Gardens-In-The-Sand

Triple digit heat

It's been reaching 100 and above for what seems like weeks now... In truth, I really missed the heat over the past couple of years when it failed to reach our normal highs.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa

Finally spotted a bug... Not sure why this particular rudbeckia seems not attractive to the pollinators...

Rudbeckia nitida herbstsonne

And the pollinators are wild for this one... Which I have growing mere feet away...

Starting to pick some of the corn... Nice dark colours on the glass gem.

Reds and yellows from the variegated patch... wish I had some chickens to feed it to... Or better yet... an easy way to turn it into flour...
Imagine home-grown tortillas...

Purple pods on the 'trail of tears' beans.

These are supposed to be purple tomatoes... but they seem a bit pinker this year...
They were purple last year...

A black swallowtail pays tribute to the belamcanda.

They're very happy with the lantana

Snake cotton...

Always enjoy the centrosema...

The plants that aren't getting supplemental water... like this patch of verbesina... are wilting a bit...

Summer

I don't usually bother to post long range shots, it's difficult to tell what the picture is supposed to be...

I'll make an exception for this veggie post...
Pictured above is cucumber vines, cherry tomatoes, variegated corn, and canna / tiger lilies.

Closeup of the cuke vines.

Close up of the variegated corn stalks.

Glass gem corn

Closeup of the cannas / tiger lilies

Colour echo... tiger lily / crocosmia... couldn't see the crocosmia in the canna shot...

The crinums have been repeat blooming... courtesy of the June rain.

Echinacea... seems to be getting a break this year (so far), usually the voles kill a lot of it...

Check out the colour echo!

Cleome, echinacea, and double rose of sharon.

Matelea collection

I'm having to grow these in pots... And let them climb bamboo teepee supports...

The mateleas that I tried planting against the garden fence aren't doing well...

locally native plants should do well in the garden.... Try telling these vines.

American painted lady... fresh hatch.

Cabbage butterfly... pollinating the collard flowers...

Buck moth... try this... IF YOU DARE!

Pretty!

Relief

About 2 inches of rain in the garden... A nice break from the dry spell.

Some happy pollinators...

Even the scarab beetle is busy pollinating...

Happy daylilies...

Can't say the same for the rat...

The weather report on tv (last week) was all about how dry it's been... Macon got some of those afternoon showers... And they stopped telling us how dry it was...

Out here in the sand, nothing... still dry.

We Need Rain!

You probably notice the yard getting a little bit on the crunchy side. It is has been pretty dry across the area. In fact, it is one of the driest May’s since record keeping began! Athens is actually tied for first place for the driest May 1-16 period. We have only recorded a trace of rainfall during this time period! The year to break the record is back in 1913. If Athens does not receive any rainfall today, we will officially hold the record for driest May 1st-17th. With that said, let’s hope we get rain.

Above clipping borrowed from http://www.athensgaweather.com/