Friday Freedom Garden

You can't read the temperature, but it says 85°F.



It's time to deadhead the dahlias. They started blooming right after Bloom Day while I was on jury duty. Meet 'Prince Noir'. Generally, I like the single types, but these decorative ones are okay too.



This poppy, on the other hand, is awful. I would pull it but I grew it from seed and I feel kind of sentimental. But mostly I'm keeping it because I like the seedheads.



The nursery is a mess and I'm going to clean up down here after I publish this blog post.



So much clutter! Plants dead and alive...half-forgotten projects. I need to sort it all out.



I never found a spot in the ground to plant the lovage, but it seems happy in that pot.



We've had a cool summer, but things are warming up. I've picked only a few squash so far this year, and no beans (on the left) or tomatoes. The cucumbers are really lagging.



The buckeye is still green... Once the leaves go dormant for the summer drought, I'm going to snip off every single leaf.



I guess I should at least try to make home-made chamomile tea, huh?



The Native Americans ate tarweed seeds, but I wonder if you can do anything with the flowers.



The same thing in the other direction...



The water in the bird bath turns green quickly this time of year with all the sun. Seems like a bad thing for the birds..? Birds must get used to drinking some really crappy water, when you think about it. Lately, I'm feeling like there's too much Salvia spathacea. Maybe when it flowers, I'll feel differently.



I continue to keep my lettuces under netting to keep the birds out.



And this is still my favorite place to sit.



The raspberries and Tithonia diversifolia have begun to fill in this corner...it's getting a little jungly.



And still, just occasional passionflowers. Now, I know you think it's normal to have just a few at a time, but other passionflowers around San Francisco usually have hundreds of flowers blooming at any given time. Maybe it depends on the variety or something.



I think this little Clematis is named 'Pistachio'. I bought it on sale somewhere. It's runty, but cute.



Okay, that's enough for now. Ta-ta.