I’m considering the garden part of my recovery therapy. I can’t do much yet except slowly walk around our house, but I can enjoy. Weeds are already coming back, though LOL. They will have to wait a week or so. I feel like watching me do things is like watching a sloth as I move so slow to avoid provoking pain. It probably is a little funny to watch.

Anyway, it’s coneflower season now. July is always a busy month in my garden. Seems like the majority of my plants bloom from now through fall.

Cheyenne Spirit:

I just love all the colors in the same plant. It’s festive and happy.

This is supreme cantaloupe:

I moved this one last year, so it’s still trying to get settled in. It’s not as big as it used to be.

Balloon flowers:

Can’t you almost hear them pop open?

Annabelle hydrangea:

This is my earliest blooming hydrangea. It’s about 3 feet tall now, I would guess. I’m hoping it gets another foot or two taller than this, but it might not because of the dry shade it is in.

Finally put some plants in an area in the back of the house that is filled with white stone chips. I can’t stand the chips and didn’t want to have to dig out the entire bed and put new soil in, so I just removed some and added extra soil so I could do something with it. I planted some Japanese painted ferns with impatiens:

I’m not a huge fan of ferns, but these are really pretty.

Asiatic lily:

You can see wire mesh in the background protecting another lily that a rabbit has gotten at. We have the cutest baby bunny living here. So, so cute, but annoying at the same time. He can eat all the lawn weeds he wants, but stay away from my flowers!

This is my goose neck loosestrife.

This is spreading like crazy! I’m going to have to remove about half of it this fall. It apparently really likes this spot.

Another plant that has proliferated well is the daylilies:

A perfect example of the right plant in the right spot. I plunked down 5 plants about 3 years ago just to put something in and they took off. This is the very back corner of the sun bed.

Bee balm has arrived. I have a new dwarf one in my bird feeder bed:

Then my big one, which is 4 feet tall, maybe 4-1/2:

Now is the time to start watching for sphinx moths and hummingbirds.

Also more butterflies now that the butterfly weed has bloomed:

It’s hard to just walk around the garden without stooping over to pull weeds. I’m actually looking forward to getting back to that, oddly enough.

No biking for the next 6 weeks (5-1/2 now 😀 ), so other than the napping that I’ve been doing, I guess I’ll be getting the biz ready for the holiday season. And enjoying the flowers.