Monday, July 23, 2012

Gardening is a challenge this summer!

Heat, drought, Japanese beetles, caterpillars eating my baptisia and lupine foliage, raccoons eating all of my sweet corn, groundhogs eating my tomatoes off the vine...it's been a challenging garden season. July 2012 will go down in the record books; thus far it's tied for the second hottest month in recorded history in Iowa. In addition, we're in moderate drought.

Still, there is beauty. First, a few Iowa farmland photos and then a walk through Sunsplash Gardens:


















 Echinacea, loved by me, by pollinators, and by goldfinches


Rose of Sharon

Cleome

Phlox

More phlox


 Hardy hibiscus


Rose and salvia

'Carefree Beauty' Buck rose

 Sweet potato vine, butterfly weed, and sedum

Balsam

I lost a tree in a storm; now I have a little garden art.

Ammi majus from Judith at Lavender Cottage, rudbeckia, and beebalm. I love the airy look of the ammi; it's similar to Queen Anne's Lace but is not invasive. It's an annual in my climate. Also love brushing against the beebalm; it smells so good (bergamot, like Earl Grey tea).


 Perennial lathyrus (sweet pea)



I still have larkspur blooming. I kept dead-heading it, and it keeps re-blooming.



This is a foxglove that self-seeded from the Camelot series foxglove that bloomed near the garden shed last year. It's just beginning to bloom. I thought maybe it'd be just leaves this year, bloom next year, and then perish - foxglove are biennial.


Wilson seedling - purchased when I went to the daylily farm of Bob Wilson.   To see some of the daylilies he has hybridized click on the second link: Bob Wilson.


 My last hollyhock that's blooming. I've had problems with rust this year.


Verbena bonariensis

Hydrangea 'Pinky Winky' is starting her show.

Clematis 'Betty Corning'

Love my coneflowers!

'Janice Brown' is a stunning hemerocallis. One of my very favorites here at Sunsplash Gardens


Kitties on the porch; these are two strays we feed.


My Gracie




"Don't wear perfume in the garden - unless YOU want to be pollinated by bees!" ~Anne Raver

Linking to Bloomin' Tuesday, Garden Tuesday, and Tuesday Garden Party


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