Rain in My Barrel

It rained for a little while yesterday.  Not really enough to give the garden a good soak, but enough to fill my rain barrel.  Going to the rain barrel with my watering can and finding it empty is such a disappointment. There's something about rainwater.  When things are really dry, you can keep them alive by watering with the hose, but one good rain, and everything springs right back.  It's like nature adds a secret ingredient!  That's why I much prefer to water my vegetables, window boxes, and pots from the rain barrel when I can.

I have my rain barrel located just a few feet from the vegetable garden to make it really convenient.  There is a spigot, but I'm too impatient to fill the watering can that way.  I usually just remove the lid and dip the can in the barrel.

It's surprising how little rain it takes to fill the barrel.  I've only used the hose to water a couple of times all summer. I'm thinking of adding a second one on the other side of the house.  Maybe that will eliminate the disappointment of finding an empty rain barrel.

It just started raining as I'm writing this.  My empty barrel will be full again. Yea!

Miss a day, you miss a lot

When I was a teacher, there was a poster in school that said something like, "Miss a day, you miss a lot."  A perennial garden is kind of like that.  You go on vacation, and it's changed when you get back.  Every time we return from one of our camping trips, we walk around the gardens to see what's new.   Yesterday I posted pictures of plants that were blooming in June and July.  I walked around with my camera today to see what's new for August.

Morning glories

Snapdragons are one of my favorite flowers.  Although they are an annual, they seem like a perennial because they reseed so reliably.  I bought a flat many years ago and I have had them in my yard ever since.  Of course I can't say where they'll show up. Gardener's surprise!

Snapdragons come in lots of  different colors.

Sea holly

Sea holly is another favorite.  It also reseeds.  The stems are the same blueish-purple as the flower!

Balloon flower

Balloon flower is also a favorite (I guess they're ALL my favorite!)  Before the blooms open, they look like tiny balloons.

Most daylilies are finishing up, but there are late varieties that are just getting going.

Trumpet vine

Mallow (zebrina)

Potentilla

Astilbe

There two have been blooming for a long time - my kind of plants!

Okay, so it's not new in August, but the coneflower still looks great!

I can't resist putting in a few new perennials every year.  Some turn out to be duds, but this pink salvia was a winner.  It's fading now.  It's been blooming for about 6 weeks and it's quadrupled in size since it was planted.
Here's another favorite annual that comes back year after year.

Moss roses

These moss roses are growing in lime sand. I didn't plant them here.  They drifted over from the garden, where they hadn't done well.  

Even perennial gardeners have a few pots of annuals.  The plant in the foreground is something I've never seen before.  It looks like a flower, but it's all leaves.  I absolutely love it, but I didn't save the tag!  If anyone recognizes it, please help.  I would like to identify it so I can get it again next year.

Summer Transition

May, June and July have come and gone.  I was so busy working in gardens that I didn't have time to write about gardening.  Business has slowed enough now to allow me to get back to doing other things again.  I've even taken some time to work in my own sadly neglected garden. 

 Because I was in it so seldom this summer, the shift in blooms seemed dramatic.  One day there was iris all over. The next time I was free to enjoy a garden walk, iris was replaced by bee balm and daylilies. That's what I love about perennial gardens - the slow evolution of shapes and colors between spring and fall.

These are some of the things that were blooming in June.

  

                   

          

Some of these plants were just starting in June and are still blooming - the catmint, blanket flower, and honeysuckle vine.  The peonies and orange poppies come and go so quickly, that you could miss them!

Here is what the garden had to show in July.

                 

              

Speaking of plants that have a long bloom time, shrub roses are it!  I have pink, coral, orange, white, yellow, and red shrub roses.  They bloom all the way through fall.  Asiatic lilies, oriental lilies, yucca and daylilies are dramatic, but they won't be there for you all summer like shrub roses. Tomorrow I'll go out and see what's blooming in August.