Here are my orange zinnias right next to the bright pink ones.  I love that!!!

 

These are about 4 feet tall, and the brightest orange you can imagine.  The butterflies are all over them.  I saw a clouded sulfur, and a long-tailed skipper in the zinnias.  I tried to get pix of them, but they are too fast for me.  Anyway, they are happy in my garden, and I'm happy to provide food for them in the fall.   

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

The same day that I told you I had nothing to talk about, we walked the loop and I saw this beautiful sage growing in our friends' garden.  I knew that it was some type of sage, but I asked Seek to further identify it for me.  It is Mealy Blue Sage.  Gosh, they could have come up with something a little nicer for a plant so pretty.  

 

Anyway, its botanical name is Salvia farinacea.  Here's the sweet thing about Sage:  Salvia comes from a word meaning healthy, and to save.  Whenever I see sage, I think of salvation.  Maybe that's how I remember the Salvia part.  Another cool thing about this sage is that it is perennial, meaning that you only have to plant it once, and it keeps coming back.

 

I'm sure our friends bought this plant in a local garden center.  Maybe you can find some too.  It is really pretty.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

It isn't very pretty after the rain, but we have a second crop of dill coming up.  It's not big enough to harvest berries or seeds, but I pull up the leaves by the roots, and put them in a vase in the kitchen.  They last about three days that way, and we put the dill weed on everything.  It's really good (and pretty) on hard boiled eggs.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

This picture has a bunch of stories to tell:

 

Usually by the end of the summer, the marigolds get tall, then flop over and break.  But these marigolds got planted after I harvested all the dill from this end of the garden.  So they are still fairly short and still pretty.

 

You can also see that beautiful basil behind them.

 

That leafless stem in the walk path?  That is what's left of a butternut squash.  I picked the squash, and the baby deer have gotten into the garden, and eaten all the squash leaves.  They nibbled the Swiss chard too, but Jon put some wire cages around them.  INSIDE THE GARDEN!!!

 

One more cool thing:  at the beginning of summer we put a bunch of dry leaves on the right hand walk path to keep down the weeds next to the fence, and it worked.  We didn't have to weed this walkway at all.  Guess what we're going to do with all those hickory leaves when they fall.  Cover all the walk paths, and save ourselves some work next summer.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

Isn't it funny?  Right when I thought there was nothing to talk about, a whole bunch of things to talk about presented themselves.  I love it!!!

 

Last week we got enough rain for the garden to perk up.  I saw this zinnia blooming out there, showing her real flowers.  See the little yellow flowers in the center?  That's what the pollinators are going for.  And when the flowers get pollinated they produce their seeds at the base of the bright pink petals.  Psst...I also have some screaming orange ones close to the pink ones.  They haven't perked up yet, but I love seeing these colors together.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

It's prettier outside, but inside is nice too.  It's also easier to access at dinnertime.  We use the leaves, the flowers and the flower buds.  The older ones are too hard, but the buds close to the ends of the stems are soft, and delightful on a salad.  

 

Grow basil!!!  Well, don't plant it now, it's too late in the season, but do plant it in May.  I usually put 8-10 plants in the garden, and a few in a 12 inch pot that we put on the porch.  If you keep it pinched, it will get bushy, and last all summer.

 

The best part is brushing against it, and releasing that gorgeous smell.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

 

Well, it's happened again.  I have run out of things to talk about, without repeating myself, yet again.  

 

So I will leave you with this happy thought:  the basil is hanging in there, now that we have gotten some rain.  So we are eating basil on everything.  I hear it's good for the digestive system.  

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

I saw this on our walk recently, and thought you might like to know that Dog fennel blooms, and this is how it looks.  All that whiteness are the flowers.  Not big or showy, but flowers just the same.  It looks different than when it isn't blooming.  I like it, it looks softer, friendlier.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

We saw this on the deck post, and knew immediately that it was a stick bug.  Of course, Seek had a more dignified name for it:  Northern Walkingstick.  OK.  This one was about 3 inches long, so I guess it was a male.  The females are 3.7 inches long.

 

Still, interesting to see.  Our own Nature program, right on the front porch.

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Thank you to all our friends and family who called to check on us here in western North Carolina.  

 

I am here to report that we are all fine.  We got about 7 inches of much needed rain over three days, so the garden is happy.  We walked down to the creek yesterday expecting it to be running with lots of water, and it was just a trickle.  It has been so dry lately that all that water must have soaked down into the ground.  Good news for the aquifer.  We also expected to see trees down, but there wasn't much wind, so we didn't see any.  It appears that hurricane Helene bypassed us.

 

Asheville and the surrounding areas weren't so lucky.  They suffered major damage and devastation.  

 

Our prayers are with them.