It’s once again the weekend – and time to check on the gardens…

Today lets check on the native plants!

Last week I showed you the Spotted Bee Balm – the newest addition to my Native plant collection. At first, I thought it was fairly subtle.. but a week on… oh no… it’s AMAZING! There are multiple flowers on each stem and because of those white bracts, the yellow spotted petals just shine out! I want MORE of this!!!

The Blue Lobelia is blooming! It’s a hummingbird favourite.

There are several clumps of Black-Eyed Susans all around the garden. And they are all looking spectacular this year!

While I don’t regret planting these Native False Sunflowers …

I do wish I’d known a little more about them before I did. 1) They get VERY tall. Like about 5 foot or a little more. 2) They get bushy…. stems come up EVERYWHERE from the clump, and this makes them flop left and right and cover other plants.

Ive just cut down a patch I have in the front garden. I will take them out completely next spring. For now I’m leaving the clump that’s beside the veg gardens, but I did have to cut a lot back, and tie some more up. I’m debating on moving it to the back of the yard where there’s a little more room for it. I wish I had a big meadow for it… because that’s exactly what it needs!

Similar are these grey-headed coneflowers.

It doesn’t get as tall as the False Sunflower, but it does flop terribly – at least where I have it along the fence border. This garden is getting a bit of expansion when the weather cools down, so I may pull it out and move it away from the fence where it will get the sun easier, and might not feel the need to flop so much. I might move some to the front garden too. It really is one of my fave flowers… I just wish it behaved itself better.

The native Blanket Flower is much better behaved.

I have some hybrids, which are shorter and bushier, but this species version is taller and leaner.

And they like to pop up amongst the other flowers, just as thry would in a meadow.

I have two types of yarrow in my garden. I thought they were both natives, but I have recently learned they are not. Do you know which one is the visitor?

It’s the yellow one on the left! It’s a Fernleaf Yarrow and it’s actually from Asia. I had no idea when I bought it. I just saw Yarrow and thought cooooool – I like Yarrow! As you can see, it has very dense heads of tight little flowers. The one on the right is Common Yarrow. It’s the one that’s native to North American meadows and grasslands! Regular readers will know I have it in a literal rainbow of colours!

And another interesting thing I learned is about purple coneflowers…

Last year, I made a post about how the purple coneflowers had seemingly took over the gardens (as evidenced by the catio here), despite the fact that I have coneflowers in a variety of colours!. I have red, orange, yellow, white… but the purple seemed to become stronger and more dominant year after year – with the others slowly dissapearing.

The wild form of Echinacea purpurea naturally produces purple flowers. Most of the newer colors available today are the result of selective breeding or hybridization between E. purpurea and other Echinacea species. If a hybrid produces seedlings, the offspring inherit a random mix of genes. The genes responsible for purple pigmentation are often dominant or involve multiple interacting genes. As the hybrid genetics reshuffle, many seedlings come up as purple. Since I let my plants reseed freely (ie don’t deadhead) this probably accounts for most of my purple plants.

In addition some cultivars consist of multiple crowns or shoots. If the original hybrid tissue declines, dormant buds from genetically different tissue can become dominant. These shoots may produce the wild-type purple flowers.

So… it’s going to take a little more work on my part to keep a good mix of coneflowers throughout the beds. But that’s one of the things I love about gardening – I am ALWAYS learning something new!

I’m afraid our A/C still isn’t working. HVAC guy came out on Wednesday and diagnosed it as a freon leak in the compressor. Great. Except he didn’t have the part. Apparently it wasn’t in stock either. It should be available by Monday – and they are booked to come back that morning.

While we were waiting for the HVAC guys, I had all the windows open and fans blowing what little cool air there was around the house.

While the humans are grumpy, it doesn’t seem to be bothering the cats. Rupert especially liked having the windows open. While he can go out in the catio yard any time he wants, it’s on the back of the house.

And he can’t yell at the neighbours from there!

We still had one window A/C so Dave installed it yesterday and the windows got shut again. Rupert can still technically yell at the neighbours. But they can’t hear him anymore.

I’m not quite sure how the boys feel about the new yarn bowl. Rupert looks annoyed with another cat in the house, and Burton looks a little concerned.

But I’m loving it! I’m through the cuff on the second sock and I’m working my way down the heel. No pics because I’m being lazy… but hopefully there will be one soon – of a finished pair!

As you know, Dave and I go thrifting a couple of times a week. We don’t always buy things anymore – it’s really just a way for us to get out and get moving – and thrift stores are always turning over inventory, so there’s usually something new to see.

But… I did find something at the ReStore last week. Something super exciting…

Yup.. SEEDS! The had four LARGE boxes just jammed packed full of seeds. And the asking price… 25 cents a pack! Most of these packs retail for between $3.50 and $5.00 a pack!

