Nice!flowers.Your flower beds are pretty!

WOW!! Love your out of control Verbena!! I think I'll let mine go wild next year too LOL! You beds remind me of my mother's garden...everything so nice and neatly placed. Mine has nothing neat about it...everything just plopped in :O

Vera

Very nice flower beds. Such pretty flowers. What are you using for mulch?

WOW! These pics. really perked me up. We have been having the most terrible and unusual heat wave for the past week- temps. over 40 degrees. I love those Gaillardia teamed with the rudbeckias. So pretty!!

Your zinnias, Prairie Sun and nasturtiums and four oclocks are looking particularly good. What is the plant in the first photo?

Thank you for all the nice comments. We were out of town for 8 days and I couldn't wait to see how my flowers did and also, to eat my first tomatoes. My neighbors took good care of my flowers.

Vera, most of the verbena bonar. overwintered for me, even though it's not supposed to be hardy here. The overwintered ones bloomed earlier than the volunteers.
I think my beds look pretty messy, especially that round center one.

proudgm: the mulch is just cheap shredded dark bark, bags from a cheap local nursery. I do also mulch all of my beds with shredded leaves in the fall, though.

We have also had heat and drought most of this summer. Our rain deficit is now over 8 inches. Supposed to be 95 and humid again today, and stay in the 90s for the next week with no rain until maybe a week from today.

Karen

Karen, your gardens are so pretty. I love the way everything is so neatly planted. It's funny that you think the beds are messy. That verbena is just beautiful as are all of your flowers. Do you know the name of the pink nastursium?...it is so pretty and I really don't care for the orange ones. Thanks for sharing with us.
Bonny

pm2: The plant in the first photo are amaranthus perfecta, aka "summer poinsettia".

Bonny, that nastie is called "Cherries Jubilee". I love nasties, obviously. I grow some every year.

Karen

Love 'em all, especially that nasturtium bed! Pretty!

PV

Karen,

I LOVED your pictures. Everything looks so healthy and those melampodiums look great where they are.

Did you do those gaillardias this year? Mine are not half that size!

Thanks for the photos.

Carrie

Carrie: The large gaillardia is in it's 2nd year. I have some new ones this year which are still pretty small, but growing quickly, and have also been in bloom all summer.

Karen

Oooh. I have amaranthus envy. Mine never did much of anything. You are clearly doing something right. Nice pics.

Lovely - especially the first picture. Last year we had a proper, hot summer, and my Amaranthus grew 4 foot tall. This year we've had so much rain and lack of sun that they're tiny slug-fodder. Still, the weather seems to be improving, so maybe they can make it to a foot or so by the end of the month!

My goodness! Everything is blooming so heavily - like the pictures in the seed catalogs! My stuff never does that...LOL. Do you have perfect soil? A secret formula for fertilizer?

Linda: No secret on the fertilizer. In the last few years I stick to organic or at least earth friendly, like Espoma products, Fox Farm, bloodmeal or bonemeal, whatever I can find locally.

My soil is heavy clay and I am constantly ammending with my own compost and organic mulches like grass clippings and fall leaves. I do that mostly in autumn and by spring my beds are crawling with worms, and my beds have networks of huge worm holes. I have also done lasagna beds with great results.

Over a period of years it has made a huge difference in the soil, but it's a constant work in progress.

Karen