Summer Stuff

We got more rain. Monsoon season seems to be on schedule this year. Don't the Mexican Hats in my kitchen garden look great? They are delightfully fragrant up close.

And red hyssop (agastache) is starting to flower just as the happy faces of orange geums are going by.

Electric blue larkspurs and buttery yellow coneflowers go nicely together.

More golden yellow coneflowers, called 'Leilani'. These are the same as above, but are fuller and shorter in a sunnier spot.

My basil in a bowl is doing well. It didn't perform well for me in the hydroponic set up I had last winter inside, but in a big bowl outdoors it thrives.

Starry white jasmine tobacco likes this spot in a cool, shady corner of the patio.

And I have hollyhocks blooming. These are 'Las Vegas' and should produce spikes of deep maroon, cream, pink, yellow and red. So far the first two to open are hot pink and lemon yellow but there are more buds and it's fun to see what will open.

(And after I posted this originally, a third one opened up a few days later, white and pink bicolor.)

'Mountain Red' Texas betony and Big Red the Rainbarrel are competing for title of the reddest thing in the garden. The Texas betony is actually lambsear, but a variety that is so very different in form and color from the fuzzy-leaved blue plants we usually think of as lambsear. Strange.

That's it for now. Just some stuff going on in my patch of the earth in the summer..