Garden Blogger's Bloom Day - July

After a brief rest at the end of spring, the garden bursts back into bloom. The rampant growth and heat-loving blooms always get me excited to go back out in the garden again.

Lavandula 'Grosso' makes a great parking strip plant!

This is a new succulent I'm growing. I forget the name of it. I'll have to go look it up again. I really like the flowers.

My mom had this great Aeonium flower spike all by itself as a bouquet and I thought it looked so great. My Aeonium glandulosum is blooming. It was a great rosette for several years. I'll have to replace it after it's finished.

The edibles are going to town. I planted my fennel too late and it just bloomed instead of making a bulb, which is fine. I'll use the seeds for something. The tomatoes are coming and I let the leeks bloom too, which are making the bees very happy.

I'm growing corn for the first time this year. My tiny little block of it seems to be working fine. We got plenty of donut peaches this year. (We also got our first apricots and have our first plums and pluots on the way!) The persimmons are always plentiful.

Thank you to May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day! Check out what other gardeners have going on this month!

Flowers and Foliage Rolled Into One

I don't have very many photos this month so I'm going to combine my Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and Foliage Follow Up posts. There is a bit of a lull in my garden right now. Spring blooms are past but the late-season stuff hasn't started blooming yet.

I'm loving this new Calendula with two tone petals. And I'm excited my Nolina interrata is already blooming. I wonder if it will be a girl or a boy? I planted 3 of them (1 died) and I'm hoping to get a girl and a boy so I can collect seed. The 2nd one isn't blooming yet though.

These lilies were raring to go early this year. Lily 'Mascara', named for the dark edge of the petal, although I think Lily 'Eyeliner' might have been more accurate a name, it doesn't have the same ring.

Harlequin Lupine (Lupinus stiversii) from Annie's that I'm hoping to collect seed from. And a yellow Lewisia from Annie's that was grown years ago as Lewisia 'Yellow Form'. It is an incredible Lewisia that blooms year-round, quite floriferously. I'm did collect seed of this, hoping they put it back into production.

I'm hoping to get some Borage reseeding around my garden. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, just feel like I should have it for some reason. And leek flowers always make me think of pregnant bellies. Wouldn't it be cool if a woman's belly stretched so thin you could see the baby inside? On second thought, maybe not.

I splurged and bought some rather expensive Kalanchoe 'Fantastic' based on a photo I saw. Turns out it's not really as showy as the picture. Oh well. I tried to get rid of this unnamed Manfreda once but all the roots sprouted their own rosettes. I kind of respected its chutzpah after that. Plus, it looked good in mass. Very well behaved, other than the root reincarnation thing, and I recently realized snails never bother it unlike most Manfredas.

I've got forests of kale right now. Please take some.

I like what is happening around my front door right now.

I love to see fat little lady bugs in my garden. And their little lady bug babies. Get those aphids!

Thank you to May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and to Pam of Digging for hosting Foliage Follow Up!

Garden Bloggers Bloom and Foliage Combo

I'm late for both the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and Foliage Follow Up this month, but I took the time to take the photos so I'm posting them, darn it. I'm combining the posts together for efficiency, flowers and foliage are all mixed up - just like my garden!

This Aeonium undulatum bloom is taller than me. Plus, the bees love it!

Thank you to May Dreams for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Pam at Digging for hosting Foliage Follow-Up.