Two Weeks Ago in the Garden, August 10

Our recent trip to Hawaii for a conference, followed by vacation got in the way of me making my usual posts about the garden. That might be a good thing. I think that my readers and I might be tiring of these posts. Nevertheless, I'll continue with the series for the season and see how I feel next summer. Come to think of it, this is the last summer for my dahlia-obsession; in the spring 2014, I'll be planting two new perennial beds. Certainly, that will be worth documenting!

 Anyway, I digress, which I am wont to do. Back to our current gardens. The most recent transformations in the yard include sunflowers, the hibiscus plant and the rose of Sharon bushes -- all in full bloom. Also, Neil had a box of rocks - yes, you read that correctly - a box of rocks which has been sitting on our side porch for the better part of the season. It was filled with beautiful and special rocks. I removed them from the decaying box and placed them throughout the yard. Some look great; others look a bit odd, but they are staying for now. There was also a corner of our yard which had multiple plantings and between the lack of mulch and the inability of the mower to reach this section of the yard, it was driving me slightly bonkers with the weeds. So, right before we left for Hawaii, I pulled up the sod, put down mulch, and integrated the whole area. Here are some pictures of our recent transformations.
The Rose of Sharon in full bloom
The hibiscus in full bloom; blossoms are larger than my open hand.
Grapes, grapes and more grapes!
Russian sage is coming along nicely.
Queen Anne's lace - always lovely...and free!
Front of out house
New additions to the front entrance
Wild flowers, climbing roses, and hybrid hydrangea 
Starting with the rock theme...rocks in the potted flowers
More rocks
And, more...I love the stripped one on the left.
Did I mention that Neil had a box of rocks?
Piece of marble - now in our garden
More rocks
Slate and something white and lovely
This is a hand print in concrete from the Forest Street neighborhood kids in Saco. From 2000?
More hand prints. This one might be Dorothy's hand. Not quite sure. On the man hole cover in our yard.
Come and walk through the arbor. You'll love it. Promise.
Sunflowers in full glory!
I finally cleared a way through the wild flowers - up onto the patio.
Powwow cone flowers doing quite well!
The integrated perennial garden, newly mulched
We had 2 azaleas that were hiding under a hydrangea. I dug them up and moved them to the newly integrated perennial garden, 

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