Coming Along Nicely!

Second week of August and things are finally starting to grow! We've had perfect days lately and plenty of rain. I was able to buy some great mulched and organic manure from Maine, and I've been very diligent with my weeding, pruning, staking, caging, and deadheading. Above, a saturated portrait of one of my Nasturtiums. 

A nice white Cosmos. I believe two pink and two white Cosmos made it through the rabbit and chipmunk wars, but they're not all flowering right now.

Amaranth. This is a very pretty wildflower that grows stalks 5-6 feet tall. It resembles a maroon corn plant almost, with fuzzy flowers that will both stand up and hang down depending where they are growing on the plant.

An annual begonia in the cast iron Victorian planters in front of Pink Gardens. They match the paint beautifully. They're planted with pink geraniums, nasturtiums, vinca, and a few other annuals.

One of my purple wild Thistles. Yes, they grow horizontally, too, lol. They grown 4-5 feet tall and tend to "lean" one way or another in the gardens.

One of my dahlias growing alongside a tomato plant. AFter I planter my cutting garden, I had many, many tomato plants reseed from last year.

This dahlia is a very simple and small white blossom. 

A nice view showing a dahlia, celosia, zinnias, and a tomato plant sharing cages in the "cutting garden." They all seem to be agreeable about it.

A ten year-old white geranium is putting out small clusters of flowers. It's in a primitive clay container.

One of June's heirloom tomatoes. She spares no expense with organic plants and lobster mulch from Maine. My garden plot is a little lower than hers so I hope I get some of the runoff, lol.

 This heirloom turns a pretty pinkish orange.

Sungold cherry tomatoes of June's. They're more than six-feet tall and are arching over to meet the deer netting on the other side of the walkway.

Portulacas are planted in containers on the front porch by neighbor Rick.

One of my "freeby" tomatoes is this plum-shaped variety known as a San Marzano. It's growing next to celosias, or cockscombs, an annual that's very nice in arrangements.

One of my sedums. I found several of these in the woods and transplanted them back into the sun. They're all around the yard, and seem to bloom from June to September. They are very ungainly however. Some sedums have very thick strong stems, and others grow way too tall for their weight and fall over. I like my messy ones.

Another view of the Sungold cherry tomatoes, with my new herb garden in the background. It's bordered with small rocks and sunbleached white scallop shells.

This angle of the yellow cherries shows my cutting garden in the background. I have about an 9 x 12 plot and it's crammed with tomatoes and annual cutting flowers.

This is the new Tradescantia zembrina, or the old-fashioned coloquial name, Wandering Jew, with a Nasturtium that must have been in the soil. I'll add new soil each year but don't throw away the old in the containers. I like the surprise plants that reseed themselves.

Some of my tomatoes. I don't know what type they are. They seem to be plum-sized when they ripen to a pale yellow green, but they're completely round.

Zinnias growing next to my plum tomatoes which are growing in the same cage as a dahlia. It's completely crowded but looks so nice. I'll add a photo of the entire garden in the next day or two.