As you read this, I’m at Mom’s quilting away. I will have several finished quilt posts next week, but for now, let’s take a stroll around the garden and see what’s new.

The Black-Eyed Susans are blooming and this small patch was a small few roots I brought from the townhouse. Last year, it go shaded out by the Cherry Brandy Susans. But they are biennials, and the big plants died off over winter – they gave me some new seedlings which will blooms soon, but they are much smaller, so this one had some room to shine.

To me, Susans are the sign that we are on the downside of summer. They make up for it by blooming right until the first frost. Because of this, I added two new plants to other garden (out front and around Edible Alley) and have a bunch of other seedling to plant out. They help bring that colour right to the bitter end of the gardening season.

I certainly didn’t expect it since, I just planted it this year, but my Rose of Sharon “Marina” has bloomed. And you can see there are quite a few buds. The shrub is still quite small and low to the ground, but I just love that etheral blurple!

Caroline de Monaco, Quicksilver and Good as Gold are the only roses blooming right now, but Chicago Peace, Chrysler Imperial, and Prairie Princess are all budded up. I’m very excited about that last one as she’s the newest rose and I haven’t seen her blooms in person yet.

I can’t remember if I showed you the Sundrop plant I got this year. A woman in Strathroy was having a little plant sale in her yard. I’ve never seen Sundrops at the nurseries, so I was happy to pick this one up.

All of the Butterfly Bushes are in bloom now. I have four.

Black Knight, Royal Red, Queen of Hearts, , and White Profusion. I am starting to see more butterflies, but it still doesn’t feel like a many as last year.

What we do have a lot of are wasps…

Especially this Great Golden Sand Digger wasps. I won’t go as far as to say they are “aggressive” but they are big. And they do like to fly right at you! If you are uncomfortable around bees or wasps, these are not the wasp for you. Personally, I don’t mind them. And neither do the monarch caterpillars, who are sharing the Swamp Milkweed.

This guy has plumbed up nicely, and if I’m not mistaken he should be pretty close to getting ready to go off and make a chrysalis. I’ve been keeping the mulberry in the catio trimmed right to the trunk this year, so I doubt I’ll get to stumble onto another cocoon like last year… but who knows… he might set up shop in the Butterfly bush.

I call this one…”Lemmy discovers existential dread”

I feel you Lemmy. I feel you.

I have many, many plants in my garden (as you know), but some of the ones I love the best are the ones that are a little different… a little weird.

I have a thing for “orb” plants, like this blue Glove thistle. It’s a bunch of tiny florets that open around the whole expanse of the flower head. It’s also very popular with the bees, as you can see.

The Drumstick Allium, are a similar idea. Another pollinator favourite. They are done for the season now, but I hope to add some other Alliums to the garden in Fall.

I also love plants that flower in “spikes”, like this Veronica (also known as Speedwell). I have this pink one, and a purple one which blooms a little later. Though there are none on it in this picture, it’s another pollinator magnet.

Similar to the Veronica is the Culver’s Root. Except it’s much taller, and it’s wands grow out in all direction from one stem. I got this plant last year, but this year is the first time it’s really showed it’s potential. This is AFTER Lemmy dived bombed it and broke one of the big stems (picture here are two, there should have been three). Then the big storm came and did away with these ones. It was pretty while it lasted. And the roots are still there, so it will be fine for next year.

I think my most coveted oddity is this Sea Holly. It’s a plant I’ve wanted for years. I tried twice as the townhouse to grow it – but it does not like clay soil. I figured I’d have no problem here, but the plant I got for the catio last year never appeared. I decided to give it one more go and I’m so glad I did! It’s on the border of Edible Alley and it’s doing amazing! They say butterflies love it, and though I’ve not seen any investigating it, I have seen lots of bees on it. The flowers remind me of Teasel, though they are much smaller. Each one of those heads is about the size of the end of my thumb.

And last… remember that double coneflower I showed the other day…

This is what it looks like in full bloom! It’s just a hot mess of a flower, and I love it!

Is there anything odd growing in your garden?

In very short order, Dave built and hung the gate on the new fence.

It looks great from the outside, and I think it looks just as good from the inside.

Dave put the “arch” over the gate for me, so I could grow something up and over it. Virginia Creeper is native plant that grows all over the place here (there’s some at the back of the yard I could transplant for free!). But it would require constant maintenance, as it grow like… a weed! It does turn a beautiful red in the fall though.

