September Garden and a New Kitten

September is one of my favourite months of the year, and while the garden is certainly looking less colourful, there are still things worthy of a photo or two. It is also a great time of the year to visit your local nursery for finding bargain plants. The first photo is one of my bargain finds and it is called Malva sylvestris 'braveheart' and I just love the name. Next is a flower from my hibiscus shrub that I thought was dead this spring but obviously wasn't, and another hibiscus photo that I took at my local nursery. The dahlia is also a bargain plant that I bought earlier this summer, and it just recently started blooming. It came without a name but I think it will be one of my favourites. The hydrangea blooms always looks so nice, even though the flowers are basically dead. Wouldn't it be nice if all spent flowers looked this pretty? This is the first time I have ever been able to grow zinnias past the seedling stage. I don't know if it was our drier spring & summer or the fact that the slugs and snails didn't find them this year that made the difference.  My castor plants are still growing, and as you can might be able to see, they are taller than my tall sunflowers now. It is a zone 10 plant so it won't survive our winter but I might save some seeds. In other news we adopted a new kitten! His name is Chester and he has added a lot of love & laughter to our home, not to mention trouble. Chester loves to sit on the computer keyboard and turn off the monitor and do all sorts of other things that make life interesting. Our older cat Tiger is not very happy with this new intruder, but I hope she will adjust eventually.

Malva sylvestris 'braveheart'

Hibiscus Blue Satin

Hibiscus at garden nursery

Dahlia

Hydrangea Nikko Blue

Hydrangea Nikko Blue

Hydrangea Nikko Blue

Spirea Shirobana

Rose Hansa

Zinnia

Rudbeckias and Oregano

Morning glory

Morning Glory

Butterfly Bush Petite Plum

The Castor plants are now taller than the tall sunflowers!

Elderberries

Burning Bush (Euonymus)

Our new kitten Chester

August Survivers

Wow, it's been a hot and dry summer here and I'm wishing we had an air conditioner like normal people, ha ha. At least the birds have grown accustomed to my new birdbath with all this heat. I'm growing two new varieties of tomatoes this year in a large 6 foot long container placed underneath my patio. This has been a good place for growing tomatoes, since they get a lot of sun and yet stay out of the rain to prevent blight. My grape tomato is growing like a weed, and has started to produce yummy grape-shaped tomatoes and there are dozens and dozens yet to come. I also have some Manitoba tomatoes, and while these have produced my earliest ever ripe tomatoes, each and every one of them so far has had blossom end rot. I am trying to give them all the water they need, but it has been a struggle. The heat has been relentless and it seems this variety needs more water than most. My grape tomato is growing right along side them, looking happy as can be while these sometimes look a little thirsty. I have a new Dahlia this year, and I can't stop taking photos of it. The first photo is one of the earliest blooms and it's interesting how the colour has changed with the weather. I'm also growing castor plants for the first time. It is about 5 feet high now and is producing strange looking seed pods and flowers. I love the tropical look of this plant with the  big giant leaves, but this plant is highly toxic, so be forewarned. The uses for this fascinating plant have ranged from medical, to high-performance motor oil, and all the way to chemical warfare.  

Dahlia Fantasy

Dahlia Fantasy, a later bloom

Dahlia Fantasy Bud

Dahlia Crazy Love

Hydrangea Nikko Blue

Morning Glory Early Call Mixed

Poppy

Sunflower

Larkspur and a poppy

Castor Plant

Giant Castor Leaf

Seed Pods

Manitoba tomatoes and Grape tomato on the right

Steller's Jay at my bird bath

July Blooms & Caring Parents

        Here are some photos of flowers blooming in my yard this month, along with a few from our trip to Manning Park last month. I just love the way the little Colombian ground Squirrel parents stood watch over their young. They couldn't even be lured close with peanuts, one of their favourite foods. We ended up giving away most of our peanuts to the brave Clark's nutcrackers. They took the peanuts right out of our hands. Some of them can even catch the peanuts when you toss them up into the air. The peanuts were tossed, not the birds, ha ha. It's a whole lot of fun and worth the drive out to Manning. I'm linking up with Tootsie Time for Flaunt your flowers Friday. 

Colombian Ground Squirrel

Parent Guarding its young

Clark's Nutcracker

Daylily

Daylily Strawberry Candy

Daisy

Nigella self-seeded from last year

White Nigella

Nigella and Butterfly Bush

Gladiola

Echinacea 

Poppy

Lily

Fairy Gardens!

A few weeks ago I discovered  my local Buckerfields store had a wide assortment of fairy/miniature garden accessories in stock. Not only that but they have an amazing fairy garden in their greenhouse out back.  I took some photos of their garden, and bought some cute little things to start another fairy garden because fairy gardening is addictive! It's kinda like being a kid all over again.

I just love the mini vegetable garden! 

Accessories I bought

My second fairy garden, and it even has real flowers in the bucket :)

My first fairy garden, with new plants.

June Blooms and a Rock Family

    June is a busy month in the garden, with the weeds trying to keep up with the flowers. At least I finally know the name of my enemy now, the dreaded pearlwort! I'll have to tackle it further in the fall, once my perennials have died down. Here are some of my June blooms, plus a couple of photos from the cheery chickadees nesting in my yard. I found a cute rock project on Pinterest, and since I love rocks and love painting, I decided to make one for my garden. I'm linking up with Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday. 

Campanula

Clematis

Feverfew

Fleabane

Geranium

Spirea Buds

Chickadee

Chickadee with moth

Rock Family Project

Rock Family