August 20th
I took a lot of pictures today.  So here is the story:

 I transplanted some of the cosmos taking over the backyard to the front.  They don't look real good here but there are buds coming.  The hope is for lots more cosmos next year.  And, my, my, the petunias are red again.  They look dead and then they revive.

Shock!  Yes, I know. this was one of those 50 cent veggies Tom got on July 18.

I never have enough basil!

 They really do taste like candy.

That is a bell pepper. Amazing.  this also was one of Tom's finds.  a sick little plant and comes to my house and voila!  Maybe I have Grandma Filomena's green thumb a little....

Okay, these are those two 50 cent tomato plants Tom got me on July 18. As a reminder, this is what they looked like a month ago. This is one of them next to the bell pepper!  no kidding!

Front yard news:

This one plant was planted by Laura Flanders after the hailstorm that threatened to ruin my vision of Alex and Elly's rehearsal dinner.  It was a perennial and has little blue flowers on it for the first time this summer.

And that Paula Bailey, green thumb extrodinare. would love to have some of those sunflowers show up in my yard.  Blow seeds over, wind.  I planted a lot of seeds this year and well, look what I have:

Paula's house first then our yard:

It will probably bloom while I am in CA.  Oh well.

Take a look at the hydrangea.  No lovely flowers but new growth for sure.  This plant as well as some of the petunias in the front (see picture)  don't seem to get enough water.  So I dumb a watering can full in it every day, it seems.  but  not as much water as those zucchinis!

See there on the left?  have to figure that out for next year.

The monster dahlia that is so heavy it is now propped up with a iron rod!  but it is pretty:

I like that lime green leaf plant and plan to get this one again next year.  It grew really well.  And note the impatiens.  I plan to move these two mums.  One is budding and the other will bud in September but they are too big and blocking the sprinkler getting to the ivy which looks pretty bad right now.

 Add the yellow dahlia.  Remember one dahlia just died....near the yellow one. It has so many buds coming!

My new thing is that the veggie garden is getting more like a  Cosmos garden and that is actually good as things are just not doing well there. The lettuce, as I mentioned, has just finished.  only one row. The carrots look good and should be dug up in September. 

So there you have it. The August update!

August 19

This month went by really fast.  When I got back from a week's absence, the front flowers did not look really good.  Some Miracle Gro and water perked them up.

The hydrangea is still alive. Debbie had to trim all the flowers but I can definitely see new bud coming.

The news is the vegetables.  The one row of lettuce keeps producing!  I've harvests green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.  And made lots of pesto from my basil.

Tom bought me an eggplant plant, and two tomato plants for 50 cents. I planted them on July 19. Well, of all things, the tomato plants look good and I am getting an eggplant.

 The pictures above are from earlier in August.  Here are pictures from a few days ago. A couple comment:  i think some one might be eating my cherry tomatoes as I have a lot of them but they disappear. I don't think it is the Peter Rabbit who found a way into my yard. He could never get them. But it is odd. I do often go out and eat them like candy but not that often.  The other thing is that before I had zucchini and cukes, I had noticed lots of bees around the plants.  I was very  happy to see those as I knew they were pollinating.  here is the result:

I just went out to the garden and took more pictures.