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. Â All of the petals are getting eaten off and leaving the middle.Â
It’s either japanese beetles or inch worms from what I have read. Â 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! Â 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. Â You can see it starting to happen on this flower:
And whatever the muncher is, it seems to be on these as well. 🙄Â
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! Â I love lemongrass.
On to the front. Â 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. Â Not like perennials at all in that regard.Â
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!
ALWAYs beautiful Lori!! Your backyard too!!! I love all your blooms!!!!
Have a great ride & enjoy that cupcake – cookies here!!!!!! 🙂
Your backyard is already pretty. I can just imagine it next year–what a wonderful view out your dining room!
LOVE the cantaloupe coneflower. I might have to try them one more time. Also love the cleome. I asked at the nursery and she said I might have to grow them from seed. Re: the snapdragons–are you talking about using tomato cages on them?
Yes, a tomato cage or support hoop like for peonies. When it rains, the snaps flop right over.
I will save some cleome seeds and send them to you. I need to figure out how to harvest the seeds. I think they are pretty easy to grow from seed, but I struggle with anything from seed for whatever reason. Or next year, I could send you a 6-pack of them 😀
It’s winter here in South Africa. Everything is good or grey. Your garden makes me wish summer was here.
LOVELY!
I see a lot of butterfly bushes in gardens here this year but we don’t have as much butterflies as last year it seems.
Have a great ride today.
We have not had a lot of butterflies this year, either. I am going to work on planting more hose plants like parsely and milkweed to hopefully help them out in years to come.