First things first. This week of killer heat has probably ravaged my garden. I know for a fact that almost all of my impatiens are dead and my poor caladiums have fallen on their leaf-faces. Not enough watering and also RABBITS. Fucking rabbits. No really. Ignore all of those plants over there and just nibble on the ones that I’m trying to grow. Feast in a neighbor yard, please.

But we shall get past this. The summer is only halfway through, mayhap they will revive. Until then, here are some pretty pictures to reminisce with.

Can we say flowering pepper plant? With baby bell pepper? YES WE CAN. =D I try to make sure and water it every day. I fail. But I try. The pepper? Getting bigger and looking delicious. YAY. I cannot wait to stir-fry it. Or even just rinse it off and munch on it.

My sweet pea plant is one of the most prolific plants in my garden. It comes up every year, everywhere, hanging on everything. I love it when it blooms and I hate having to hack it off the chainlink every winter. This time I got a picture of the pea pods too. I meant to collect the pea seeds but I think most of them have fallen already for next year. Jas is forever plucking stems of the blooms and giving them to people, or she’ll loop them through Kayla’s collar for some flair.

I will forever remember my caladium looking like this. Splendid. I hope it perks back up and shoots out leaves everywhere. It was so pretty.

My fabulous potted butterfly bush. I am kind of ridiculously proud of it. As it is I’m debating planting it in the back yard because apparently they can grow up to five feet in a season. The thought of this plant towering in the yard with all those pretty blooms… well, it’s terribly enticing. But if I keep it potted, then I can take it with me next year. Decisions, decisions.

And speaking of plants that got left, here is my lovely french hybrid white lilac tree. It has grown from the twig of last year into an actual plant with leaves. Finally! Last year was a test of patience. I remember opening the box and looking at the stick with a few roots like… I’m pretty sure I overpaid. But it’s growing. You can’t tell from the angle, but it’s a foot tall. And hopefully it will bloom next spring. =) Grow, lilac, grow!

Plant deaths of the year: FOUR mint plants (uprooted by enterprising kidlets), my 3 coleus plants (at least, I’m fairly certain they are goners, water them as I might), all my lavendar seedlings (also kidlets), one of my two tomato plants.

Plants I thought would die but didn’t: the SEVEN rose of sharon’s I got from a guy on craiglist who was redoing his landscaping. Free to those who wanted to dig them out. Actually, I only dug out one but it was a monster and so while I was unearthing the roots he got a bunch more for me. THEY HAVE BUDS ON THEM! The other tomato plant, since I haven’t watered it very often at all.

Plants I want to get this fall: more daylilies for along the fence. I want a multitude of colors. Then if I break up my bearded iris I can intersperse them and what a happy picture that would make.

ALSO! I’m killing off my brainstream page because I’ve hooked up the homepage with the tumblr/twitter/flickr feeds. Holla. So you know. You can keep tabs that way too.