Tuesday View – July 26, 2016
Note: Tuesday is actually July 26. Mixed up the date in the post title because I took the photographs on Monday.
Cathy at Words and Herbs hosts the Tuesday View, encouraging garden bloggers to post a photo of the same view of the garden week by week and note the changes.
This Tuesday view was taken at Monday 12:52 p.m. instead of at the usual early morning Tuesday time. Yesterday the sun had gone behind the clouds for a few minutes so I took advantage of the photo opportunity.
In a noticeable change from last week the grass is turning brown in spots. Fescue retreats in this type of weather, but should recover once cooler weather returns in the fall. Monday reached 97° F. There has been no rain for 10 days, leaving some things looking a bit desperate. I have watered 3 times, but it has little effect.
Another detectable difference is in the circle where the path is lazily being restored. Yesterday I uncovered more of the labyrinth pavers, only a few left to go. A friend and I had done a meditation walk Saturday, and I realized that with the path obscured as it was by thyme, it would be easy to turn an ankle or trip. We managed to not hurt ourselves. The thyme released its calming fragrance as we stepped across it.
Meditation Path
At lower left in the first photo, the edge of a small round border is just barely visible. Here zinnias, planted from seed (maybe mid-June), are finally beginning to bloom.
Zinnias
Zinnias
Zinnias
Looking back north toward the meditation circle, I took a last picture as one of dozens of skippers flying around landed on a Verbena flower. There also were lots of dragonflies and swallowtails but they were camera shy.
Skipper On Verbena Bonariensis.
Thanks to Cathy at Words and Herbs for hosting the Tuesday View. Check out her featured view and those of other gardeners.
pbmGarden 
Your zinnias are looking great. Most of my first batch did not come up, so I’ll try again. We call this part of summer our second “winter” as it is just too hot for the plants to bloom.
Thanks. I still have some seeds but no place to put them! Hope your second batch does well.
I think the garden still looks remarkably fresh, much better than mid-June last year so you’ve gained at least a month! I love walking on thyme, such a delicious scent.
I finished trimming the rest of the pavers this morning and noticed some places where the thyme is dying back. I think of it as plant that doesn’t need much water but it doesn’t like this dry period much, or maybe it’s the heat? You’re right we’ve been so lucky this year and had plenty of rain through the end of June. There are heat warnings today because the heat index is 105 or so and temp around 97F. It’s not as humid to me as it was when you were here though last year. That was tough weather.
Zinnias must like hot weather to look that good.
Yes, they really do thrive in the heat. They like poor soil and don’t need much water either. I believe they would welcome a little shower now though.
I’m impressed by the rapid transition from seed to flowers of your Zinnias, Susie. I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of response from seeds here, with the possible exception of borage.
Zinnias are about the only flower I grow from seed. I double-checked the planting time and it was June 15. By June 20 seedlings were emerging. I’ve had better luck waiting until it the soil is plenty warm. This year I was lucky because we were getting nice showers every day until the end of June. Helped get the plants off to a good start.
Your garden looks so calm and peaceful again – a real haven, and not only for the creatures! I love that photo of the skipper. Your skippers look like ours, but I also find it very difficult to identify ours. Hope you get a good shower soon Susie. We have had plenty again today, with intense sun in between. Thanks for sharing your view!
Cathy, happy to report we had two rains, late afternoon and overnight. After the first one, which was brief, outdoors felt like a steam bath! Hope the plants got a good soaking in the overnight one though. Found many skippers yesterday on V. bonariensis.
Don’t you just love zinnias- such bright happy flowers and so generous, lasting all season! Beautiful closeup shots of flowers and insects as always!
Thank you so much. Zinnias are stars in the summer garden.
Love the Zinnias! And the Verbena–which always seems to have butterflies on it when I see it. Sweet post.
Thanks Beth. The zinnias are off to a good start and we got a rain overnight to keep them happy a while. I’ve seen more butterflies this year than ever.
I hadn’t realized how much the thyme had spread, it looks much crisper and neater with the stones cleared.
What beautiful zinnias, I also started a few but they are much leaner and so far only a few are blooming.
Happy to report I finished trimming the thyme yesterday so now all the pavers are open. Neater and safer. We had some showers nearly every day when the zinnias were emerging and I think that gave them a nice boost. I usually forget to water after the first couple of days.
I like the idea of ‘lazily restoring’ something Susie! And just thinking of walking on thyme is good for the soul … Amazing about your zinnias and real proof of how much they like heat, dryness sunshine. I’ve struggled for weeks and weeks this year just to get germination after the wet spring. Maybe I should have waited to start them later (it’s dry now) and they would have caught up!
Hi Cathy, the thyme is finally all trimmed–wrapped up that lazy project yesterday. Many more await. It’s probably not too late to throw out a few more zinnia seeds now that it’s drier. I tried to grow green ones last year and they failed. This year I planted cactus and cut-and-come-again, old reliables.
The zinnias are gorgeous. I love walking on thyme too. I am also gradually developing a small chamomile lawn which is amazing to walk on and wonderfully fragrant.
Thanks for reminding me about chamomile. Love the idea of your fragrant lawn.