While Away The Weeds

Although trying to stay ahead of the weeds in our yard and garden is an impossible task, time spent in the garden is still enjoyable.   Taking short breaks to check out the progress of perennials, or in my case yanking them out by the roots when I've come to the conclusion that they are poorly functioning specimens, and not contributing to the garden.  I tend to have more "weeds"( eye of the beholder) that do a better job of flowering nicely and attracting bees and butterflies!  Speaking of butterflies, I was fortunate to find a monarch chrysalis on some milkweed and took a photo, good thing, it is now gone.  I've seen several monarchs flitting around this week, I'm sure they are happy the phlox and butterfly weed are still in bloom.  I do need to get some dill in the yard.
I've been pulling out infested squash left and right, but still have quite a few squash that don't seem to be infested  - the borer even got into the zucchini- I didn't know they liked zucchini too!    I did do surgery on the zucchini to remove the little offenders.  So far the plant is doing ok, but I planted more seeds today, just in case it succumbs.   I have a mystery melon, maybe watermelon?  It is doing quite well, with a couple of fruits, but really can't tell for sure what it is.
Beans have been slow, hope they do better with less intense heat.  The tomatoes are doing ok, just not gangbusters, like previous years.  I have what seems to be dwarf roma plants with lots of normal sized  tomatoes sitting on the ground.
The saddest sight of all are my peppers, which have never done fantastic in our yard but this year they appear to have some disease. Leaves are falling off and the peppers are small, often mutated.  Potatoes have looked sickly too, but now the new growth appears healthier.  I'll continue to spray with the fish fertilizer.

my dwarf roma plant-loaded with fruit!

supervisor

  

mystery melon

zucchini rescue from borers

fancy water feature

tomatoes-7-26-12

recently planted trumpet creeper- growing like a weed!

rutabega

green beans

monarch now?

sickly peppers

hyacinth bean-yet to flower

It was nice to have a day not 90 plus degrees and heavy humidity, especially after our much needed rain.  Tomorrow, even drier and cooler air- sounds like a bike trip to me!
Greenie

Hold the Heat, Please!

No more complaints about the cold!  I believe the heat index( heat plus humidity) is supposed to reach 100 + today.

lambs ear humelo- really like this plant, always looks good.

butterfly weed is doing great this year- I added some more.

the circle is in bloom- the prairie clover is hidden  by the overwhelming mexican hat coneflower

look for the red cherries-we actually got to eat about 30 of them.  Really good with sugar and a little brandy-let sit for half hour-serve over icecream!

Peas gone wild

Larry's sunflowers

our new porch, patio, and pergola

PPP. wrapup- a little more stain..

Larry's great raised bed

PPP wrapup with garden bed in front

added another dephinium since it seems to be surviving the dry, rocky soil.

Interesting observations on the growing season:  Snap Peas grow in cool weather and in heat but maybe toughen up a bit at the end of their life cycle, or because of the heat?  Still picking the snap.  What happened to the Hyssop?  Last summer's Hyssop was overly abundent, this summer barely there-maybe lack of snow cover?
more photos after the heat wave!
Greenie