A Mild Day, Saturday

 The first chore for the morning was to stake up this sunflower. The winds were strong and the rain made the soil loosen up too much. I have a steel post and a sledge hammer from my dad's old farm. With some acrobatic moves I got into the flower garden, standing next to the sunflower, and slowly pounded the post into the ground. I tied it back up straighter with some jute twine. I had to retie another one that was already staked but needed the twine tighten to correct a lean. I had more phlox on the ground from the rain and the wind and I am just going to wait to see if it will correct itself some. 

 My William Baffin rose still looks sick but it is putting out a few blooms at the top of it, Having all the dead canes removed helps to see what is still alive.  I can see some leaf growth happening again. 

 

When I was a kid the yucca was not grown in Iowa. You had to head west into Nebraska to firs see a yucca plant growing wild. Eventually people would dig and bring into Iowa these plants and they found that they like to grow in our state. People also bring in cactus that also does pretty well too. I had a neighbor who had wonderful yellow blooms every year on her cactus. Yucca are now sold in garden centers for accent plants in the gardens. My plant came from my old place which came from a neighbors plant from across the street. I took the shot as I could see this is putting out lots of new growth. It only did two shoots for flowers this year so maybe it will revive and put out more next spring. I have had up to five stems of flowers at one time.

 The rains have made the blue spruce really fresh looking. It has a great color with lots of new growth on it. It has doubled in size in the past eight years. I really don't know what the full height of the it will be. 

 

We have had strong winds for most of the day. It is from the north so it has kept us from overheating today. It did get up to 81 degrees in the afternoon. It is quite pleasant to be outside but we will get up to high heat tomorrow. I worked on a new tray bird feeder today but didn't get it completed. I use scrap wood and it has to be modified to fit on a metal railing of the deck. I am tired of my older feeder and it looks junky from a distance. I will keep working on it and eventually be feeding again in the same location of the deck. New and improved is a good thing       Thanks for stopping in today. 

Thanks for stopping by today.
 

Friday Finds

 The day lilies are sturdy. The rains don't cause much change to them other than they get coated for just a while. I was concerned that the shot wouldn't be any good as it looked waterlogged when I saw the bloom. 

 The rain did take down some more phlox. I suppose I will have to get out some more stakes and my jute twine. It was a gentle rain that lasted off and on all night. The rain weighs down the flower heads which  I noticed when I tried to right them this morning. 

 

 I am so glad to see the honey bees on the sunflower. I see them around this season and they do like the phlox blooms. I grow the zinnias for many reasons but the benefit of attracting bees and butterflies is a good reason. 

There is a bumblebee on this one at the lower bottom of the flower. They are not the largest size of sunflower but they are keeping the bees and hummingbirds busy.

 I really don't plan when I have flowers in the backyard. I do like what is happening there but it is funny how things just take over and grow. The rains make my mowed yard look better today. I worked outside this morning finding new large weeds that had to be pulled. I will return tomorrow with the weed trimmer and tear into it some more.  I watch a blogger guy from southeastern Iowa who has acres of gardens around two homes. He made me feel better about my gardens as he sighed and said he weeds day and night without any break. His gardens look great because of it but mine will never look as good as his. 

Thanks for stopping in today.  

 

Thursday

 It is nice to see bees of all kinds out there in the garden. Bumble bees are numerous this year as we  have had good rains to help the population. 

 The glads survived the bunnies this year because I planted them behind a fenced in area. I bought these a couple of years ago but last year they were all eaten off as fresh greens.

 

I like how they are a sculptural form with the blooms coming out from the bottom and progressing to the top. With success of blooms I may have to buy a different set of colors next spring. I do have to dig them each fall but it isn't difficult.

 I haven't had a lot of success with cannas but I am getting a bloom from this one. I like the leaf color. My brother who lives in California has beautiful large ones that he grows in pots. Of course his weather is perfect for it. I have four or five of them in the front garden that haven bloomed yet. 

At seven o'clock sharp this morning we heard popping sounds outside. Directly behind us the crew started tearing off the shingles of the house. They started early to beat the heat but they are still finishing up fastening shingles at five o'clock this evening. They worked through 84 degree temps all afternoon. They are in the cleaning up stage now and the popping sound of compression nail gun has stopped. It is interesting to watch the most modern way for the underlayment done on the roof. They don't use tar paper over the entire roof anymore. They do two strips of black paper at the bottom of the roof  and then the rest is a glued down plastic waterproofing. I like the color they shose for the new color and it isn't just plain gray. It has a green shade in it. 

