This has been a really hot and humid August, normally the peak of the heat is gone by now, but not this year. Of course the plants love this, but it means we haven’t gone hiking as much as we like. My tomato plant in the pot is finally showing signs of ripening fruit, plus the parsley is going wild. I really love the yellow calibrachoa flowers with the parsley, the green and yellow draw the eye to the lush corner.
I had to add a cage from an old bird feeder to the front flowerbed for the huge and heavy Cherokee Purple tomatoes to have a place to rest. The weight was pulling the branches down and breaking them over the top of the support cage.
Nearby, the wonderful pink daisy, a gift from a friend, bloomed again. Surprising as I thought it was done. The color is just stunning. Thank you, Bonnie H!!
All of the white begonias continue to bloom, both in the bed and on the veranda, growing nicely.
The torenias are winding down. I need to get out and pinch out all the dead blooms. They would likely bloom profusely again if I would.
The few blooms now still attract the most lovely of pollinators. I think this one is a Spicebush Swallowtail, with the orange spots underneath and blue on the open wing backs.
This beauty dined on the dianthus pollen for quite a while.
I like the red leaves on this pink begonia, but it hasn’t grown as large as I hoped. I think it is getting a bit too much sun, the ones in pots on the veranda are bigger.
I put some garden lime on the hydrangeas to make the flowers more pink. The blooms came out this icky color at first.
But the latest one is this lovely color!
My phlox is preparing another show, a few blooms are showing up and I expect three large heads of flowers in a few more days.
Impatiens and begonias spill over the pots on the veranda near the front door.
The two African violets love the humidity, and have doubled in size. They also bloomed nicely, now on the downside of the blooms.
The largest pot has three plants, but I am still disappointed in the flowers here. The lobelia has refused to bloom and the begonia hasn’t bloomed in a month. The coleus at least has some interest with the variegated leaf.
But over in the east corner, the red geranium fairly glows next to the white petunias. In the back, the yellow daisy has bloomed again too. Pink coleus is getting very tall, and pink petunias spill over the edge of their pot.
Bringing the bounty into the kitchen, parsley and an heirloom tomato are set out for a salad.
Fresh parsley leaves are scraped from the stems, chopped and added to lettuce for a nice contrast in greens.
Spinach is added, and the heirloom tomato is cut into bite size bits. Lovely colors!
A few days later, two more tomatoes are harvested for dinner.
We ate those, and then harvested these beauties on Thursday.
I nipped out to one of four basil plants for a few leaves.
Caprese salad is so lovely with homegrown Cherokee Purples and fresh basil from the veranda. Lightly dressed with a homemade balsamic viniagrette, it made the perfect first course for a grilled dinner.
Back in the garden, the Better Boy tomato is coming along, looks like I’ll have some slicers soon.
One more look at that parsley, I am just so pleased with its growth.
What is growing in your garden? Are you harvesting tomatoes and veggies?
From My Carolina Home 
Your plants look great. I am also a little envious of your beautiful tomatoes. Our’s, here in Montana, are simply refusing to move out of their green stage. Thank you for sharing and happy gardening!
Ohhh, I can just taste those tomatoes! And love the hydrangeas colors, before and after. How do you put your blog name on your photos?
We have had the opposite type of summer, with temps consistently in the 70’s during the day and dropping to high 50’s during the night. Our lawns are bright green though and the flowers are pretty as we’ve had more rain than usual too. I love seeing your pictures of your area of the country. Our area of MN is pretty flat.
Beautiful flowers! I harvested some more of the evil “bamboo” that is overtaking our woods. My hubby has a trail that he likes to keep mowed, and the bamboo was making it impossible to get through. We have stalks over 40 foot tall. So, I got busy with the big loppers and he hauled to the brush pile the pieces I cut. I also got out in my garden one day and weeded a “path” to the center. The beds aren’t bad, but the weeds in the paths have run amok. I got into a bit of poison oak and had to stop and bring out the roundup brush killer. Now I have to wait a few days before trying again to bring order to the garden. Oh the things I do while my sewing machine is “in the shop”. 🙂 My vegetable gardening is non-existent, but visiting a friend late this week meant you could not leave without taking a bag of tomatoes home; which is my favorite way to get home grown ones! Your caprese salad looks delicious.
my garden is winding down – the tomato plants are really starting to look kind of crappy but still quite a few tomatoes on them. I have pulled out the zucchini and yellow squash plants they didn’t do well this year, even my basil did poorly. Last year by this time I had several pint jars full of dried herbs and mints – this year – oregano and rosemary and that is it – my basil plants just kept on dying. My mints I have barely gotten anything off of and I will need to order loose mints for my teas this year when the little I still have from last year is finished.
