The garden in August is really beautiful. I've been enjoying it more this year then years prior. I think it's part the more mild weather we've been having and the fact that we were gone so much in the first part of the year that we're really settling into being at home. No matter what it is, I'm loving the garden.

Butterfly Bush.

It almost died a horrible death earlier in the summer. When I returned home from being with my family while my grandmother was ill to find that the dogs had broken down the enclosure I'd made to protect the new bush and had snapped all the limbs off of it except for one. But this little bush has continued to bloom and be beautiful.

I love cone flowers. They're so beautiful in the garden and last for days and days as cut flowers for the house.

Echinacia
The color is like setting sun.

Sunflowers.

All volunteer and all amazing. I planted them last year and thanks to the birds who reseeded the bed for me, they were beautiful again this year. They're usually the first thing to bloom in the garden and I can see them from my bedroom window.

Blackeyed Susan.

Again, cone flower. Just love them. I can't wait to get our back yard landscaped. We'd hope that it would happen this year but since there's been a lot of family stuff going on, we're shooting for next year. When the new flower beds go in around the new lawn, all the cone flowers will be moved to in front of the garden fence that separates the lawn area from the garden.

Artichoke.

My father-in-law told me that the artichoke wouldn't produce but lookie here! We got 'choke! I don't know if it'll get big enough to be able to eat it or not but there it is. I hope it does. I'm not a huge fan but it would be a nice treat, especially since it's homegrown.

Swiss Chard.

I don't know if even like it but I love the color! Gorgeous red stems.

Tomatoes!

Not ripe yet but they will be. I can't wait. I've had to resort to buying them at the farmers markets because mine are coming in so late.

An almost ripe one!

This one has been the only plant that has actually produced any ripe ones. I've gotten three so far.

Bees

I love them. They are so amazing. This picture blew my mind when I saw. I was playing around with the macro setting on my camera and was very suprised at what came out. This picture is so amazing. The colors and the details of the bee, you can see the hairs on his legs and pollen.

My garden is coming along nicely this year all things considered. I didn't get anything in the ground until really late in the season this year and I didn't get everything I wanted to plant planted. But what I did get in the ground is starting to produce already.


My volunteer zinnias from last year are starting to bloom already. I don't have as many as I'd like but that can happen when you remember to collect seeds for your mother-in-law but forget to save any for yourself.

My corn is starting to corn! I'm so excited. I wasn't sure it was going to happen becuase I only have 6 plants but it's happening. We have corn-age!

My swiss chard is up. It started coming up really strong and then the next thing I know I only have about 6 plants total. Not sure what the story is there but again, planted late. I haven't seen any bug damage so I don't think that's what's wrong. Oh well, there will be enough there for me to enjoy a couple of times.

Of course the bees are loving it out there. The sun flowers have lots of pollen for them.

Each on of the stalks on the sunflowers is like this one. They have multiple blooms, which they didn't have last year. I don't know if they crossed with something else or what but they are really pretty.

My first tomato...of this season anyway! None of the other tomato plants have any tomatoes on them yet but they have lots of blooms. I see lots of tomatoes in the future. I can't wait to eat them fresh off the vine with a little salt while they're still warm from the sun.

A few more pictures from my garden.

Hubbs and I spent yesterday doing chores. After being gone for a week we needed to do some clean up in the house, return the 5th wheel to storage, go to the nursery, do the grocery shopping and work in the garden. It was a very productive day. I spent way to much time in the sun without sun block on the first decently sunny and warm day of the year and the result was me being turned into a crispy critter. My arms and the back of my neck are bright red and burned. Ouch! But it was totally worth it. My garden is in great shape.

My dahlias are so pretty this year!

The volunteer sunflowers are huge! When I uploaded this picture I laughed out loud because I captured a bee in flight at the top of the picture. I seem to be capturing a lot of bees in pictures lately, both on purpose and on accident.

I got an artichoke at the nursery. It's itty bitty right now but I'm sure next year we'll get some really wonderful artichokes.

Since I'm a bit behind in getting my garden in this year due to all the travel we've been having to do, I purchased corn instead of growing from seed like I normally would have done. 6 plants was all I was willing to take on for right now. I'm hoping for some really great, tasty corn.

I purchased 3 tomato plants at the nursery and when I was weeding one of the other beds, I found a volunteer tomato plant. I'm calling it the "mystery tomato." Not sure what it is but I can't wait for it to grow up and show me.

This is another volunteer sunflower. It's got tons of blooms on it and looks like a sunflower tree. The colors are really soft and pretty. I love volunteer plants. It's like free plants!

My herb garden is doing great also. I had to transplant the mint into a larger pot earlier this year because it had totally grown out of it's small pot and needed a much larger pot. The bed has my rosemary, sage, thyme, chives and oregano.

The bees are loving the chive blooms right now.

My garden has really come into it's own in the last few days. It's just beautiful. Sunflower

Zinnias

Different colored sunflowers

The beans are starting to come in.

The pumpkins are starting to turn.

The dahlias are just awe inspiring.

I finished the 3rd Weekender shawl last week and have cast on for another pair of socks. They are turning out really nicely. I hope to have some pictures of them before the end of the weekend.

I hope that your 4th of July is as wonderful as mine is!! God Bless America.

It's been a busy weekend again. I haven't done any knitting but I did so to a quilt and sewing expo with my mom, went shopping, bought some new shoes(yay!), bought some new yarn, bought some wool to make a new pea coat and went to the nursery.

I planted two tomatoes in the main bed with my herbs. In the back I have some thyme, rosemary, chives, sage and oregano. I chose two heirloom varieties this year. I didn't want to grow the same old red tomatoes that you can get in the grocery store. I got Hillbilly which is a West Virgina variety. (I thought of you Evil Twins Wife!) This Variety should have tomatoes in 85 days. I'm looking forward to it.

I also got Prudens Purple. It should have fruit in 75 days.

Because I only have the one bed right now, I have to do some container gardening.

Last weekend I spent Saturday hanging out with my mom. We went to a quilt show and then ran some errands. I always enjoy hanging out with my mom but she almost always gets me into trouble. I spent way too much money. I bought some much needed work clothes and also bought two new roses bushes for my back yard. Right now our back yard is a mess. There is no lawn because I let it die last year. We don't have in ground sprinklers and I have to drag the hose back and forth to water the grass. Normally I'm really good about it but...well it died a thirsty death I'm sure. So right now there is just a ton of weeds where the grass used to be. I'm working slowly on getting it back into shape. We want to add a patio with an arbor but that's all going to come later.

This rose bush is a climbing rose called Lady Banks. I have two of them in the front of the house that are just gorgeous. This one is white. I planted it right inside the garden gate. Eventually it will grow up and over the arched trellis.

This rose is also a climber. It's pink. I'm going to add a trellis to the fence to get it to cover this part of the fence. This is right next to where the neighbor keeps their dogs and I'm hoping that it will cover it enough that their dogs won't be able to see through the fence anymore. Right now, every time we open our door they bark and they will bark anytime our dogs are out in the yard. I guess basically they just bark. All the time. So very annoying.This Calla Lilly lives in the corner close to the pink climbing rose. Calla's are my favorite flower. I joke and say that even though our house needed a ton of work when we bought it, this plant is the reason that I loved the house so much.

Out front my Lilac is blooming and my Lady Banks Roses are so very pretty. I'm training the Lady banks to go over the window of the front bedroom. Looks like I need to tie it up again.