I can’t believe it’s August already. The summer is jetting by. It’s not “flying by” as it would if you were on a passenger plane, but “jetting by” like we’re on a Concord. Am I right?
Matt and I just got back from a 4-night mini-vacation to Cape Cod, and as soon as I find my real camera, I’ll post some pictures here on the blog and show you what kept us busy in a place that I’ve been visiting my whole life.
In the meantime, how about an update on the garden while I look for my camera and line up some projects for the weekend?
I posted about the state of the garden in early June (here) and late June (here) but completely missed July. Well, here we are, on the first day of August, and I surprisingly have some color left. I say “surprisingly” because for the nearly four years since we’ve owned this house, I have struggled with what I call “Garden Fall-Out.” Maybe it’s more of a lack of garden endurance. Either way, by mid-August, all of my perennial color has come and gone, the annuals are starting to fade, and I’m left with evergreens and dying perennials until the next Spring. I vow to have some nice color all the way through October by next fall. We’ll see how I do. Here’s the color that’s left as of today.
My giant baskets of purple Petunias on either side of of the front porch are thriving, with nothing besides water. Matt got me these for my birthday three months ago. Not a bad showing.
You can see the big blue Hydrangeas peeking out in the picture above. They were a gift from my Nana 3 years ago, and they’re past their peak at this point.
They’re still providing a little color, though, as you can see from the shot above. I’ve cut so many heads off to bring inside for vases and to give to friends and family, and they’re still covered in blossoms.
Can you spy the smaller of my three Hydrangea bushes above? It’s more of a purple color, which is a beautiful contrast to my blue bushes. It was given to me by my sister-in-law Erin for my birthday a couple of years ago. Even though it gets slightly more sun than the blue bushes, it’s really peaking now, which is nice. I love how each blossom is a slightly different color from the next.
Along the side yard near the purple Hydrangea sits a row of Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus). You can kind of see the row of them two pictures up, but here are some close ups. I have mostly pink…
…but a few white ones, too!
The Hosta came back after being mostly attacked by the deer, and a have a good number of flowering shoots.
Sitting underneath the Hosta are some reddish-orange Chrysanthemums. Matt gave them to me when we closed on the house, and they come back year after year. I’m going to move them to a more prominent spot this fall.
Along the side of the garage sits a garden that is in dire need of some weeding and reworking, but a little flower popped up this week, adding some color to the mostly green landscape over there. I don’t know what kind of flower it is, but I think it’s a Black-Eyed Susan relative. There are two bees on the flower and a there’s a dragonfly on the rock. I guess the insects like my neglected flower bed.
On the side yard, down a ways from my purple Hydrangea sits a garden that I’m cultivating for my Peony garden. A yellow Lily popped up, so I might move her somewhere else. We’ll see.
With all the good color comes some unwanted color, too. In this case, it comes in the form of red leaves and Poison Ivy. Yuck. I’ll deal with that this weekend, unwillingly.
There you have it. The state of the garden as of August 1, and sadly, most of the flowers in bloom today won’t be in bloom September 1. The end of the month might be a good time to hit the nursery for some fall-blooming plants to brighten everything up, so I won’t be in this boat this time next year. That’s the goal, at least!
Anyone else suffer from Garden Fall-Out? Do you have any ideas for fall-blooming flowers? Let me know in the comments below or hop on over to my Facebook page and let me know there! If you haven’t “liked” School House Rehab on Facebook, now’s your chance.
Wishing you lots of August color in your neck of the woods!