This sign isn’t quite new – I bought it – I think – in the winter. It was on clearance. But I finally decided on the perfect spot for it – on the catio fence in the butterfly bush. That’s the big white one (White Profusion). It’s the biggest, but it’s almost always the last to start blooming. You can just see a few bloom spikes starting.

All of the others are blooming nicely. From Left to Right we have Black Knight, Buzz Lavender, and Queen of Hearts. I also have Royal Red – but it’s very close in colour to Queen of Hearts. Queen, however is a more compact variety, compared to Royal.

And they are giving lots of nectar to the butterflies. I haven’t had much of a chance to get pictures, but I was out in the milkweed forest (we’ve got about seven plants in Willow Grove now), and…

We’ve got Monarch Caterpillars!!! There are tonnes of eggs too – so Monarch watch has begun! With any luck, we’ll find a chrysalis or two and be able to watch them emerge as monarchs!

But that’s not all that’s new and exciting in the garden.

The Crocosmia are blooming. I have this one – called Sunglow. And a pretty red-orange called Montbretia. They have such a beautiful tropical look. They are native to East and South Africa, and it amazes me that they can grow here.

And I’m finally having a little luck with the Dahlias. The yellow one is planted directly in the island garden out front. The pink pair are in a pot in the catio. I think all the rain we had over the last couple weeks have really helped. Though the other two I have in pots in the front garden are still looking pitiful.

Of the cosmos seeds I started in the peat pods, I only got a couple plants. This is one, and I’m so glad it made it. It’s called Xanthos and it’s just the prettiest shade of pale yellow. I have a couple other cosmos in the front garden that seeded themselves naturally, but they aren’t blooming yet. Next year, Im going to plant more – but directly!

And this is super exciting! Back in may, I planted some annual sweet pea seeds at the base of the new arbour. But they didn’t take (I’ve always had issues with sweet peas). But… a few weeks later, I found a couple perennial sweet pea plants at a garden centre. They’ve been growing well, but I was starting to think they would never bloom. But I went out there the other day – and there were these bright pink flowers staring back it me! The only down side is the perennial ones don’t have the lovely scent like the annuals do. But…. at least these one are growing.

My blue Rose of Sharon got off to a very slow start – so slow I thought she might have died – but she’s doing beautifully now. The pictures do not do these blooms justice – they almost glow in the light. They are such a pretty colour!

The Honey Suckle on the catio fence also had a sad start. In spring it was hit hard by aphids and barely bloomed at all. But thankfully, this one is a re-bloomer and just look at her now! Both Dave and I have seen the hummingbirds stopping by for a sip on multiple occasions.

That’s about all that’s new… almost everything that’s going to bloom is – with the exception of the Helenium, Asters, and Toad Lilys. But I don’t want to rush them because then it means Fall is really on its way. For now, I’m just enjoying the abundance and riot of colour that is my yard.

As you saw yesterday, I harvested the broccoli

I think I let three go a little too long, but the fourth looks about perfect. I’m definitely thrilled considering it’s my first time growing broccoli.

Harvesting of peas, beans and cucumbers continues to be a regular occurrence. The peas are snap peas, so I tend to harvest them early, and we eat them pod and all – usually as a snack. Half of them don’t even make them in the house for Dave. They go soft really quickly, so I don’t like to bring too many in at a time.

Things have been pretty busy, so I wasn’t harvesting them as much as usual, so quite a few of them had developed good-sized peas.

So I decided – why not try cooking some up.

I sat down and shelled them all, getting just enough for two to go with dinner. They were good, but I think I prefer them raw.

“Excuse me. What am I supposed to do with this? Can’t you plant a tuna tree or something??????”

While I didn’t do any sewing this weekend, I did pull out a box of blocks I’d been making. You may recall that I’ve been making four patches out of scrap 2.5″ blocks as leaders and enders. I wanted to get as close to emptying the bin I keep them in as possible.

While working on the Catmas Tree quilt, I’d almost emptied the bin, so I decided it was time to stop and do a count! I had 225 blocks total! Far more than I thought I’d made.

This weekend, I pulled them out and started laying them out on the bed. I knew I wanted to put them on point with plain white blocks in between. I needed to see how many white blocks I would need to cut.

