August Garden

        August has arrived and along with it the temperatures have gone up. It's also been smoky the last few days, from all the forest fires burning in BC. If nothing else, the smoke keeps it a little bit cooler out there.
    A couple of years ago I bought a few milkweed plants, a pink variety and a white. The pink ones didn't survive the winter but the white ones did. They grew slowly and barely bloomed, so I moved them last fall and this year they have been flourishing. I haven't seen any butterflies around yet but the bees seem to like it too.
     I planted two different packages of cosmos this year. A mix called Cosmos Mini Blend and Capriola. I really like the look of the Capriola but the Cosmos mini blend are more vigorous and have many more blooms.
      One of our local garden stores closed their doors recently and I am sad to see them go. I picked up a few plants on sale, and squeezed them into my yard. One of them was Veronica or Speedwell and the other was a fragrant honeysuckle vine. The vine has been sulking but the veronica is blooming.  Happy Gardening!
   

Milkweed

Cosmos Mini Blend

Cosmos Capriola

Drumstick Allium

Daylily

Daylily Strawberry Candy

Hollyhock

Coral Palace Purple Palace

Veronica

Our cat Oliver

Autumn Colour

        "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"  by Albert Camus is one of my favorite fall quotes, and so very true. By now, most of the leaves have fallen, so some of these photos were taken a few weeks ago. A few years ago I bought a little maple to grow in a container on my patio, but after several years of the leaf tips turning brown every summer, I decided to plant it in the ground. It is much happier now, and no brown leaves! This spring I bought a new shrub to replace my elderberry that died, and even though it is still small, I love the colours of the leaves, both in the summer and now. 
  I attempted to grow cantaloupe this summer, even though our summers are too cool for them, and what did I get? One little cantaloupe that I babied with a cold frame into early October and wasn't quite ripe when I picked it, but we sure enjoyed it! There's also a few blooms left, and a picture of our kitten Oliver who is six months old now. What are your favorite plants for fall colour? 

Maple

Maple leaves

Burning bush

Burning bush and Chester

Ninebark and Viburnum

Cantaloupe

Choisya ternata

One Last Cosmos bloom

Oliver with some summer annuals still blooming