GBBD (Garden Bloggers Bloom Day) August 2011

"For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. "

~Martin Luther

Sandy leaned over the fence this morning. Charlie is leaving for college this week. The taco vendor would be there at 4 if we wanted to join the festivities. Giving me a chance to tease Charlie about going to college in Tuscon (we left him money with a note to choose a canteen or snake-bite kit) and  another chance to photograph what may be most valuable in our garden: shade.

Many of the flowering trees have lost their blooms to leaves in a thousand shades of gray. But not the crepe myrtle.  As summer is starting her slow wind down to autumn,  she's just getting started with florescent pink blooms that will fall as confetti.

In catalogues,  this is Begonia 'Ginny'. But for me, it  will  always Begonia 'Allison'.  The day after I brought this plant home, my niece Allison received her angel wings. She was 18 months old. There are some things that are without fairness; beyond explaining. So it is with the death of a child.

 

Even the simplest of plantings offer beauty where they make their home. Aster, mint and a pink ivy geranium snuck under the brick border to a place I would never have chosen for them. Proof that nature knows best.  

The surviving twin of  Weeping Hibiscus 'La France'. The other lost to an unnoticed  drip watering system disconnect. For all their virtues, the problem with pots is the edge for error is razor thin. Forewarned is forearmed.  I kicked myself when I removed the skeleton of the deceased treasure. Nature sends humbling messages even to advanced home gardeners.

I forget the name of this cultivar of shrimp plant. But it waves frequently throughout the year- oo I will look up before I post it next.

  It wouldn't be a visit to my garden without an image of a rose. This 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' was a gift from my darling niece Anka. Like her, it gets better every year.
Without her blooms dominating the summer border, blue agapanthus and lavender shooting heads of society garlic would be boring.

This shot is from my home church- Mt Calvary Lutheran Church on Golden Springs. As the lead quote is from the great theologian who founded the first protestant church, it seemed right to include it, even though this shot is not on my property.  

Count me as one of those gardeners that abhors bare dirt strewn about by gardeners on their weekly blow and go assignments. Bare dirt may be natural on the moon- but on Earth, God spread plants, rocks or thick carpets of leaves. Rather than bare dirt- golden blooming is low maintenance, low water, low risk.

Thank you to May Dreams Gardens for hosting this month's GBBD.