I have a small garden now (2 raised beds) so I only plant tomatoes & cukes & basil. I just noticed the first reddish tint to a tomato in the last day or so. The rest are still green! My 2 cucumber plants have been poor…I’ve picked only 3! I’m not sure what the deal is there. I need to go pick the basil again & make pesto…easy & so so soooo delicious. I enjoyed your pictures, I’ve never had torenia, wonder if it grows in the Pacific NW.
Our garden is just revving up, we had golf ball hail last Monday, so it has been recovering this week. However, I have 2 heads of Baby Romaine in the fridge and half a dozen tomatoes finishing up on the counter. We’ve enjoyed 3 tomatoes at dinner, a slice of heaven! I have a half filled ice cream pail in the fridge, the first of the green beans, and one scrubby ear of corn, the first! The peas and spinach have started sprouting, so we’ll see how this goes with an August planting. I think the carrots may be close, I need to check them. Canning season is late, but coming quickly now!
No vegetable garden here because of the deer, rabbits, woodchucks, etc. Even the squirrels keep me from planting tomatoes in pots on the deck. Weather here has been weird. Last year we had 24 days over 90° and this year only 2 and those were back in late June. Last night the weather lady said it’s been the 5th rainiest year to date ever. So everything is still green and the grass continues to grow. My most successful pot plants this year are giant begonias called ‘Whopper Rose Bronze Leaf’. They are huge and gorgeous. Bronze leaves, of course, with large hot pink flowers. I’m going to get more of them next year and retire some of my aging geraniums (which I winter over inside). And judicious spraying of Liquid Fence allowed most of my daylilies to bloom this year.
Pat
Gracious, you have to have 12 green thumbs. Your plants and garden are just so great. Have you ever made fried green tomatoes out of your Cherokee tomatoes? I’m thing they might be pretty tasty. The black butterfly is simply beautiful, have been on Pinterest just this morning looking for a few ideas to do with my butterfly house as far as painting it. Instead of putting it on the ground I’m thinking of using A shepards hook to hang it on with a plant they would like fairly close to the ground and fixing up a feeding bowl with water and a sweetner. Planted some coleus but the little birdies ate up all the seeds, the little rascals! My friend I took to the hospital Friday and operation on her right knee and hip, she had fractured both when she fell, haven’t heard from her yet but they told her she could probably come home Mon. Gotta go & get some work done. Smile and have a great day. Phyllis Smith
It’s so enjoyable, watching your garden grow and change over the months! I have lots of “Sweet Million” cherry tomatoes this year — sooooo tasty! I don’t grow the larger ones, as my mom-in-law shares her larger ones with us. Have picked the first harvest of green beans and have lots more ready to pick (these & the tomatoes grow in pots). I have a few pears this year, so looking forward to picking those soon. And tons of apples, as usual, to be picked a bit later.
My morning glories and nasturtium and four o’clock flowers in three different colors are lovely now (though I think those four o’clock flowers should be called seven o’clocks, that’s about the time they open wide around here!). So happy that I fertilized all the roses and have been watering them daily, as the repeat bloomers have put out a wonderful second and even third show. The Downton Abbey rose “Anna’s Promise” is absolutely my favorite new rose, just stunning with lots of gorgeous apricoty/peachy roses and dark green, healthy leaves. My hydrangeas have really pretty colors this year, too. Going to be sad to see this Summer end!
I loved seeing so many of your plants. Our garden is a little tired. I’ve nipped dead blooms, so we may get more. I won’t hold my breath. It’s much nicer to enjoy your garden!
What a wonderful post, your garden is positively lovely. I used to love to plant parsley only to see the green and black with yellow dots worms that would come and eat it! How they found it, on our deck up one story I could never understand…and then they ate so daintily…I loved to watch them…and the beautiful butterflies I know they turned into. I think I need to give you my African violet plant. I have not liked them since I was little and my mom had them on the windowsill behind our dining room table and it was always my job to pick up the dead leaves from the floor under the table…yuck! Haven’t like them since :~). Our tomatoes are all done…I think the heat has totally done them in….but I’m still hoping to get a bit basil to make some pesto to carry me through the winter.
Out here in the Midwest, the bush beans are done but my Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato plant is producing out of control! I had to laugh at you talking about caprese salad. I just came in from the store with fresh mozzarella pearls to throw in with my cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, and balsamic vinegar. Great minds think alike!
My Shasta daisies are pretty much past prime as are my black-eyed Susans & coneflowers. Milkweed is still going strong as is catmint, zinnias, sweet potato vine, & knock-out roses.
