New pinks and golds

Rain of gold (thryallis) with its first blooms of the year; 'golden' cosmos (seed from Boggy Creek Farm) in a new spot; a couple new plants I got over the weekend: coral nymph salvia and pink lady slipper, one of my favorite blooming shade plants

Garden notes from the Texas hill country

Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg: front gate, demo garden, and a hibiscus plant; Dora's Nursery in Leakey is filled with tons of healthy, blooming plants, like this golden shrimp plant, and an adorable daschund named Priscilla (not pictured); an 8-inch centipede crawling along my grandmother's stone wall...pretty creepy.

Zinnias and chickens

Went by Boggy Creek farm for some produce yesterday morning (cucumbers, tomatoes, heirloom squash, melon). I usually like to do a little loop around after buying to see what they've got in their fields; this time some starlings, or possibly martins, made a few dives at me, hurrying me along my way. Loudly. But once I moved past their nesting area, I got a few shots of chickens, angel's trumpet, and zinnias. The fields in the front are almost totally zinnias and sunflowers right now.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2010

In the back yard, potted geraniums


mystery sage


turk's cap (just started blooming yesterday)

volunteer sunflower

and cucumber


In the front yard, oregano (scrubby, but the bees like it)

a late primrose

first flame acanthus bloom of the year

the front view, looking healthy but a bit crazy (a flame acanthus planted itself front and center, and despite cutting it off to below ground level twice, it thrives and prevents me from getting to the center of the bed to weed and prune...sigh)

standing cypress: I love the red fireworks of flowers (can't seem to get my copper canyon to bloom)


the autumn sage is not loving the heat, but there are a few blooms

coreopsis

and the dependable euphorbia 'diamond frost', which apparently loves afternoon sun.

This morning's walk

Shades of purple

Mexican petunia

Indigo spires


Chaste tree

Purple verbena

Russian sage

Fall asters (a few preview blooms)

Lantana

A surprise larkspur in the lawn

The only bloom in the backyard, some sort of periwinkle sage-type plant

The birdwatcher

My kitty's subtle positioning yesterday; no birds have yet been fooled by her tactics. I put up the feeder over a month ago (not far above the birdbath) after deciding after a few years' study that she was a stalker, not a killer (with the exception of lizards and bugs). Hope I'm right. I've seen her stalk and chase a squirrel across the yard, only to have the squirrel stop running just short of the fence and start foraging again, back turned; and my cat just paused a moment and walked the other way.

On another note, such good rain this morning! If we could only have these weekly storms all through the season, summer would be a much more enjoyable time.