Evening Garden Stroll and Kitchen Dining

Hanging on to summer….

I changed the bottom shelf by adding my new miniature MacKenzie Childs colander.  I've been waiting since June for it when they had a sale.  

It's too cute!

I spotted this bird in my little closet of deco items and thought why didn't I have a bird next to the bird house already!  So now I do!  That is a Jim Shore bird house I got at Lowe's a while back- I wonder if they still offer something like this each year?

I had ordered this large pitcher from MacKenzie Childs wit the same pattern as the colander but I received it a lot sooner than the other.  I have a smaller green pitcher with a green background but this white is my favorite.

I've kept the kitchen dining setup the way I showed the changes I made "here".  

This is the following planter earlier in June.  

I moved it about 6 ft. over from where it was.  It was getting too much evening sun and wasn't producing many flowers.  Sorry things look sloppy on the ground.  We've had a lot of rain and it disturbs the dirt and mulch.  The green algae starts growing so easily.

The wire metal form helps support the plants and all but disappears in the process!

I planted white ones in the center but they don't show unless you look deeply.

I also stopped adding additional fertilizer.  I read that slow release fertilizer is all you need so I'm good with that!

This  Angel Wing caladium is really doing well.  I only grew them once before but I had put them in the ground near other plants and they kind of disappeared and never got this big. 

I planted this fairly late but it's coming along nicely.  The butterflies love the lantana. 

The hydrangea tunnel.  I've trimmed the hydrangeas several times to keep the pathway open but now that the limelights are blooming they tend to lean over so we'll have to walk on an angle through there now!  

I took these in the evening so the color is a bit dark.  I've had this limelight hydrangea for at least 10 years.  I cut it down 3 years ago and then it grew taller.  I wanted to shorten it but I got the opposite result!

I'm going to do another cut-back this fall and then next year I need to keep it trimmed back through the season so I can keep it shorter.  

The blooms are huge on this and they're still filling out.

You can see the lime coloring better in this photo and then they turn white.

Black-eyed Susan's are prime right now.

My cone flowers are still blooming but nearing their end.  The Shasta daisies are all but done too.

These are so cheerful like daisies!

The orange marmalade hosta has gotten pale but still looks good.  Cone flower is called Sombrero "Salsa Red"  It starts out a vibrant red and shifts colors as time goes by.

The phlox are still blooming- such a pretty fragrance!  The cone flowers are loosing their color.

This rose of sharon shrub (hibiscus) is finally blooming (takes so long!).  I hope there will be more flowers popping out.  It's getting more and more shaded in this area which may affect it's flowering in the future.  We have two King Crimson trees growing nearby plus another maple to my side and two huge blue spruce that are all adding to the shade factor.  If you could see through the shrubs you would see the fire department that was built there about 8 years ago.  

It did not take long for the berries to be discovered on the new shrubs we just planted.  That makes me happy!