Happy weekend everyone!  We have had much needed rain this week. Maybe a bit too much, but it certainly was a good thing to have.  I didn’t have to water all week.

On to flowers.  More Black-eyed Susan:

These are so prolific and stay in a nice shape. Not spreading, either.

Hydrangea:

This is supposed to be Strawberry Sundae, but it pretty much stays white. I don’t know if it is just a weird plant or maybe the pH of the soil. Still pretty.

Zinnia:

I’m so irritated with the critters in the back garden. Somebody (somebunny) went through and nibbled the buds from every single zinnia in the back. Argh! Time to get the repellent.

Anyway, this is from the front:

I planted some mullein this year. I couldn’t resist the $2.99 pots. Who can say “sucker”?  They were small and I wasn’t expecting blooms. I was really surprised to see this:

This should get much taller and will fill in the back where I was trying to grow foxgloves, which don’t seem to like me very much.

Balloon flowers:

I love these because they bloom for a good month.

Another hibiscus.

It’s a little more orange than this shot shows. This one I will bring in over the winter.

I tried some passion flower from seed and they actually are growing!

The front plant is a sweet annie. I had tried these from seed a couple of years ago and for some reason this one popped up in the walkway to the back this year. So I moved it into this pot. I looooove the scent of the leaves.  Gardening is always a surprise.

I have started composting. We collect in a bucket compostable stuff like coffee grounds, banana peels, fruit cores and the like, which I take outside and put in a pile along with dried leaves and plant material. I made a pile last year and this spring I got some nice compost. All of the things composted over the winter were in one pile to “marinate” and I made a new pile for this season:

Small piles, I know LOL. The one on the left can be spread in the fall. It has broken down nicely already.  I think I did a good job considering I don’t know what I’m doing 🙂

Reblooming lilac that was gifted to me last year for my birthday. It’s reblooming!

It’s amazing to smell lilac in late July.

Last night I was in the back garden and a hummingbird came right up to the beebalm I was standing by. I wish I had a zoom lens on the camera, but you can still see it:

Usually this guy comes around lunch time like clockwork. He loves the beebalm.

And speaking of bees, sort of, the globe thistle has opened and all the bees are flocking to it.

Look at these two:

I was about 3 inches from this flower and the bees didn’t care at all. Too busy gathering. Have at it bees – it’s all for you!

Hopefully there will be biking this weekend as the rain is supposed to clear some. See you on the flip side!