Return from trip to Wyoming to Summer garden

Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine 

Butterfly Weed remnant

Seeing plants in various stages of dying, this one actually is "promising".  I set this little plant out a week before I took off for Wyoming.  It had leaves and even flowers.  I choose to believe that a Monarch butterfly caterpillar had a feast.  There are other things that could have caused this, I am opting for the caterpillar. The hopeful sign is the sprout with leaves.  I will watch this plant and see how it does.

The 2 year old Butterfly Weed beside this plant is healthy.

Other plants that may look sad and hopeless to me are the promise of things to come.

This is a seedling zinnia from SPENT blossom that I dead headed several weeks ago

 “One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”
― Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle

I had Four O'clock's many years
ago and thought I'd try again.
They may be my summer staple
if I continue fighting summer
heat.
They benefit from deadheading
and will likely bloom all heat
long.

 Summer has set in with its usual severity. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

 Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones. ~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir

  I set out watermelon rinds a few weeks back for the butterflies. The seeds germinated and the vine(s) are huge.
I started cutting back and pulling out.
Then, I saw a bumblebee.

Plant stays!

Last but not least, 2 sweet potato vines.  These were set into the hole of concrete blocks.  Not a lot of soil, not much water....I have cut it back as it was creeping out to conquer the whole court yard.

In the end, hubby (not a gardener) would tell me when we talked on the phone that things looked so bad.
I said don't worry about it.
I came home to not a sad sight, a promise of fall and spring.

WESTON GARDENS "PICK ME UP"

September was a "miserable" month for me.  The heat is so depressing.  I fight it and still give in to "woe is me, why do I even try?"

That is when I took my pitiful self to proof that all is not lost.  I love to visit Weston Gardens in Fort Worth at various times of the year.  Even winter can be a revival of the spirit. Garden life does go on, and on, and on.  One just has to go on, and on as well.

I wandered through the peaceful demonstration gardens after visiting the plant sales area.

Even though things in the sales area are a little weather worn, it is still a hopeful sign to see what they have to offer.
Self pity closes the mind to buying new plantings when everything in my garden is dying or planning to.

And then, I spotted a beautiful proof that all is not lost.  This photo is of the Hyacinth Bean Vine. Yes!!

My bean vines have suffered mightily, what with bad potting soil, heat, drought, mistaken attempts to plant where they didn't have a chance.  This picture does not do the vine justice.  The blossoms are a beautiful purple and will turn into dark maroon bean pods later. What a glorious thing to behold!

I have to remember that my Turk's Cap is a healthy plant in spite of drought.

Don't forget to click on photo for larger view

I love this bench!!

Broken pot reclaimedl!

Mine never look this good this time of year!

I have glued a few pots in my time.
Happy to see that my fix can be a statement all on its own.








“By bringing a soulful consciousness to gardening sacred space can be created outdoors.”
― S. Kelley Harrell, Nature's Gifts Anthology

“Regardless of geographical region or culture gardening is perhaps the most common and shared experience of Nature.”
― S. Kelley Harrell, Nature's Gifts Anthology

“As I leave the garden
I take with me a renewed view,
And a quiet soul.”
― Jessica Coupe, Life Abundant a 30 day devotional for Latter-day Saint Women

 

  

“I am intrigued by writers who garden and gardeners who write. The pen and the trowel are not interchangeable, but seem often linked.”
― Marta McDowell

Beauty Berry

I had forgotten how tough this plant is!

 

 

 

I think it is time to set out some more Caladiums.
I have plenty of shade now.

In the end, don't let summer doldrums get you down.  You can visit an arboretum, public garden, a nursery, a park a,neighbor, anyplace with plants and shade and maybe sitting spots can restore your soul.

Oh, yes and they do sell tea of all kinds.  They also have a beautiful assortment of things related to tea.

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A bit of green in my favorite pot