I was just outside with Charlie looking over the plants. Some are looking pretty bad from the heat and I may cut them back soon.
The tall zinnias have about had their day, but I’m going to let all the blooms flower. They are leaning every which way because the stalks are so tall.
The yellow gold zinnias in the blue raised garden are still looking splendid and I’m really enjoying them.
They are less than 2 feet high so they don’t bend and fall over. These smaller zinnias grow more like a small bush that branches out.
The Tomato Plant:
The tomatoes I’m getting now are kind of hard and much smaller. Cherry tomatoes aren’t that big to begin with. Lately they’ve had brown scars around the stem.
That tomato plant is about 7 feet tall now. Maybe when the tomatoes are only growing up toward the top they get less root energy.
Plus the heat seems to discourage many plants.
The Vines:
On the other hand my white clematis is blooming again. I first noticed the blooms down toward the ground.
The vines must have grown where they aren’t in direct heat. The clematis refuses to bloom when it gets really hot.
The daisies were starting to bloom again when we had a couple of cooler days. But now that it’s hotter again they’re fading away.
Morning Glories:
But the morning glories are finally beginning to bloom.
The other day I was standing at the French doors looking out. And saw a blue morning glory on the fence separating me from my neighbor.
I was kind of shocked. Every year I plant those lovely blue morning glories but haven’t had any bloom for over 20 years.
If it hadn’t been sunny I would have grabbed my camera. When I see another one I’ll be sure to get a picture.
Those purple ones that grow everywhere like weeds are starting to bloom as well.
The herbs are even looking tired.
Cleaning Up:
I suppose I’ll start cleaning up out there soon. I’ll take my garden snips to the perennials that are dying back. Then I can thinly layer the zinnias Margie sent me over the top.
Hopefully they’ll have time to grow and bloom before fall sets in.
What’s the state of your garden?
Lovely post today. I enjoy hearing about your garden. Your location sure does give you a unique set of growing conditions. I love hearing about how you change things around to best suit the health of your plants. I love how they seem to be part of your “family” along with Ivy and Charlie. I think care-taking comes naturally to you and it’s wonderful.
Yes, I see some ads… I just scroll past them. If it helps you in any way to keep writing and sharing I’m all for it. I’d miss your daily post if they weren’t here….. and besides, I also recognize the amount of work that goes into this. I can always look forward to a bright spot in my day thanks to you!
Good evening Brenda, I don’t see any ads and if I did I would not care, it is how you make money. I am moving over to wordpress with the help of sara who you recommended and I hope to have some ads myself one day. After all of these years if would be nice to have a little income from e the blog.
As for the garden, I do not have one this year but I am hopeing to next year. I will have to get some tips from you!
I don’t see any ads.
I see some readers have commented about the ads appearing in the blog text. What I see are ads/photos that fall between paragraphs and appear to be part of your blog post. They are a little disconcerting as you try to read only what you are interested in reading (blog post).
I had mentioned that.
Your flowers are so pretty.
The copy does not match.
I don’t have a lot of ads on my iPad at all. Maybe three and they don’t run into your text or make the blog jump around like some other blogs I have tried to read and gave up on.
Yours is a well managed blog, Brenda, compared to many others out there. Maybe your garden withering in this heat is saying goodbye to you for this crappy 2020 year and will be happy to see you again.
Brenda~
i’ve followed you for years..
always enjoyed your varied subject matter.
Books..
Photography…
Your pets.
And especially your gardens..
But.i’m shocked at all the strange ads appearing today.
So distracting..
Please say this is simply a glitch..
and make them go away..
I agree. Ads every day on my phone and iPad.
Me three.
My garden is dong fairly well. I have around 1/4 acre that has grass, trees, and perennials. We have had a very, very dry summer in the Boston area, so my grass is all brown and the hydrangeas need water almost daily to prevent wilting and many of my ferns are dying. At the moment I have black eye susan, cone flower, zinnia, campanula/bellflower, butterfly bush, morning glory, astilbe, oregano, laitris, coreopsis, Japanese anemone, Virginia cup and meadow rue blooming now. It has been unusually hot here – am hoping for rain!
We had a hard rain yesterday — much needed — but this morning we saw that one of our two 12-foot-tall giant sunflowers had fallen over. I think the rain made it so heavy it couldn’t stand up, but I am not sure. I had planted two packs of giant sunflower seeds but only two plants came up, I think because birds or squirrels ate the other seeds. We have lots of the smaller sunflowers that are doing fine and attracting a lot of goldfinches. We also have some zinnias and marigolds blooming that grew from seeds. Deer at the flowers off of the cone flowers, which was a disappointment. I also have two red knockout roses and four butterfly bushes that are blooming. Oh, I also planted two aumtumn clematis, the kind that has tiny white flowers in the fall. They are small and just getting established but probably will make a few flowers this year. I’ve planted them so that they will grow on our boring chain link fence, to make it prettier.
I live in an apartment and have no gardens, but pots of succulents that do well except for Sammy the squirrel who seemed to take a liking to one of the plants and ate it down to the nub. If you actively cut back the “suckers” on the tomato plants and I mean every other day and trim the tops, all the growth will go into the plant and you will have a ton more tomatoes and less stems. The plant is so busy growing stems that it can’t give a good tomato yield.
When did you start running ads on the blog??? Hefty garbage bags, GEICO, U.S. Navy, etc… Annoying, and made your blog hard to read!
I have a small, narrow , front porch that gets a few hours of morning sun. Wrens built a bird nest in my red geranium plant, and when they were done raising their babies, it was looking pitiful. (was full and gorgeous when my neighbor gave it to me, but with the birds nest I had to carefully water it and it was looking leggy when they were done) is springing
back to life and blooming again.
I planted fairly large pots with Caladium, asparagus fern and the silver leafed training vine (don’t know what it is called) and have them up against the house where they get a limited amount of direct sun, and the are now huge and beautiful! My hanging ferns are hanging in there but looking tired. The moon vine growing up the porch post has not bloomed at all. I have some liriope and ivy growing in pots and they are growing like crazy. All of them are requiring a lot of water.
I will try to overwinter the geranium and the caladium bulbs.
and bring the ferns in for the winter.
All veggies out in the back yard fizzled except for one zucchini plant that is growing strong. The extreme heat really makes it difficult for the plants, and me as well!
Your plants still look good and it has been even hotter where you are!
My dalias are going by now and look so straggly but they still have a few blooms on them . The rest of my flowers are doing very well. Still flowering!
I am so encouraged by your lovely gardens. Beautiful and I hope to try the bush zinnias next year. No matter what I grow or where I put it the raccoons dig it up and tear and eat the roots. We live at the edge of the city. I do use a spray and it helps some but not every time. I have no answer to my problem but I sure love everything you do with your gardens. So so very lovely. 😀🌸
You might try using gopher or vole cages. The gopher situation is horrible at my house but my daughter is making her own from chicken Wire. You can find them on amazon.