Versatile Ruckbeckia

 Bright yellow Rudbeckia is a useful plant in the garden. I wouldn't think of yellow as a neutral colour and yet, in the garden, it seems to go with just about anything. Here it looks fine with pink coneflower with the plus that they have similar flower shape.

The red beebalm is past its peak but it will keep blooming sporadically for a while yet.  The rudbeckia freshens up the space and helps to support the beebalm and keep it from flopping. Both these plants can be bullies if planted in good soil with adequate moisture but put them in a space with leaner soil where they have room to spread or can be contained with mowing, and they are a super cheeful, easy care combo. They are the same colour value so they balance each other.

Hostas are great filler plants for me but it's nice to have some colour near them. Rudbeckia has a long gloom time from late July to September and the birds will eat their seeds.

 Yellow , of course, goes well with purple as they are oppposite on the colour wheel.

Even blue looks good with the yellow of rudbeckia.

We   had very little rain in June and early July, but the rudbeckia was just fine anyway. I didn't water it. Rudbeckia, one of my all time favourites.

Some Bits of Colour

 The garden is not as colourful as usual as I am primarily relying on perennials this year. This tiger lily is fun with all its spots.  We had a very dry spell in June and early July but lilies manage well even in dry conditions.

 I have a couple of containers of zinnias on the deck and they have just started blooming. The plants are a little above waist height so it's easy to get a good look at them.  I like to start zinnias inside in the spring as I find they have a hard time establishing from a direct seeding in the garden. They make very good cut flowers.

The red beebalm and red daylilies are giving the backyard a nice punch of colour. The hummingbirds also like the beebalm and pink phlox. The beebalm wilted a bit in the dry spell but it bounced right back after the rain.

 This is a sweet little pink echinacea.  It has stayed shorter this year because of the dryness but that is a plus.  Other years it has gotten a bit floppy. They are also a very good cut flower.

 Very few summer flowers are a true blue but this Chinese delphinium is one of them. It has proved to be  very winter hardy but it is a floppy plant.

Zucchini flowers are a happy yellow and I have been enjoying them as well as the squash.

I saw a bright orange eft of the Eastern newt in my backyard the other day. I had Pepper, my horse, with me eating grass so I wasn't able to dash in the house  and get my camera. No sign of it later. Fun to see though.  It was only about an inch and a half  long. The adult newts live in water so I'm not sure how the little eft got to our place.  The closest water is a quarter of a kilometer away. The green treefrog is back on the back deck after a two week absence. Such a cute little guy.

Veggies

We are having lots of hot sunny weather which is good for the garden.  I water it regularly. I tried a new fertilizer this year and am very happy with it.  It's Miracle Grow 24-8-16. I noticed that the tomato plants on the right of the photo have really thick strong stems and the plants are staying shorter while still blooming. The zucchinis on the left are busting out all over. Even the beets and carrots in the middle are looking healthier than usual.

Some Swiss chard that is sprouting big leaves even though it is crowded.

Five romaine lettuce squashed together in a planter pot. They are full size. I've been picking from them but they still look full although now they are starting to bolt.

Last year I used Miracle Grow pelleted fertilizer also high in nitrogen and had amazing cabbages. I wanted to get it again but  wasn't able to buy it in the spring as stock at the store was spotty due to Covid. I used to use - well, still use sometimes- Plant Prod as it has lots of micronutrients as well as the N-P-K because, until recently, Miracle Grow didn't have many micronutrients and didn't work very well. Their new formulation now has lots of micronutrients and works really well.

Cute Little Treefrog

I saw this little guy by the back deck.  Although he is officially a Grey Treefrog as you can see he is green.  Some of them are brown and , of course, some are grey. I don't know what accounts for the variation in colour. They can climb way up in the trees with their suction cup feet and have a surprisingly loud call. This one is about 2" long. Pretty cute.

Campanulas and some other June perennials

 The garden has been a lot of green this year as I didn't buy any annuals. I have planted some zinnias and nasturtiums but they won't bloom for a while yet. But here and there, perennials are blooming.
I planted the pink Canterbury bells (Campanula medium) last year and, as they are a biennial, they just grew a rosette of leaves last summer. Now they have sent up some tall flower stems and should bloom for a few weeks. They might even give a second show if I trim them back after the first flush of flowers. Beside them is the lavender peach-leaf campanula (campanula persicifolia) which is a perennial and a tough one at that. It can be a bit unruly if it is in good garden soil but it will also bloom in less than ideal conditions so it's a handy plant. I like the two campanulas side by side.  The Canterbury bells could theoretically self-sow but they never have in the past so if I want more I will have to start some plants from seed in the house.

The fragrant messy Blanc Double de Corbet rugosa rose is blooming. Tough as nails.

 A short Knock-Out rose that doesn't have any fragrance but  is an eye-popping pink and comes through the winter with no protection.

 This is a miniature rose that I've had for years. It's in a terrible location with a lot of shade, competing with tree roots but it still puts out a couple of defiant pretty little flowers.

The mock orange has taken forever to bloom properly. Many years! Finally it is giving us a bit of a show.

The evening primrose are dealing with a location that gets shadier by the year . In spite of the lack of sun, it still blooms fairly well.  It can be aggressive but that also makes it undemanding and in the fall the leaves turn a nice burgundy red.

The Cecropia Moth Emerged

 I was very excited to find that the Cecropia moth that made a cocoon in a rose bush last fall has emerged. The rose bush was in line to get snow from the roof and was in a very exposed spot so before the cold weather came  I cut the rose stem with the cocoon  and leaned it up against a tree where it would be more protected. I think the moth must have just emerged shortly before I saw it this evening as it was resting on the cocoon and still looked a little curled.

As you can or maybe can't see, it isn't in a very obvious spot. It is about a third of the way down in the photo.

It was starting to get dark so the picture is a bit fuzzy from the low light but you can see its beautiful markings and fluffy red antenna.  It is, according to Wikipedia, the largest moth in North America although I guess it depends on which way you are measuring because I think a luna moth would be longer.
I had been checking the cocoon every day as I had read the moth emerges at this time of year but I really didn't think that I would see the event.

Is That 2m Apart?

 The flowers obviously did not get the memo which is nice because flowers 2m apart would be a little disconcerting.  I think these are Darwin tulips.  I find the tall late varieties and the short early ones are the best for coming back over a few years.  The medium sized ones don't do well for me in that regard.

 The forget-me-nots make lovely clumps in random spots around the yard. I like the way some of the plants are blue, some pink, and some white. Seeds from a white one won't necessarily make a new white plant. Don't know what accounts for the colour variations.

 This dandelion just looked so lush and bright I thought it should get a spot in the limelight. It has 12 flowers ( 2 past their prime).

I have several bleeding hearts around the gardens but this one is just busting at the seams with flowers. A friend gave me a bleeding heart plant over 15 years ago and I have divided it multiple times. This is one of the divides.

These violets are special because they came from my grandmother who also loved to garden.  She particularly liked roses and used to keep cut ones in her fridge to give to visiting friends and family. She was a no-nonsense lady and when she got too old to garden herself, she spent many happy hours bossing around some poor high school student who ventured to make a couple of bucks weeding and watering.