Catch up

So apparently my blogging mojo left me after I got back from vacation at the end of August.  Now here it is the end of September and I've hardly posted at all this month.  Post-vacation re-entry to normal life is always rough, but this time seemed especially hard.  I just feel wrung out.

I have been taking some pictures of  pretty things in the garden as they show up, meaning all the while to post them but never seeming to get around to it.  (I've gotta get me one of those "Round Tuits"...)

So here's a big old catch up post of pretty things that have bloomed in the past couple months.

Stargazer lilies starting to open:


Rudbeckias, 'Denver Daisy' and Indian Summer':


Rudbeckia 'Denver Daisy':


Stargazer lilies in full glory a couple of days later:


Volunteer marigolds in one of the half barrels:


Another new hibiscus flower every couple days all through July and August:


Our first potato harvest, from our potato tower.  We got 5.3 pounds of potatoes from 1 pound of seed potatoes.  Not bad for such a hot summer:


A hybrid Rudbeckia:


I don't know what the hybrid name on this one is, but it has enormous flowers.


Another hybrid Rudbeckia:


A canna lily:


Volunteer petunias in one of my amaryllis pots.  I've never bought pink petunias.


Gaillardia on the left and Rudbeckias on the right:


The half barrels at the beginning of September:


Mandevilla:


Larkspur:


Cucamelons setting fruit, finally.  This is the first time in three years of trying that we've gotten actual cucamelons.  I think my summer just doesn't stay hot enough for long enough for these to do well.  They are the cutest little things, though!  They look like grape-sized watermelons, and taste like tart cucumbers.  Very fun and tasty.  I've read that you can bring the tuberous roots inside and store them like dahlias, to get a jump start on growing next year, rather than starting from seed every year.  I'll be trying that, since we got really good growth this time around.  They are in the farthest barrel in the picture above, climbing up the trellis on the garage.


Echeveria 'Blue Heron,' with big spikes of pretty red flowers:


A bee on 'Autumn Joy' sedum, taken today.  She was a little chilly and sluggish, but determined to get these flowers.


Shasta daisy 'Crazy Daisy'.  I love this goofy frenetic flower.  I had one of these more than a decade ago at my house in Friday Harbor, but it didn't survive the move to Oregon.  I was glad to find another one this year in the dead plant aisle at Home Depot.  It has recovered well.


Whew.  So that's what has been going on in my garden.  I didn't do much in the way of veggies this year, but the tomatoes in pots on the deck have produced a little, I had volunteer open pollinated self seeded Sungold-ish cherry tomatoes in the garden bed where they were last year, and some peppers that I rescued from the dead plant aisle.

I do like the flowers.  My plants make me smile every day when I get home from work, walk from my car to the back door, and see them all blooming on the deck.