 The yellow rose fades to white. It is still pretty and these seem to be weathering well.

 The starting color is wonderful thought. I mowed the front yard today and then rested for the rest of the day. Resting is a good thing.Thanks for stopping by today. 

Middle of the Week

 It is hot in the day but we are now cooling off at night. The southern winds have stopped and the winds from the north makes it cooler. We have the smoke up in the sky and it hasn't settled down so much. i can't take moon shots as the haze is great with the clouds and smoke mixing together. Our smoke right now is coming from a couple of western states and not from Canada.  

I mowed the back yard this morning and will do the front tomorrow. I had to take a break once before I could complete the task. It warmed up on me quickly. I will get outside earlier tomorrow. The grass is getting shaggy and yet it is has its  dry spots. In is the summer yard time when we are lucky to have some green. State Fair time is coming and we will have lots of hot weather for that.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Tuesday's Things

 An interesting start of the day with lots of clouds and a hot humid start already.  The day lacked one degree at being 90 degrees F. The sun was not so visible to the eyes but the camera did pick it up. 

 When looking up at the sky later in the day you can see the fluffy clouds. The humidity and heat doesn't bother the sunflowers. I am sure the leaves are soaking in the moisture from the air. They keep growing taller and all seem to be about the same height.

 Looking down from the deck they look like a group of people. I have been cutting back on some of the bottom leaves so the tomatoes won't get too much shade. 

 

I went to the grocery store early this morning to get meds and a few groceries. I wanted to avoid the heat. Ironically it was so cold in the store that the heat felt good when I left the store. It was nice to shop with the small group of people instead of it being crowded.  I had meds for both me and my wife to pick up and I didn't even have a line at the pharmacy.

While walking around in the backyard this morning I noticed I really do need to mow the grass. Maybe tomorrow morning it will happen if I get out there early enough.  Our grass keeps going brown and then greens up again. We didn't get rain but there is dew on the grass most mornings. Normal hot weather is suppose to continue for quite a while. 

Thanks for stopping in today.  

Sultry

 It is a hot morning while looking down at the tomato/sunflower patch. It is heavy humidity from the night heat and we didn't cool down.  I believe we started out at 79 degrees F. Some of the plants don't seem phased about the heat as they love the high humidity.

 I carried a watering can up the hill to give the circle garden a little bit of moisture. It pays off even thought it was not that much water.

 I planted my mail order Japanese maple into the center of the circle. The grand plan is that years down the road there will be a bonsai-shaped maple in the center of the raised circle bed.  I am glad I went ahead and bought a six foot tree of the same kind and put it in the back yard.  I have cannas growing in there right now and they look like they might bloom. More water will help them for sure. 

 The lens has a small amount of moisture on it from it being in a cold house and being taken into the sauna-like weather. I carry water for the large lily to keep it lasting as long as I can. The smaller yellow day lily didn't bloom this year because of the installation of the fence. I think the workmen tromped it down and it didn't like the treatment. I will move it when the weather becomes better. 

 The hibiscus is struggling under the heat. I keep it watered but the hot sun and heat just takes away its freshness. It does have lots of buds on it so maybe  have better times. I went to get the mail and bring in the garbage in the afternoon. When I opened the garage door to go and bring in the bin, the outdoor heat just swooshed inside like it was a vacuum. Tomorrow it will be a little bit cooler by four or five degrees. The farmers in Iowa are probably saying that this will really make the corn grow. Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Sunday

 When the clouds cleared we did get sun. It got ups to 98 degrees F. It was not cooler in the shade. Our cool down will be 79 degrees at six in the morning. 

 The heat is hard on the hardy geraniums, I plan to bring inside the hanging plants as their non soil planting medium just dries out completely and it kills everything in the pot. 

 I didn't get time to water things today but I will do so first thing in the morning. My water bill for the past month was higher but it was needed to water as much as I could. 

The phlox are fading now as their season is starting to run out. I saw hummingbirds checking out the tiger lilies yesterday but I didn't have a camera handy. I know that they try to get food from the plhlox but I can't see how they get much nectar from them.

It was not great to be out this day but we did make it to church. The concrete really glares back the sun's heat as you walk to and from. We stopped for sandwiches on the way home and that will be all we will do for the rest of the day.

Thanks for checking in today.