Summer Blooms

At this moment, I am sipping my iced espresso and enjoying my air conditioning. Like most of the country we are riding out a heat wave. Gardening work is usually done in the morning and the evening when the temperatures are a little cooler. I was too busy with personal projects to do much with the garden this year. I focused more on growing vegetables and let the ornamentals fend for themselves. Luckily, nature has a way of rewarding you for past efforts by reseeding itself. It’s been nice surprise to see plants from prior years reappear like my dahlias, echinacea and rudbeckia. A new favorite for me is the the bronze beauty calendula. I had sprinkled the seeds around two years ago and had completely given up on it but it appeared this spring. It has these lovely bronze orange pedals. I did cave and buy some cosmos. It doesn’t feel like summer without them.
My favorite part of the yard is the back corner where the wild white petunia, purple felicia, and mexican primrose took over. It’s just a giant sea of white, pink, yellow and purple.
The long term plan is to completely renovate the backyard by ripping out the lawn and adding raised beds. But for now I’m staying out of the heat and pouring over seed catalogs trying to find some fun and interesting additions to the current set up.