The Reeder Garden in Early August

I thought maybe it was time to share my own garden again, since it has been a while. 

We are in the middle of a heat wave, with 90 degree temps every day lately. This is not common for us, and it makes most of us north westerners uncomfortable. It can make our plants unhappy too. We are also going on 50 days without rain. Needless to say, if you want a garden you have to water. We put in a watering system about ten years ago, so most parts of our yard are watered automatically. We still have a few spots that have to be hand watered or reached with a hose and sprinkler. Our water bill in summer sort of takes the place of the heat bill in winter. 

By August the garden can begin to look tired. With the heat, I have not been able to get out and clip and deadhead perennials that are finished like I usually do. But I went out with my camera this morning after our walk, with the morning sun filtering through the smoke from British Columbia fires, and my camera liked what it saw.

The lot next door has been cleared and we expect construction to begin soon, Hence the black plastic instead of a green hedge. Change happens. 

The roses are between blooms, but there are lilies!

Dahlias where the tulips were in the spring.

Sweet peas and the first sunflowers in the vegetable garden, which is as much a flower cutting garden as it is a food crop patch. 

Buddleias cover up the compost bins.

Above, the island bed before deadheading. After taking photos, I did a little work here while I was monitoring hose watering since it was much cooler today. Below you see the difference. It looks a lot fresher with the tired Lady's Mantle seed heads gone. 

This clematis has a trellis but it prefers to bloom on the forsythia. 

Down the path toward the garden deck. 

These are old windows from the old Whidbey Island cousin's cabin, with Rusty Bird ornamentation. 

Jake gave me a Buddha for Christmas. He thought with the election and all that I might need a place for quiet meditation. Tom gave me the rocks. Truth and patience, good reminders in these times. 

Old Woody monitors the steps down under the big cedar tree. 

The front entrance.

The hop covered gate to the back yard from the driveway. 

As I was standing there taking the above photo, this hummer came and carefully inspected the crevice in the wall.

Then it flew towards me, seemingly curious about my camera. Then it flitted away. 

Behind the gate, the tomatoes on a west wall

and in front of the greenhouse. 

The back side of the greenhouse is the garden shed, which for the first time in many years is just a shed and no longer Irene's playhouse or flower shop. Sigh. 

The canna is blooming in a pot on the patio. 

We spend a lot of time here before it gets too hot. We love having lunch on the patio in summer. 

There is a fresh bouquet of sweet peas on the kitchen table. 

Beginning Monday we will be away and I will not be blogging for a while.  No Internet. I will, no doubt, pop up on Facebook, since our phones work almost anywhere. There will be photos of the Pacific Ocean coming.

See you later.