find a place for for a while and it looks really pleased with itself now. Like somehow it managed to plant itself! Sheesh! Smugness aside i really adore this Helenium autumnale (Edit: thanks to Digital Flowers for the correction).

What a pair these two! PB&J! They used to be in the same family (Scrophulariaceae) but sadly split up.... Thanks a lot botanists! Jeez cant you see they were meant for each other?? Just look at them! Like two peas in two separate pods then tossed into a salad together! yum....

You know how Abutilon gets all scrappy and leggy? Like, always? Ta-da! You are looking at a proud owner of a non-leggy, lush and luscious Abutilon. Yes thats right. With the right amount of sun (and shade), and pinching back a handful of times a year even you can have one as pretty as mine. Don't worry all; cosmic balance will even out my haughty claims of glory. In a gardening sense to be sure.

Bounty has shown itself in strawberries this year.

I forget when I planted a couple 6 packs of Yarrow around the yard but i assure you it took an astonishingly short time for them all to get huge and elbow their neighbors. Luckily, Yarrow makes me happy and the bees delirious!

Ok who here doesn't know Verbena bonariensis? It is hard to describe how great this plant is. First off butterflies LOVE it. Can be drought tolerant but can also hang in those lush perennial beds (and fits in the style of either one!). It reseeds (and this is where it gets most of it's negative energies, because it can be invasive for some people. But honestly, you should be so lucky!). And it blooms constantly from late spring into fall.

OK the two downsides are- and pitifully small downsides at that- they can sometimes get powdery mildew, and they sometimes need staking.

Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'. Oh my. This is a super-duper grass. It has this snappy energy with its upright (to 4ish') form that softens out a bit once it blooms and starts turning from its blueish green to an array of dark purples and orangey highlights starting at the tips and making its way down as late summer and then fall kicks in. It's nice having some grasses in the garden that don't flop about everywhere like they own the place.