Summer is here!

Summer arrived with heat and humidity. After our cool, rainy spell the plants are having a hard time adjusting. I think this will be another year they don't get to full flower till late in the season. A few surprises - the Bee Balm is blooming, actually a purple rather than the red I'm used to, need to check my books. The Lemon Balm which was frozen down to the root is coming up all over the garden - interesting as it hasn't done that before. And the Tickseed Coreopsis is still trying to take over. The two plants were so pretty last year :) I did know they would reseed but wasn't expecting the hundreds of plants that came up. They are probably 4' at least now, and shading the tomato plants, so every few days we have to pull more out. Oh, we have one tomato ripening! Finally. They don't do well here in town, poor soil and too much shade, so I'll still be buying at the Farmer's Market.

Most of the new plants are doing OK -- we're trying to plant primarily periennials -- but it takes a few years for things to get established here. On the farm we would have been covered in blooms with this many plants. The most expensive plants I bought were the Fragrant Heliotropes, both of which died in the first week, never fails. A nice suprise was a little annual I got at Wal-Mart for $1.48 -- Ipomea. A low growing, spreading plant it said, I got two varigated and two "bronze". All four are beautiful after only a few weeks and the dark, bronze ones have pale lavender flowers on them, similar to a morning glory. Quite pretty; the ones in the ground are spreading nicely and those in pot are spilling over the sides.

I took pictures this morning for my garden journal and will post a few as I get them edited.