Summer Perennials
The Garden in July
The black and blue salvias, plumbago, sedums, cardinal flowers, and goldenrod are already in full bloom. These are late summer flowers, whose season usually starts mid-August.
They were sped along by the excessive temperatures at the beginning of July which, tamed by a week of rain, finally mellowed out and settled into the eighties.
The vegetable patch is fruitful: the cucumbers keep pushing out bounty faster than I can pick it, the tomatoes finally got going, and tiny eggplants started appearing on their mother plants.
The beans are a mess, so excited about their sunny location they're growing out of control, climbing trees and crowding their neighbors, so much so that every day I have to pick their wayward vines and train them back on their trellis.
July always brings a magical image of plenty, where everything blooms and thrives effortlessly, and makes me wish the summer would never end.
Boundless Exuberance
Speaking of enthusiasm, tickseed deserves the plant of the year award.
I chose this cultivar for its vibrant colors, and it didn't disappoint. It now graces the borders with an abundance of blooms, glowing phosphorescent yellow and orange in the midday sun.
Gardeners learn through long years of trial and error that it is a fool's errand to fight nature.
Its laws are simple and reliable: vegetables and flowers need full sun to grow, nothing thrives in a drought, not even Xeriscape, good spacing makes for good neighbors and you're better off using the soil you have than trying to make your own from scratch.
Plants thrive with minimal effort when provided with the conditions they adapted to, whether they are grown from seeds or seedlings, and their results can be truly humbling.
That brings us to this lovely image, which embodies the essence of the cottage border - a happy mess of colors and textures, unrestricted by rigid landscape design, where something is always in bloom.
Sunny Yellow
Many July flowers showcase warm shades, as if they aim to capture the brilliance of the midsummer sun.
For sunny yellow colors, consider planting tickseed, black eyed Susans, sunflowers, foxtail lilies, and the ubiquitous daylilies - the symbol of midsummer.