Summer Garden

Mrs. Puff, my senior Chihuahua foster dog, knows it's important to take time to smell the blossoms.

It's been hot, hot, hot here in The Woodlands, TX, but the other day I took a break from pulling weeds to take some photos in my garden.

These are "SOOC" photos--straight-out-of-the-camera, with only minor cropping.  I've been using a digital camera since late 2005, so I like to tinker with my photos in Photoshop or with Picnik, but the light was great and I took time to adjust my settings as I moved about the garden.

Red variegated banana leaf detail.

We've never had fruit from our bananas, but when we lived in Hawai'i, we enjoyed the tastiest home-grown "apple" bananas ever, from "keikis" (Hawaiian for "child," which meant sideshoots) from a parent plant in Waipahu.

You might think we're in the tropics, but our area received cold temperatures that damaged our bananas, oleanders, palms and citrus.  The fan palm seedlings are from some palms along our fence.  We have so manay seedlings that I have to yank them up like weeds.

Our hibiscus froze to the ground but have rebounded.

I bought a packet of zinnia seeds at the grocery store.  We have to spread thick mulch to combat weeds (it doesn't work that well, actually) so we only had about four zinnias mature into adult plants.  They have loads of pretty button-shaped blooms, although the plants are woody and sprawl onto the patio concrete.

And now, here are some more SOOC photos from our summer vacation trip to Washington, D.C.  These were shot at Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

Butterfly on a zinnia.

Crepe myrtle; Mount Vernon.  BTW, crepe myrtle grows well here in The Woodlands.  And in Waxahachie, TX, there is a "Crepe Myrtle Festival" every June!

Coneflower, an American native, which also can be found in Texas, although our soil is generally too acidic here in The Woodlands.

Boxwood parterre bed at Mount Vernon.  I love shaped garden designs, but lack patience.

So what's going on in your garden as summer winds down?