We spend time every day in our garden beds and borders.    The vegetable garden is full of produce for frequent harvest, but it also needs weeding and cleaning up.   Rockeries and rock gardens tend to take care of themselves, but a little extra water in hot spells is needed.    Perennial beds are full of blooming flowers and there is lots of work to weed, deadhead, and clean up.   We are still planting young plants we grew from seed.    All of the front yard is a large flowerbed and there are stars each month, usually featured in posts on the website.   Clematis is constantly blooming, but there is also deadheading and little extra watering to do.    Many of the spring herbs are going to seed so there is some harvesting and drying to do.   Most shrubs have finished flowering so there is some cleaning up.    Fruit trees have maturing fruit and the first harvests will be in a month.   Every year here are some surprises, mostly flowers self-seeded, some every year for decades.

We take a lot of photos, but only share a few.   Many flowers are reflective and its hard to get the right exposure.    Some flowers bob in the wind, making photos that are not sharp.   On grey days, the light may require just the right amount of flash.   Some flowers are complex and its hard to get all of the parts in focus.   Any of these problems can be surmounted with a tripod, flash, and an SLR, but most of the shots are taken by a point-and-shoot when the light and the subject look just right.    It may take multiple shots over several days to get the right one.

Not all of these are exactly perfect, but they are shared here.    This slideshow gallery includes photos of a few species/cultivars –  Dahlia, Hydrangea, daylilies, Gazanias, poppy anemone, Gaillardia, lamb’s-ear, Veronicastrum, coral-bells, perennial sweet peas, Joe Pye weed, Cuphea, Echinacea, and a June beetle.   Latin names, if not already included, are available on request.

The Google Photos gallery with captions can also been seen at this link – End of July Garden

The next gardening post will feature garden herbs in August.