In Which the Gardener Actually Does Some Gardening

It’s dry, y’all. We had a smidge of rain last Thursday evening when a small storm blew through but it was mostly a talkative storm without a lot of precipitation action. I still try to skip watering every now and then, not always with intention, but it isn’t something the plants in the edible garden care too much for, as you can see. I’ve been watering deeply but it isn’t enough.

In the main gardens closer to the house, I’m slowly working my way through weeding paths and eventually weeding those beds. Several need some attention but others aren’t too bad. A summer of neglect isn’t a big deal when you mostly deal with natives and keep good groundcover going. Now to take that though to other regions of the garden!

This section of the path went easily once I put on an audiobook and got to work. Hoping I can get the other parts of the path done in the next couple of days. There are several things I want to do on this side yard garden as things have shifted and changed a lot over the last decade. And we lost our white brugmansia this winter, sadly. It would have been up front in this photo near the rocks.

The wingstem, Verbesina alternifolia, is finally blooming. It seems a few months later than usual but I’ll take it.

And Chris sent me a photo of a monarch eating some aquatic milkweed down at the pond. This species has done really well along the pond shoreline and has been a great alternative to providing larval food for monarchs since we’ve eliminated the tropical milkweed in the garden. We’re still working on getting other species established in the yard. Until then, good job aquatic milkweed!

How’s your garden been this summer? It’s been a tough one and at least we should be turning a corner soon…*crossing fingers*!