The monarchs have returned to the garden! I’ve seen them flying around my small milkweed patch (we’ve got about six or seven plants this year), so I hope to have some caterpillar content in the following weeks.

In addition to butterflies, we’ve also had rain – lots and LOTS of rain. I mentioned the six inches we got when Beryl’s remnants blew through. And this past week we got another three days (Monday to Wednesday) with three, two, and one inch of rain respectively.

As a result…

The gardens are overgrown and absolutely exploding. The squash tunnel stands about seven feet high, and you can see the Hyssop (a native plant) behind it growing at least a foot taller.

The False Sunflowers (yellow flowers to the left) stand a little over five feet tall, as does the native Bee Balm on the right (light purple flowers peeking through)

I’m five foot seven, and it’s a little taller than me. A lot of the bigger plants are starting to flop from all the rain, so while you’re reading this, I’m hopefully out in the garden getting it all staked up, as well as weeding (they love the rain just as much!) and getting the gardens looking respectable again.

The native prairie coneflowers are looking absolutely stunning. I really need to break this patch up and spread them around the garden a little.

The catio Honeysuckle had a hard start to the season – it got hit hard by aphids. But they’ve all disappeared and it’s bounced back beautifully and its blooming again. It’s a favourite of the humming birds.

The rain has even helped a few of my dahlias. These ones are in a pot inside the catio, along with some white pansies. I was quite surprised to see them blooming so well.

I can’t remember if I showed my cauldron or not this year… the celosia “fire” is burning brightly, and while the frothy bubbles of alyssum have died off, the white begonia is absolutely overflowing!

Day lilies continue to bloom

As do the Oriental lilies. The one on the right is called “Big Smile” and it certainly makes me smile every time I see it.

The Globe Thistle is starting to bloom. It’s odd looking, and a little on the prickly side (not too bad though), but it’s a pollinator power house and I love how it looks in the garden.

There’s much more, of course, but I’ll save it for another post.