Almost August...

Hello fellow bloggers-I apologize in my delay in posting. I have been swamped at work, on vacation, and in general just hot! When it is this hot in Colorado I lose all my energy for anything.

But about two weeks ago our monsoon season began. This may make some of you laugh-almost four inches of Rain the month of July-and most of it in the first two weeks of July. It doesn't seem like much but for a semi-arid climate that generally receives around 16" of annual precipitation a year-it was a big deal, and well is our monsoon season.

I am going to try to post a little more frequently-truth is hasn't been much going on outside. Too hot. July and August are usually the months where my garden just coasts. It is beautiful, but it coasts. I deadhead and do usual cleanup stuff, but we just coast through these two hot months of the year.

Jacob goes back to school in about three weeks so I will be busy getting him ready to go back and gearing up for my second year as the president of the parent/teacher league at school.

So here is what has been going on in the garden lately.

Above pictured is my new red majestic contorted filbert I added to the perennial shade garden. I just love it! I will burlap it this fall and water periodically and hope that it comes back.

A new plant for our area. A chinese woodland orchid. This is the only one of this species I have ever seen for sale in our area that is hardy. I will mulch it heavily with compost and water periodically over the winter. It is very beautiful. It had a bloom on it when I planted it, however by the time (a couple of days) I got around to photographing it, the blossom had all but fallen off. It does have a new bud coming up. This variety is called Chinese butterfly and it heavily resembles an indoor orchid.
Jack frost forget me nots. These were hard to find this time of year in Colorado.
A beautiful new coral bells-pink, green, peach and orangey leaves. A lovely colorful addition to the garden.

And, hello Mrs. Bradshaw geum. I have found another another geum I want to add as well-internet order only.

Buying the orchid was a whim. And it started me on sort of a new path for my perennial shade garden. Doing a slight woodland theme. I have a good start on this already. Only need to move a few puppies out (probably to my parents and neighbors) to make room for the 8 new species I need to add. I am hopeful I can do this fall and not have to wait until the spring. I also want to finish the outer portion of the rock garden waterfall - as it is needs a few more miniature trees and plants to finish it off. Then it is on to adding a couple rows of mexican beach pebbles along the outer edges of the entire bed and pea gravel and it will be complete. One of my miniature trees I planted last fall is having some issues. Just really burning up in our sun. It has done amazingly up until the past month. I made an umbrella out of some weed barrier, chicken wire, and bamboo stakes I had on hand. Not sure I can save it. It may be too far gone. It is heart breaking-just means I will have to replace it.

I did buy some new house plants recently as well. I typically don't do a lot of shopping at Lowe's and home depot for plants (unless it is houseplants) because their selection is just so plan and sometimes they don't even carry the most basic of perennials. But I did get the contorted filbert there and found some new beautiful indoor orchids for only $9.99. Granted, they are not the rare, expensive versions. But I am fairly new to orchids and just wanted to add a couple to the one I already have-that I have been successful with.

Look forward to seeing you more and sharing with you the fall season as I continue to finish the projects I have going! I hope you will join me. Until then, unless I get some new stuff-I will be coasting until the end of August!