As always, I staged these flower pics so as to avoid lots of weeds muscling in on the shot like they do in the border. I believe the chain link fence keeps them out. I did plant the Clasping Coneflowers, a gift packet from Jung's Seeds. The clover was not invited to this party.
The large leaves on the left are the milkweeds that I left so I could enjoy their brief fragrant blooms. They have popped up all over but as yet have attracted no Monarch butterflies.
This year, the clover was the rampant hostile takeover in the beds. I have been yanking the stuff out by the fistful, with very little success. It breaks off readily but the roots are firmly immovable, ready to generate more clover.
Looking on the bright side, the clover has no doubt helped loosen the soil that lost all life from two springs of flooded beds followed by hot dry days.
However, the daylilies were protected from the clover invasion by a timely application by my head gardener, me, of a thick leaf mulch. I got the mulch from an early mowing this spring of the fall fall of mixed leaves. Seen here are Wayside Painted Ladies and in the back are Fairy Tale Pink.
Thus it was that (notice how elegant that sounds in contrast to the now-popular habit of starting every single sentence with So) the fabulous daylilies have managed to thrive despite a pretty dry summer thus far.
These beauties are Dominic, now a lush plant with huge blooms. All my daylilies from Roots and Rhizomes have grown much bigger than their recommended spacing. Shown in the first photo is a start from this plant that I moved to the end of the garden last year.
At last, the effortless look of the cottage garden, achieved by much hard work.
These two, planted on the new hillside garden, will no doubt need to be moved farther apart in springtime. White clover have been temporarily hoed out but are just waiting for my back to be turned. I believe they creep in at night.
Purple Coneflowers, being a native to Missouri, are so hardy they can be dug up when growing and plopped down in any sunny spot and will thrive and have babies. The same is true for the butterfly weed, now established in several beds and determined to rule.
These Shasta Daisies have been blooming in this spot at the end of the daylily bed for years. The daylilies bloom at different times, extending the show. Along the fence are wild Black-Eyed Susans.
Every day brings new blooms and plenty of dead-heading chores. Contrary to the song, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
