This is the view from our dining room out the back:

The way the house is built, this room is actually on the ground floor from the front of the house, but it has a walkout basement, which was dug out making the back of the room look out a story up. The flower colors don’t really show up in this picture, but you can see them in the back bed from this window. Some day there will be a ton of blooms out there and maybe a garden bed smack in the middle of the lawn, too

I am going a little crazy on the birdfeeders, I think. I have 2 squirrel proof feeders, which actually work pretty well. The squirrels now sit underneath and wait for birds to throw out seed.

Somebody has been nibbling at my coneflowers, too.  All of the petals are getting eaten off and leaving the middle. 

 

It’s either japanese beetles or inch worms from what I have read.  I haven’t seen anything on them. I hope they stop soon. I won’t spray, so I am going to have to bring out some soapy water or something.

Here is the white swan, which seems okay so far:

 

I bought a new plant. This is Baptisia, AKA false indigo.

 

This is another tall plant, 3-4 feet fully grown. I hope this will bloom later on.

The butterfly bush is still a little scrawny, but tall!  I have more blooms.

 

I even saw a hummingbird on it! It’s sparse feeding for butterflies and hummers in the garden now, but in the future I hope I will get a lot more.

I have a new black-eyed Susan called Maya:

 

The cool thing about this is that the brown middle will fill out into a yellow puff.  You can see it starting to happen on this flower:

And whatever the muncher is, it seems to be on these as well.   

This is my potted lemongrass.

 

I got this in the hopes of keeping mosquitoes away, but I don’t think it works very well. It smells great, though!  I love lemongrass.

On to the front.  This is the sunsparkler sedum. It is a ground cover sedum and is spreading.

 

I like the color of the leaves. I probably never would have bought one of these on my own, but it came as a bonus plant in an order and I do like it.

My other new specialty coneflower I planted in June is blooming now. This is the Cantaloupe Supreme and I just love it!

 

I got this one at a local nursery, but I will often buy my specialty coneflowers from Bluestone because they have so many different ones that I can’t find here. (Marmalade is on my wish list).

Here is a balloon flower bud just starting to burst open. This will be open all the way tomorrow.

 

Tall snaps:

 

I need to get cages because some of them are flopping over. Annuals always amaze me at how fast they grow in a season.  Not like perennials at all in that regard. 

Like the Cleome – these came in a tiny little 6-pack in May and now are about 3.5 feet tall.

 

Saturday will be a long ride day. It is supposed to be pretty nice, at least during the day.  I have a hankering for a cupcake, so I hope that is true

Have a great weekend!