It was getting a little scary there for a while. Would the heat put an end to my garden? If not, maybe the drought would. The grass was brown, and the plants were rather sad and flowerless. The flowers that dared showed their heads were often eaten by the Japanese beetles.
Still, my garden triumphed! We have especially high expectations for the dahlia gardens, which I invite you to come personally see on Tuesday, September 25th, from 5 PM till dark. We’re at 331 Forest View in Elk Grove Village, IL. It doesn’t look like much yet, but look at past pictures and you will really want to be here.
For now, here is the area we call the front 40. It has come back nicely.
I’ll even show it to you a little closer up.
And even closer.
The recovery is not complete, especially when it comes to the roses. The picture of the back 40 should have more roses, but they are still rather lacey looking thanks to those darn beetles.
Dolly Parton, in her expected exuberance, refused to succumb yesterday. At 9 AM she was displaying this bud.
By 4 PM, that bud was a full blown beauty! Abraham Lincoln said “We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” Today, we rejoice.
You are probably looking at these pictures and thinking that perhaps ‘Low Maintenance Gardening’ should not be one of the topics I speak about. Ah, but it is. The parts of the garden you are seeing today wouldn’t exactly fit into that category, but many other parts of the yard do. Like the zinnia garden. It was pretty much plant it and forget it.
So though it has been almost no work, I have beautiful blooms like this one.
Is there more to see? Sure. Are there areas I have purposely not photographed because they look, well, yucky. Sure. But you’ll just have to come by on September 25th to find out.
Do you want to know what else is blooming in the August garden? To see what other bloggers have blooming on the 15th of every month, visit May Dreams Gardens – Bloom Day for our Garden Bloggers’ Bloom day entries.
Lovely blooms, Carol! Zinnias are one of my favorite annuals–I agree they are about as low-maintenance as you can get. Sorry about your Japanese beetles; this year I had very few. That has been one of the few benefits of the drought:)
Lots of pretty colors in your August garden. The Zinnias are just beautiful! Happy GBBD!
My zinnias also have been wonderful this summer. I cetainly will plant more next year. Cosmos have also been strong through the crazy weather.
I keep forgetting to get Cosmos in the spring, then I regret it. I just added it to my Spring shopping list. Yes, I really have one of those.
What a pretty border! Glad to hear that it’s recovering from the heat and drought.
Zinnias are my favorite annual, I think. Your garden is beautiful. Are those Rudbeckia triloba, or a different species? And that huge clump of grass in the back 40! What is it?
Hi Jason – I’m not sure what the official name of the yellow flowers is, but the unofficial name is sneezeweed. It doesn’t make you sneeze. Its one of those plants that came from someone else’s yard. And the grass! Yes,impressive. It has such an appropriate name – miscanthus giganteus. Really – I’m not making that up.
Dolly is a gorgeous rose. Another stunning rose is Marilyn Munro. It has perfect shape and form , most beautiful. I guess that’s how it got the name!
Sounds beautiful. I just looked it up on Google. Its noted as large and volumptuous. The peach color was a surpise. I expected ‘blonde’.