Bouncing back from the summer heat

It has finally cooled down a bit and the plants are definitely looking happier (at least until it starts getting too cold for them soon). I have cleared nearly everything out of the raised bed, including a number of rotten tomatoes and nasty tomato horn worms - ick! For better or worse, I was able to see beneficial insects in action on the tomato horn worms. I do believe a parasitic wasp or two laid her eggs on a couple of the worms and nature took its course. I did not bother taking picture as I would like to forget the sight, myself.

On to more enjoyable topics - I am trying something new this year and have thrown a large number of flower seeds into the raised bed. These plants are supposed to perform better next year if their seeds are started in the fall of the previous year (fingers crossed). I went a little wild at the seed store and the variety of plants include sweet peas, scabiosa, cerinthe pride of gibraltar, butterfly bush, butterfly weed, and many more. With any luck (or a lot of it), the raised bed will be exploding with butterfly friendly and stunningly gorgeous flowers next year.

Here are some pics of one of my favorites from this year:

I still can't believe how well these begonias did this year (and from seed!). They never stopped blooming from early summer through now (beginning of fall). I will definitely need to propagate these for next year.

Next up are some fall goodies. This is the second year I have grown Mexican Sage bush and it was quite a bit taller than I was expecting. Ideally, I would like to move this to a better spot in the raised bed, but we'll see on that. The mums I bought for 88 cents each at Lowe's last year came back in a very large and vigorous fashion. I even cut them back midway through the season. Great investment.

Recent Happenings ...

It's been a while, so I'll run through a brief recap of the past few weeks ...

First off, we found the most precious baby bunny in the front yard (actually, the family across the street saw it first, but we didn't believe them :) ). He managed to tear through the hollyhock in the first week and every single one of my marigold seedlings mysteriously disappeared one day. Not even a stem left behind as evidence. I've started supplementing his diet with some carrots in hopes of protecting the surviving plants. It's also fun to watch him scarf down a carrot in less than a minute flat. Yes, yes, I know I'm probably breaking all the rules of real gardening, but he's just so darn cute!

Next, we started harvesting some cherry and heirloom tomatoes in the back. Umm, I love those little bite size morsels of goodness. This was my first go at heirlooms and they aren't too bad. We definitely have lots of fruit on the plants, but I might prefer to go back to the small (less mushy) varieties next year. Unfortunately, the tomato plants ended up overwhelming the poor bell pepper plants so I will need to rethink the garden layout next year. The jalapeno plant, on the other hand, is getting more than enough sun and we have way too many of those to eat or give away this year.

Last, but not least, a gentleman in our neighborhood was nice enough to take some pictures of our flowers and pass them along. I definitely need to get a digital SLR at some point!

Color Combinations

So, I will say that while looking through the seed catalogs all winter, I had decided on a shades of pink color scheme for this year. It seems I forgot about the perennials I grew last year that came back better than expected this year. The end result is a great mix of just about any color out there, but I think it turned out quite well (completely unbiased opinion there ...).

Here is one container that has some Night and Day Snapdragons I grew last year as well as some Calla Lilies I planted about two years ago. I threw in a dahlia tuber this year (not knowing what color it would bloom) and got lucky that everything came up in reds and pinks.

Kris actually said he liked how the blue balloon flowers looked with the leftover yellow snapdragons, so I thought I would include a pic. There are a few small pink dahlias (one of my favorite flowers if you hadn't guessed already) on the right and some red bee balm blooms speckled in the middle. The balloon flowers came back so much bigger than they were last year and are just exploding (quite literally) with blooms this year.

Last, but not least, the blueberries are finally ripening! After a month or two of watching the little berries grow, it's nice to sample the sweet rewards. We still need to supplement our berry supply from the Farmer's market, but this is definitely one of the few shrubs I don't mind having in the yard. We have two Sunshine Blue plants in one large container (their leaves turn a lovely red in the fall) and one miscellaneous variety I picked up from the Farmer's market a year or two ago. I probably need to amend the soil a bit this year to make sure it is acidic enough.

Picture Time ...

The first tulips of the year ... over-stuffing the container really worked well. I can't wait to pick the bulbs for next year.

Our little patch of grass in the back - now stuffed with tomatoes, pepper, hollyhock, some squash (hopefully), and more (all grown from seed).

Still making the most of that 'backyard' with one of my new favorite flowers - Blue Butterfly Delphinium; one of my old favorites - Dahlias; and some gerber daisies (the last two not only look pretty, but support the Susan Komen fund as well).

Hanging basket with double petunias and begonia (with a little coleus and portulaca hiding there somewhere). All of these plants were grown from seed - I'm still thrilled about the begonia.

A better shot of the begonia - what a beauty.

First Post ...

Just got back from an extended Memorial Day weekend away and am happy the plants made it through relatively unscathed. It seems the grasshoppers or something are munching holes in the bougainvillea and aster leaves, but hopefully I can find some kind of remedy for the problem. The first Begonia Non-stop Mocca flower bloomed and boy was it impressive. This was my first begonia grown from seed and I am pretty happy so far. The first balloon flower blossom is growing through the bird netting over the blueberry plants and the lupine is setting seed (which I can hopefully collect for next year) :) Pics to come soon.