Summer Backyard and Front Yard: July

One of my favorite things about our yard is that there is always something blooming from April through October.

The mailbox garden is really filling in nicely. I'm very pleased to say that all of the transplants came back and they are all blooming this year.

Right now in the mailbox garden the butterfly bush is beginning to bloom with the pretty purple flowers and the pink echinachea is just covered with blooms right now - it's so pretty!

The new butterfly weed is also finally blooming! I love the bright orange flowers.

The rest of the front yard right now is green (or brown grass). The hostas are blooming on the far right behind the tree, but everything else is either spring blooming or an evergreen. With all the craziness and travel going on, I never replaced the pansies in the porch boxes and they have died in the heat. It looks terrible - the porch railing boxes had to be taken down to repair the porch, I won't be putting them back until I can get some new flowers. If takes long enough, I might even hold out for some fall-friendly flowers to put in there.

In the backyard we have so many things blooming... like our hollyhock trees in pink and white and our dark pink crepe myrtle. The crepe myrtle fully recovered from the cold winter, it's so beautiful when it blooms. The quince is growing so much I have to cut it back. The asparagus is still alive too - I always worry about the new plants that don't have robust root systems yet when it's so hot and dry like this.

The new clematis (the replacement for the one that died) is also still alive, another accomplishment during this heat wave / dry spell.

Other vines are easy to keep alive... the sweet pea is completely out of control despite how often I cut it back to keep the blackberry and raspberry bushes from being taken over.

I don't know what this purple spiky flower is. I thought it was something else so we let it grow... it's probably a weed, but I have to admit the purple blooms are beautiful! It's in the way back so I think it's okay to leave it alone. We have so many crazy weeds coming through the fence from our neighbors hard it's impossible to keep up.

I didn't get the best picture, but I have a lot of pretty dahlias blooming near the fence and patio. I planted 10 and 9 came up, all are blooming. There's red, orange, magenta, yellow, pink-yellow, and purple.

The rose bush, strawberries and peony plants...

The hostas and lilies are blooming now and the anemones are about to start...

The hydrangea is blooming! I didn't acidify the soil around the hydrangea so it has pink-purple flowers. They are really pretty though.

Here are the blueberry bushes, they are still small but growing steadily. There are some strawberry plants around them that seem to come back year after year.

Also as a side note, the July garden is going strong with tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and peppers. There are also a ton of green beans (not pictured) now too.