With NO help from Lemmy, I covered the bed. And realized it had taken only 99 blocks to do so! I have more than double that! So it looks like I will be making a much bigger quilt. And instead of figuring it all out on top of the bed, I’m going to have to get out some graph paper.

Then I have a whole lot of white blocks to cut!

Lemmy won’t be any help with that either, I’m sure!

I try to get in the garden every other day, just to keep on top of picking beans (remind me next year to only plant half as many!). When I was in there the other day, I got a little surprise!

He’s a Grey Tree Frog (Despite the name, they are sometimes green). He was just hanging out on a bean leaf, chill as can be.

I mentioned, Dave and the new neighbour had spent a weekend cutting down the trees on the property line to put up a fence to keep Loki in. I suspect this little guy got displaced from one of the trees – because it’s not common to spot them this time of year – especially anywhere outside of a tree.

I’ve only ever seen one one other time – and I was maybe eight years old.

While he probably wasn’t planning on moving into the beans, for the time being, it was probably a pretty good place to hang out and catch bugs. Eventually he got annoyed with me moving the plants around, harvesting beans, and he hopped away. I hope he was able to find a better home.

Once again, I did not complete as much as I’d hoped. But progress is progress, no matter how small. This weeks progress included filling in the veining on the purple hindwings. The pattern does it in a very light, almost white colour, but the more I looked at it unfilled, with just the black background, the more I decided it needed to be a dark colour. I had a wonderful, dark, dusty grey-purple, and I think it worked just perfect.

After that, I got started on the blue of the forewings. I didn’t get super far, but if you look at it sideways, you can kind of visualize how the wing will go. Maybe this weekend I can finish all the outlining on the wings and you won’t have to look at it sideways.

Once I got to the foot of the second sock, it just flew off the needles. By Friday, I was casting off.

You can see Lemmy insisted on modelling with this pair. I think it’s the cheerful colours. He’s definitely got a bright-colour personality.

For a re-cap, nothing fancy with this pair. I let the yarn do the work. Just a simple 2-2 rib for the leg, and plain foot. This pair is now destined for the gift box when they are through blocking.

Now I need to cast on something new… I’m thinking Man Socks this time.

In addition to tending to the flowers, I’ve also been harvesting the fruits of my labours.

The shallots were dying down and ready for harvest, and I think I got a pretty good haul. Like the garlic, they are on the sunporch so theirs skins can get nice and dry.

My potato harvest wasn’t quite a abundant.(Hand for scale) I planted three seed potatoes, and this is was I got. While they aren’t plentiful ,they are a good size. I think I need bigger container – but for my first try at growing potatoes, I think I did ok.

The bean harvest on the other hand… is absolutlely out of control. I planted waaaaay too many plants, as I’m harvesting this many beans every two days. We cannot eat this many beans!!!! This lot went to a friend. And another lot went to the new neighbour behind us. I’ll be taking a pile to Mom when I head there in August. But I’m still going to need to find people to foist beans upon!

The cucumbers are starting to come along! These are the first harvest, and they are definitely a good size – they are a Japanese variety that is supposed to be similar to an English cucumber.

I was a little worried about my zucchini, because I wasn’t seeing any fruits on it, but then all of a sudden I found this monster hiding in the plant! I guess I’m making Dave some zucchini bread!

And last… the cherry tomatoes are starting to ripen

Only three so far, but that’s fine. It was enough to toss on a bowl of salad for Dave.

All in all, it was a pretty good harvest day.

And of course, there’s still more to come.

The broccoli is starting to look like broccoli, and the squash… It’s looking pretty good too!

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.

That baleful look from his Lordship is because I came into the house smelling of DOG!!!! This dog, in fact.

His name is Loki, and he’s moved into the house directly behind us. Dave and Loki’s owner spent all weekend out in the horrible heat and humidity, cutting down trees along the property line (So long mulberry – I will miss the Cedar Waxwings, but not the purple bird poo all over my house and car!!!). I mostly stayed indoors and sewed, but I did take some time out periodically to make sure the boys were fed and well-hydrated – and make friends with Loki.

He’s a VERY big boy – a shepherd/lab cross, with I suspect a little Great Dane mixed in. Eventually, there will be a taller fence between our yards – the current one he could clear with a simple leap. But for now I’m making sure I have Milk Bones in my pockets whenever I head out to the back yard.

“Just don’t forget who your favourite, fluffy black boy is!!!”