Long-blooming perennials and annuals provide color and texture in an August garden that will last through early fall!

 

Hello garden lovers! Can you believe it is almost mid-August? It’s time for back-to-school,  so I have been working hard on all of my late summer chores. This past week I replaced some dead annuals with those that will last through September, and I even maganged to create some new garden spaces during my last week of summer break. School actually starts back for me today, but I had some time this weeked to take a few pictures to share for this fun “Late Summer Flower Power” blog hop hosted by my friend Cecilia of My Thrift Store Addiction!

 

Cecilia always has the most beautiful gardens, so she is the perfect host for this hop. You will find links to all hop participants’ late summer flower power at the end of my post.

 

If you are coming over from Cottage at the Crossroads| or if you are just stopping by for a visit, welcome to my garden! Because I have also been busy preparing for the start of school, I will simply be sharing some of the highlights of my August garden “flower power” in lieu of a full garden tour. 

 

Here you can see a peek down into my backyard cottage garden with late summer perennials in bloom. A pot of vivid orange lantana sitting on my shabby vintage cast iron table at the garden entrance is my favorite annual in the August garden. I love the orange hues next to the light purple butterfly mint and fuscia blooms of the butterfly bush. These colors will transition perfectly into fall.

 

I planted the hummingbird mint in early June and it has been blooming profusely all summer long. It has the most wonderful fragrance! The old garden plaque was an early summer junkin’ find, and the DIY faux copper hummingbird garden stake was one of my quick and easy and inexpensive summer craft projects.

 

The pink globe amaranth has been blooming non-stop since May! Although it is an annual in zone 6, it should self-seed and spread. I will also be planting more next spring because I have enjoyed it so much.

 

Pretty white gaura planted next to the pink amaranth is a sweet combo. The plants look so graceful and ethereal when the wind blows! By the way, the teepee trellis is creative coverage for my favorite blue hosta to protect it from hungry deer.

 

Here is a brand new view in the center of our backyard featuring a thrifted birdbath with new underplantings of perennials and potted plants, and pollinator garden bed in the distance. We made a few changes to our backyard landscape which freed up some extra stones to use around the birdbath and also in front of my new butterfly garden bed at the end of the yard. I am looking forward to seeing how this area looks next year when all the plants have grown and filled out.

 

I set up an unsued cedar raised bed that was collecting dust in the garage to create a new pollinator garden at the edge of our property. I only have one bloom on my newly planted monarda didyma (scarlet bee balm,) but eventually it will spread and take up most of the bed. I planted echinacea, hyssop and a few other annuals to fill space until the bee balm really gets going. Next year I will also plant some sunflowers in this space. The tithonia (red sunflower) in the corner was a seedling gifted to me by my neighbor. I will share her tithonia at the end of the post! 

 

Right now the “pow wow” white echinacea really has some late summer flower power! Pollinators absolutely love it!

 

As soon as it was planted, a new Fritillary butterfly began to visit, along with loads of bumblebees. The young pollinator garden is already in full working order!

 

If you love butterflies, you will definitely want to check out my recent post with all the new butteflies in the garden!

 

I repeated some of the same late summer perennial plantings around the base of the bird bath along with autumn sedum. The potted plants will be replaced with stella daylilies when my mom divides hers this fall.  By the way, the white powder that you might notice scattered around the garden is Garden Safe Diatomoaceous Earth (NOT SEVIN DUST!) There have been more than a few detrimental garden pests that also became interested in the new flowers! 

 

The white annabelle hydrangeas have been simply fabulous all summer. They are starting to change color, fade and dry, so this week I will cut some to bring inside as I transtion to fall indoors.

 

Mosquitos have been a real problem this year, so I really don’t want to leave any standing water in the birdbath. There is a hole for drainage in the top to allow water to pass through the hollow base into the ground. The blue glass rocks mimic water and add interest and whimsy under a rusty “cloche” (of unknown orignal use and origin.) The rocks were once in my great grandmother’s garden, then my grandmother’s garden, and now mine. 

 

 

Here is an alternate view  of the new center birdbath area looking back up toward the entrance into the back yard. The little butterfly bush planted on the corner will be 3×3 when it is fully grown, so it should fill in the corner nicely. For now, potted plants add color and interest. I am really looking foward to this view next June when the old-fashioned day lilies on the bank are putting on their show.

 

 

 

 

For now there is still plenty of late summer flower power on the bank with the purple coneflower echinacea holding the last of it’s color, purple salvia, russian sage, butterfly bush, and rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans).

 

 

Passing by the butterfly bush you will always find butterflies in plenty. This beautiful zebra swallowtail with slightly blue wings seems color coordinated with my flowers and garden accents.

 

A monarch finally showed up this past week! It has visited the large butterfly bush a few times, but it actually seems to prefer the pink and yellow lantana on the center of our patio table.

 

I didn’t plan it, but pink and yellow turned out to be sort of a theme in my August garden.

 

This darker pink and yellow cosmos is so pretty!

 

I experimented with new plants in the partial shade cottage garden by our side door (where the new mini-mudroom makeover is currently wrapping up!) The plants did well enough here, but towards the evening the cosmos and more sun-loving plants start to stretch toward the remaining sunlight. I will have to move some things around next year for sure, but I still love this area with all the pretty textures.

 

I planted the cosmos really late this year, so they are still blooming nicely. By deadheading the faded blooms regulary, the cosmos continues to bud and bloom!

 

 

The old birdbath in this area is one of my favorite garden structures. This year I planted it up with succulents and I am thrilled with how it is filling out in late summer.

 

Here is how it was looking in early June. To get started, I used some cuttings from perennial succulents that were already established in my garden.

 

Over the course of summer I filled in gaps with succulents gifted from my mom, neighbor, and my oldest son who treated me to the  greenish-blue trailing succulents as a belated Mother’s Day Gift. It will eventually spread and “spill” over the edges of the birdbath. 

 

Near to the birdbath, a succulent-like hot pink portucula shows off some late summer flower power!

 

I have several herb garden areas that I will share in another post, but for this post I wanted to include this old chippy white urn filled with pretty herbs.  I love the simple green and white combinations of the herbs and variegated lirope that edges our landscape on the front and side of the house.

 

The spearmint will be planted in another pot later this fall where it will overwinter, the sage will be planted in one of my herb gardens, and the yarrow (a butterfly favorite!) will find a home among the plants in the pollinator bed.  A lot will change in the garden of the next six weeks, so I will definitely share a fall garden tour update.

 

My dear friend and neighbor has such a green thumb when it comes to starting plants from seed and tubers. This year her tithonia and dahlias have reached for the sky! We have the most fun sharing seeds, plants, and gardening knowledge. She is also a music teacher, so we even sing fun songs when we garden! 

 

It is fun to share the love of garden with friends in the real world, and online too! I can’t wait to visit my blogging friends’ gardens and see all of their late summer flower power! Next up is dear Debra at Common Ground. She has amazing cottage garden style indoors and out! Don’t forget to visit all of the other participants’ gardens via these links:

My Thrift Store Addiction| The Crowned Goat| Exquisitley Unremarkable| Our Hopeful Home| Cottage at the Crossroads| Follow The Yellow Brick Home| Common Ground

 

I hope you have enjoyed these peeks into several areas of my garden and my August garden highlights. Be sure to subscribe by email if you haven’t already s0 you will be sure to catch the garden update posts I will be sharing in the fall. 

How is your late summer garden? I love hearing from you, dear readers! Thanks for visiting today!

Amber