African Garden + time

Mishmash Monday

Monica, the Garden Faerie, came up with a wonderful idea - Mishmash Monday, which I always call "miscuglio" (which I learned from grandmas). This description is particularly apt for describing my activities of late. Not much is getting done in the garden, as it hasn't rained enough for proper weeding or more concrete excavation. In any event, I haven't had much free time with the kids home for summer break. We went to the Morton Arboretum last week with a friend and her two kids, where they played hide and seek in the hedge maze,

and leaped from stepping stone to stepping stone in the pond in the children's garden.

A good time was had by all.
Back at Squirrelhaven, the Rose has started blooming again.

I keep waiting for the Japanese Beetles to descend upon it, but they still seem to prefer devouring the blooms of Clematis 'Betty Corning' and munching on the Coneflowers instead.

The faux-prairie garden garden is in full bloom now, but these Nodding Onions (Allium cernuum) are going to get thinned very soon. It sure doesn't act like a rare plant in my garden, more like a weed, seeding prodigiously.In the woodland garden, the blooming is slowing down, but the 'Black Beauty' Lilies are at their peak.

Too bad one was diseased and had to be removed.

Note yellowing Lily foliage at lower left of above photo.With such a cool summer (third coolest July on record), the lettuce 'Merlot' lasted a long time, but now is bolting.

It may no longer look good enough to eat, but it still makes a great foil for Phlox 'Nicky,' Geranium 'Blogold' (Blue Sunrise), and Osteospermum 'Lemon Symphony.' Its color is echoed in the 'Black Peony' Poppy (Papaver paeoniflorum), which continues to pump out the blooms.The Aster clan is starting to do its thing, the Lobelias are in bloom, and it feels like autumn is just waiting in the wings. I look forward to the resumption of school, when I'll have more time to spend in and on the garden.