Now yes… seeds do “expire”… but if stored properly, they can keep for quite a long time. And since I mostly plant for fun and my garden is relatively small (i.e. I’m not relying on my garden to eat) even if I get less than 50% germination rates, I’ll still be ahead!

In the end, I bought 96 packs of seeds (some are doubles of things I really like, such as sunflowers, cosmos, and zinnias). Total cost – $24. Had I paid retail, it would have been well over $400!

I got a mix of regulars, as well as a lot of new things to try (beets, corn, etc) So, I’m set for seeds for the next few years! I will still have to buy a few particular favourites that aren’t part of this bunch… but it should still save me a tonne in the long run!

Finally! Some really good progress made on my little Woodland Fairy! First… I finished up her hair

It was three shades, but it went pretty quick. Then I turned my attention to her little bun…

But he was just looking like a little blob, and it was bothering me so I went ahead and outlined him, even thought outlining is something I normally leave to the very end. I felt much better after I did it.

Then I finished up her ribbon and got started on her wings! Now that I’m onto the wings, I really want to just keep going. I may end up working on it this week, instead of waiting until the weekend. There’s still lots to do.. but I’m close enough to the finish that I can almost smell it. (And I’m already thinking about my next project.)

It’s a long weekend here in Canada. And a much needed one. But as you read this, I’m probably spending my holiday Monday sitting in my chair, in front of a fan trying not to sweat too much. Saturday, our heat pump conked out on us (yes… the one we had installed less than two years ago… no… I’m not happy). The company that installed it can’t get someone here until Wednesday.

It rain most of the weekend (much needed), so thankfully it wasn’t killer hot. We were able to open the windows and get the breeze moving through.

Saturday, Burton and I headed up to the studio and got one of the Christmas quilts charted out…

With that done, we got to cutting.

With that done, Dave decided we should try changing the HVAC filter to see if that got the heat pump working again…. so we headed out to buy one and grab dinner. Sadly, the filter did not solve the problem.

Sunday, after a long snuggle in the morning, listening to the rain fall outside the window… Burton and I decided we might as well get the top sewn.

Lemmy joined us for laying the squares out. And slowly, row by row….

The top came together by dinner time. It finished up at about 61″ x 72″

I still have to dig through the bins for a back (It was far too muggy to be muscling the bins out of the corner then back in again), but we are going with a scrappy binding.

Now I just have to get the top done for his sister’s quilt, then I can book a quilting weekend with Mom!

First things first… Melon update

As you can see, things are going well.

We’ve even got a third melon coming.

I’m pretty sure this is a yellow-fleshed watermelon – which came from the neighbour. I’m not sure how big it will get, but I hope it’s on the smaller side – I don’t think the ladder can handle a full-sized watermelon!

I’ve only got three steps and they are already claimed!

I am happy to announce….

We have our first cucumber! The cucumbers last year made a very poor showing. The ones this year are a little behind, but I hope once the plants catch up, it’s going to be a banger of a season!

While I don’t have any fruit on my birdhouse gourds yet….

…they do have the prettiest flowers.

The peppers, I think, aren’t going to make quite as good a showing. After losing the first three to a weird brown mush, only two more have come along. Maybe I’ll get more, but somehow I doubt it.

But the blackberries are FINALLY ripening! They don’t ripen all at once, so the few I get each day are getting put into a bag in a freezer. They are destined for a batch of jam and I want to make sure I have enough!

And last… technically, I should have left these a little longer, but some of my carrots felt girthy enough to pull!

They weren’t super long, but otherwise they are a good size. These are my rainbow carrots – there were four colours in the seed pack.. the only one I’m missing here is the white. Aren’t they just the prettiest carrots you’ve ever seen? And there’s lots more to come!

If there’s one thing that stays routine for August…

… it’s Sunflower Season! And thanks to many volunteers, a few I started, and a few I relocated – there are sunflowers all over the garden – with more just getting started.

There are also Cosmos

Zinnias

Globe Thistle

Butterfly bushes and Butterfly weed.

The Spotted Bee Balm I planted this spring has bloomed… it’s much more subtle than I expected, but it is so lovely!

And last…the Strawberry Blonde Marigolds I started from seed….

The are small, but they are so pretty! I’m going to be saving some of these seeds for next year!

Fun Fact about Burton you may not know…

If I’ve got a long dress on (which is often) and decide to sit down (which is also often) Burton loves nothing more than to play hide and seek. He will immediately run under the hem and make himself comfortable between my feet!

When I say progress…

I mean it loosely. I have made some progress as in, I’ve started the second sock. But I got the ribbing done. I then started on the seed stitch pattern, and I just kept messing it up. For some reason, my brain just can’t handle it! I put it in a time out, but I’m hoping to pick it up and try again tonight after work.

In the upside…

It looks great in my new yarn bowl!