As I mentioned, it’s a fairly large area to fill (almost the size of the of the townhouse backyard)

This year, I’m thinking I’m just going to focus on the fence line between us and the neighbours. I can keep the rest of it tidy with the mower for the rest of the season.

I have a lot of plants, but not enough to fill the whole thing just yet. I have all the plants I showed you on Sunday, plus some lily-of the-valley. I will probably split some of my sedum in the catio to put there. I also have tonnes of Foxglove seedlings I need to move from the front gardens.

I’ve certainly got a lot of work ahead of me!

Not a lot of stitching was accomplished this weekend…

But I did finish my chicken. There’s more stitching to come on this one, so hang in there.

And to answer the question about how I’m stitching on the potholder…

I turn it on it’s side, so the opening is to the left so I can hold it open a bit. And then I stitch into the stitch, and out to the new stitch at the same time. It takes a little getting used to, but it’s proving quite efficient for me.

And Lemmy demands more stitching time, because he wants more lap time!!!

While Dave was busy banging in fence boards, I was busy making my own kind of fence….

A baby rail fence quilt!

Rail fence is a super easy block to make, and I’m amazed I haven’t done one sooner. It’s even easier when you have a Jelly Roll. And I did! A Jelly Roll called “Eat Your Veggies”**. And it’s chock full of fun dinosaur prints.

I’ve got a couple yards of coordinating fabric for the back and some of the fun orange dino foot print for the binding.

It all adds up to a super sweet, quick quilting project. I’m headed to Mom’s for the weekend, so you may even see this one done by next week.

** I got this Jelly Roll because of a mix up. On one of my MSQ buying sprees, I’d bought a charm pack with dinosaurs, and tucked it away. Later, when getting backing fabric for my Round Robin quilt, I saw the Eat Your Veggies yardage on sale. So I bought some, thinking it went with the charm pack I had.

It was only when it arrived, and I pulled out that I realized my mistake. And how I mixed them up I have no idea, because dear readers, that other collection (Called “Roar”) looks like this…

Not even remotely alike!!!

Happily, a short while later, I was doing and other Connect Threads order and was able to get the Eat Your Veggies Jelly Roll and some yardarge to go with Roar.

So long story short… I’m going to be making a lot of dinosaur quilts!!!

Over the last few days, Dave’s been working on the new fence to replace the old, crappy one that blew down in the big storm.

And he’s done a wonderful job. He made it to match our neighbour’s fence to the left (which you can just see the edge of). All that’s left if the gate, which he will be finishing today. And once he gets all his tools out of there, it’s up to me to make the new space look pretty.

By moving the fence, it’s given me an area about 15′ x 15′, all in shade, to create a new garden space.

To that end, I’ve been plant shopping.

The Heuchera (Coral Bells) have done so well in the shade by the driveway, that I got more for under the tree here. There’s four different ones.

And I got these two. It might be too dry under the tree for the bugbane, but I think it’s worth a try. The Astilbe has a really pretty leaf. I’ve not had much luck with Astilble, so I’m hoping this one does ok.

And naturally, I got some woodland natives…

I also got some of these…

Yes. I got some hostas. They are not my favourite plants, but I can’t deny they they grow well in shade! And I’ve got a big space to fill!

Time to look at some of the new things in the garden

Two new daylilies…. Left is Tropical Surprise, Right is Rosy Returns

And two new lilies: Sugar Love and Solution. (I just love the dotted lilies!!!)

I love my pink Yarrow so much, I had to get more colours. The yellow was planted last fall (it just bloomed this year), and the red I got on clearance before the grocery store garden centre closed for the season this summer.

Both of these coneflowers were bought on clearance last year. Left is “Green Twister” and right is “Pink Double”. The petals coming out of the centre will get bigger and wilder as it grows.

I’ve got quite a collection of Tickseed now. This is Crazy Cayenne and Uptick Cream. Both are new this year.

I bought a couple Hollyhocks on clearance, and this one is the first to bloom. It’s growing sideways instead of up, so I’ve got to get some stakes for it.

None of these are “new” but they have have just started to bloom. They are three of my butterfly bushes. Black Knight, Queen of Hearts and Royal Red (which is of course, pinky purple). White Profusion should bloom by the end of next week and I’ll get pics of that one too.

You will recall how delighted I was with my yellow Geum earlier this year. I was happy to find a red one on clearance. I didn’t think it would bloom this year, but here it is! I want more colours!!!

