Not Much Gardening Going On

Not much gardening going on. Pouring rain, searing heat, pouring rain, searing heat. Great for the garden, not good for the gardener. Plus I've been distracted with my camera. Sabine over at Sabine's Garden pointed out the macro function on my digital camera to me and I have been experimenting with it. I was finally able to get a shot of the Fairy rose flower showing the exquisitely tiny petals. Then I realized that there is nothing in the picture indicating scale so you can't appreciate how small it is. Oh, well.

And now for my "Oopses of the Month". . .

I wasn't expecting the Fairy rose to bloom this year, so I transplanted a lot of balsam into that bed to hide both the Fairy and the General Jacqueminot bushes. Great idea! The balsam has grown up and is successfully hiding all the wonderful flowers on the Fairy rose.

Last winter when I carefully planned and mapped out the New World Garden, I was careful to plant the Aztec sunflowers in front of the Cempoalxochitl marigolds which are taller but I 've noticed that the sunflowers seem to be growing much faster than the marigolds. Tonight I took a look at the seed packages (I'm learning to save things for just these types of occasions) and discovered that the sunflowers grow to be 6' and the marigolds only 4' to 5'. I have no idea where I got the idea that the sunflowers were shorter.

This last "oops" isn't really my fault. The first time I planted pumpkins many years ago in the garden that became the New World garden, the vines grew out of the bed and onto the lawn which I didn't mind because it meant less mowing. Last year and this year, the pumpkin vines are growing in the opposite direction and climbing the fence. I didn't know that pumpkin vines could climb fences! And it is the fence belonging to the infamous neighbors who don't allow me to grow anything on "their" fence so I have to keep detaching the vines from the fence. It's a battle that goes on all summer between me and the vines.

I'm sending out a big "Thank you" to Mia, the Nature Nut for suggesting I deadhead my pinks to encourage them to bloom longer. I did and they did. Thanks, Mia! It's just what the Semi-Shady Garden needs, a little color, because it has mainly spring flowers in it. Normally, there are no flowers again until fall when the chrysanthemum blooms.