Getting ready to put some lettuce seeds in a pot for an Autumn harvest! Will you be in line for the eclipse on Monday? That’s all anyone around here is talking about. Got my glasses!
The flowers and coloir in your garden are beautiful, it is so good to eat home grown things, I bet those tomatoes taste wonderful. We are in the end of winter here so we have broad beans in the vege garden and peas coming along, I also tried brocolli, cabbage and cauliflower but something is eating them. We had a big pot of parsley but the possoms or fruit bats have grazed that down to nothing, I hope it can come back!! We still have some beetroot from last summer, some are nearly ready to be made into chutney.
Whatever grows wild grows in my garden. I have lots of stray seeds from past years – flowers – that have come up wherever they wish and are happy, but I’m eating out of my friends’ gardens. =)
Your gardens are certainly lush and beautiful!
We’ve been enjoying our cherry tomatoes…..and roses are blooming once again. Honestly…I’m ready for Fall though. 🙂
Such lovely photos you have shared. Sometimes it takes a close-up photo to really appreciate its significance. I have many gardens –
flowers everywhere on our acreage which brings me joy but also brings a little anxiety when I can’t keep up…which is often – ha! The tall phlox and day lilies are/were again so beautiful – all colors. Many need to be deadheaded again. The heliopolis has been sneaking into many areas, some not so inviting. Its time to thin out severely and again next spring. But, I have too much to share and not many takers.
Most of my potatoes have been dug, tomatoes are ripening slowly. Broccoli still producing. Melons are looking good, but I can’t find
any butternut squash? I am thinking that they may have been forgotten to plant this year – good grief! We love butternut squash. Zucchini #36 was picked last night. I try to sneak one to many people – even the postman who delivered a package. Many of my
tomatoes will soon go in tomato soup, salsa and juice. But, I am missing one key ingredient – bell peppers. Only the purple pepper
is producing. My other 4 bells have turned into jalapeño – apparently a mistag. I hate it when that happens. Lots of labor ahead but I love it all and despite the wonderful cool temps for about 10 days, it felt like fall and certainly not ready for that! The sun and
warmth have returned for some very pleasant days in sw Minnesota.
Lots still happening in our garden, but some wee beastie is eating our tomatoes. My son and DIL put in a small raised garden for their peppers and zucchini, got some zucchini, saw some green tomatoes, next day the tomatoes are gone! I told him to try putting a basket over them. My son said when we see a squirrel or bunny with red eyes and breathing fire, we’ll know they got his jalapenos! I have a tomato tower we’ve had luck in the past with, but somehow the stand got separated in the move and only part arrived. Next year we’ll MacGyver a pole to put it into so the beasties can’t help themselves! They only planted one zucchini, so I bought some lovely ones at the farmers market on Sat. And the palisades peaches, I cut them up still a bit under ripe and froze them, and some fresh roasted green chiles. Closest I’ve gotten to canning, no room right now! The piano is in the kitchen, hee hee, they are renovating…. I truly need some elbow room!
I love seeing your garden photos, Carole. We have dianthus and begonias in bloom now, too – very little else in flower. Very jealous of your heirloom tomatoes.
Your tomato in the pot looks great! I have very few large tomatoes so far this year – don’t know quite why – but finally a whole lot of cherry tomatoes just came in and I’m so glad. Someone gave me a Cherokee Purple tomato yesterday and I can’t wait to see what it’s like. Your parsley looks so good, too – I neglected to plant any this year and regretted it when I paid 1.59 for 2 ounces of fresh parsley the other day for tabbouleh salad – well, next year! Basil is in good shape and I made the caprese-inspired pasta salad my husband likes so much with cherry tomatoes, chopped basil, diced mozzarella and pasta with a vinaigrette dressing. We’ve had an unusually wet summer that seems to have held up ripening of tomatoes but green beans have been happy – going to go pick some now. Flowers are mostly good although echinacea looks “tired” to me once full bloom is over but I’ve heard it’s good for butterflies and birds so it will stay. Thanks for the look at your garden!
Your flowers are so beautiful! I have 60 tomato plants and harvested 15 gallons today for canned salsa. The green beans are still giving me about 1 quart a day to freeze and the brooks prunes are ready for harvest. Cucumbers are coming on now for pickles and fresh eating and the corn is on. The only flower I have besides dahlias is my Echinacea ‘Tequila Sunrise’, the butterflies sure love it. Our favorite summertime chop salad is Walla Walla onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, red pepper & fresh basil tossed with vinaigrette and crumbled blue cheese.
Beautiful garden photos Carole! That Hydrangea has such a beautiful color! The funny thing is that we have lots of lime here in the ground but we want the flowers to be blue, so we have to want less lime haha.