This Beardtongue is a new addition to the newest garden at the side of the front yard. It’s loving it’s spot. I had some of this at the townhouse, but it didn’t survive the move. It certainly never bloomed like this there!

This pretty little think is a Cinquefoil. I bought it on clearance last year, and it’s kind of struggled along since. It seems to be very slow growing. It should eventually get quite shrubby. These pretty little blooms have been appearing on an off for the last month or so.

And last… I’ll leave you with this pretty Barbie pink Hibiscus (since it’s all about Barbie lately!!!). I will probably end up murdering it when I bring it inside for the winter (Haven’t managed to keep one alive yet), but It looks great potted up in the catio!

Relic a generally a rather humble feline (especially compared to the two drama queens in the house)

But his regal feline magnificence can’t help but shine through!

As you know, I have a very wide variety of flowers in my gardens. I really don’t discriminate! I want them all!!!!

But I definitely try to include native plants whenever I find them. I’ve got a nice little collection, spread throughout the gardens.

You’ll recall that I have two typed of milkweed. First is Common Milkweed, which showed up last year as a volunteer. I had three plants at first, and now have seven. The second is Swamp Milkweed. It’s planted in the catio. Last year, it got aphids really bad, and then early this year, it developed a type of mildew. I didn’t think it was going to make it. But it did, and it’s flourished. I think it’s a little prettier than the Common Milkweed, but the monarchs don’t seem to play favourites.

We are up to four caterpillars and at least a dozen more eggs between the two patches. And that’s only the ones I can see. There’s most likely more.

Out front I have Cardinal Flower and Blue Lobelia

They are related, as Cardinal flower is a type of Lobelia. And you can see the similarities. But other than their colours there is one other big difference – the height! Cardinal Flower gets almost as tall as me (I’m 5’7″) and the Blue only gets about 15″ tall. I actually had to move it because it shaded out by the New England Aster (another native, but it’s not in bloom yet).

These are both supposed to attract hummingbirds. I’ve not seen hummingbirds at them yet, but I have seen them at the bee balm

The first is Wild Bergamot (another name for Bee Balm), and Scarlet Bee Balm. I love the Scarlet one because it makes these double decker blooms. I have a non-native pink version in the catio, but I have to find a better spot for it because it’s getting shaded out by the coneflowers.

And speaking of coneflowers. No Ontario garden is complete without Echineacea – or Purple Coneflower.

There are many varieties of Coneflower (and I have several), but the purple coneflower is just so classic. It’s not only a big favourite of butterflies and bees, but also goldfinches, who love the seedheads.

Liatris (also known as Gayfeather or Blazing Star), is another butterfly favourite. It has just started to bloom. I had some in the catio (brought from the townhouse) but I got a few more plants for out front this year. It multiplies quite nicely once established, so it will eventually be spread through all the gardens.

This neat plant is called Prairie Conflower. Eventually that centre will turn dark brown. Is it a coneflower, is it a Rudbeckia (Black-eyed susan). I’m not sure… but it’s wild! The plant is so big and heavy, I have to have supports to prop it up. I definitely need to split it up this fall (and I only planted it last fall)

I have another relative of it, commonly known as Mexican Hat. It’s not quite as tall, and as you can see the flowers are red. The centres also remain green.

And we can’t forget the Common Black-Eyed Susan

It’s one of my faves. I’ve got three clumps throughout the gardens, with several seedlings started in my greenhouse. The ones in the garden are just starting to bloom. And of course, they will bloom right to the frost. Hard not to love a flower like that!

I have a couple types of Helianthus (False Sunflower, Ox Eye Daisy). I need to move those multicoloured ones though. They get very tall and need to be moved to the back of the garden.

And this odd looking flower is Pearly Everylasting. I bought it spring of last year, and planted it in the catio. Sadly, it didn’t do well because it was in Relic’s favourite nap spot and he would not stop sleeping on it! But the roots managed to take hold, and it got going well enough before the weather got warm enough for Relic to spend all day napping outside, that he found somewhere else to sleep! IT’s just started to bloom.

I’ve told you of my love for Coreopsis (Tickseed)

And this Lanceleaf Corepsis just happens to be a native too!

There are several other natives yet to bloom – Annise Hyssop, Boneset, New England Aster, and Smooth Aster! (And of course, the ones that already bloomed – Native flag iris, Harebell, and Foxglove Beardtongue)