The First Week Of August In The Parking Strip + An Open Garden Tour (at my house)

I volunteered to open my garden for a public tour.  Yes, hell just froze over.

I belong to a Facebook page of gardeners in our immediate neighborhood.  It's new this year.  One of the members threw out the idea of doing a group tour, and offered to organize it if he could get at least five volunteers to open their gardens.  In a moment of wine-induced weakness, I responded with a yes.  AHHH.

I also "like" a Facebook page of our neighborhood community, and he has posted the preliminary tour info on there, in addition to just sharing it with members of our little gardening group.  AHHH.

So, it could stay really small, or, it will be like a high school party.  Everyone and their mother will show up. Word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Anywho, needless to say, I've been pretty busy in the yard the past couple weeks.  I may or may not have purchased more annuals over the weekend to fill in holes.  Unfortunately, there isn't much I can do about the browning lawn at this point.  It is August, after all.  I did reseed all the bare spots from The Dog this morning. I don't know if it'll do any good in the next 15 days, but it was worth a shot.

Anywho, that's the latest.  This is what's happenin' down in the parking strip this week:

I forgot to take pictures of the tree.

It's a Mallow, or Rose of Sharon, or whatever you call it.

It's a friggin' mess, as you'll see in the photos.

There's one in the backyard, too.

I HATE the flowers all over the ground and in the flower beds.

And because there's flowers constantly all over the ground, there's seedlings coming up EVERYWHERE.

If I didn't love the shape of the one in the back so much, it would have been gone a long time ago.

I'm tempted with the front one, though.

Okay, enough complaining, this is a piece of a 'Canary' Crocosmia that I transplanted from the main part of the garden this spring.

It appears to be happy down in the hell strip.

Knowing my aversion to orange flowers, one might wonder why I originally bought it.

I assumed 'Canary' meant yellow.

Ah well, it's pretty and fits in with the other oranges, bright yellows and reds down there.

Speaking of orange, the other Crocosmia is still blooming well and not even a smidgen of browning leaves.

(I shouldn't say that out loud.)

It has officially redeemed itself and will be staying.

Onto bright yellow, the Rudbeckia is definitely earning its keep down there.

Even the pieces I divided for the rest of the yard this spring are doing really well.

It drooped a lot the first year I planted it, but now that it's good and established, it's happy as a clam to not get watered every day.

The 'Autumn Joy' Sedum is starting to blush.

The two artichokes that I let bloom are showing all their purple fuzzies.

The yellow Phygelius (Cape Fuchsia) is still solid flowers.

And last, one of the 'Cheyenne Mix' Echinaceas that I put in last year is finally starting to bloom.

I don't know if it's in too much shade under the tree, or what, but it sure isn't doing what I wanted it to.

I may need to move it to the other end this fall.

It's such a pretty color.

I've got backyard and front yard photos for two more posts, coming soon.

Just a little reminder that you can purchase my floral photographs in my Etsy shop.

If you see one in a post that isn't in the shop, shoot me an email and I'd be more than happy to list it for ya.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/RindyMae

Please see my sidebar for the parties I link up to.

Evening On The Patio

I was gonna throw these photos into a Life Snippets post, but since the last one had so many pictures already, I figured I'd save 'em for their own post.

 It's Life Snippets:  The Patio Edition.

I was camped out there the other night, after putting the kids to bed, and decided to grab my camera.  So nothing is "staged" and the lighting isn't fantastic, but it's a good representation of what it's like to be out there at dusk. 

With a glass of wine and Pandora, of course.

You'll also get a sneak peek of the new pillow covers I made.

I'll take better pictures in the day time.

But in the meantime, here's my cozy after hours spot.

After I took the pictures, I lit all the candles and got snugged back in for a pinning marathon.

The Dad and I were out there until about 11:00 pm.

Not a bad way to end the day.

Please see my sidebar for the parties I link up to.