An August Day In The Garden

The coleus that I potted from pinched tops are
coming along nicely. I will
eventually put these by my front door.

Bloom on "William Shakespeare 2000" David Austin English rose.
It's growing right in the middle of the
zinnia patch.

Purple Fountain grass. I just love
when sun shines through
it in the mornings. Comes across
as golden shimmery lights.

I moved the decorative
bird house over here. The birds
have been eating on the sunflowers.

If you look closely, in the middle of the photo
is a tiny crepe myrtle growing. I took an offshoot
of the mother plant last fall from my old
house and kept it in the garage all winter.
 It was about an inch
high. I planted it in the cantaloupe patch
because I didn't know yet where I wanted to
put it permanently and I didn't want the mower to
get it. It is now 6 inches tall and has flower buds on it.
This variety is "Dynamite", a brilliant red.

Another shot of "Dynamite" 

Small purple flower on the liriope.

Here are some snapdragons I grew from seed.
I'm hoping they will bloom in the fall.

This morning's little harvest. The melon on the right
is "Charentais". This is the first one I have
been able to bring in the house to eat. I've thrown about 6 out to
the rabbits. The bugs have been getting
them just as soon as they are ripe, but not this one.
I got two little tiny bell peppers - hey it's hot here. I
guess you could call them "bite-size".  I
will mix this okra with yesterdays harvest and cook up
some fried okra tonight.

Okra

Here is our little harvest from this morning.
Actually this is the third little harvest. I gave
some to my father-in-law for his
birthday. He had his name on the
waiting list, from when I first planted the
seeds. The others went
straight into the soup pot and didn't get
photographed. So good!

Glorious Rain And 72 In Texas

We had a nice rain in the night. 72 degrees and a
 slow rain awaited us this
morning. So nice to wake up to coolness and
 not have to immediately
begin watering.  It is suppose to get back to 101
today, but we will take what we can get.

I haven't taken too many pictures
lately of the front, so here
is our white crepe myrtle
in the rain.

The drought's latest victim - Elaeagnus shrub.

Are We Farmers Yet?

Two more cantaloupe this morning. These are
the Hale's Best Jumbo.
I also planted some Charentais Melon but the
first one that was ready had these little brown hard
shelled bugs on it and they ate right into it along with
ants. So, I am waiting on another one
to ripen. 

Okra in the cantaloupe/watermelon patch.

Watermelon

Okra - Clemson Spineless. It is real smooth
to the touch. We had a batch of 4 okra last
week. I made a pot of soup with it. Hopefully
this time I'll get more than that at one time.

Getting my fall pots ready - the coleus looks
pretty good despite the heat. I pinched
more tops to start this pot.

Happy Birthday to my sister today!

I Harvested My First Cantaloupe

Dropping Like Flies

All I have to report on this 1st day of August is - the plants have had enough!!! They are starting to drop like flies. I just can't seem to give everything enough water. Today it was 108 degrees and tomorrow is suppose to be worse - 109. I've lost 3 KNOCKOUT roses and 4 of the Elaeagnus shrubs which are suppose to be extremely drought tolerant. I'm praying for rain.