Today I am dipping my toes for the first time into the phenomenon called Six On Saturday. For those of you who, like me, were unaware of it, #SixOnSaturday was started by the blogger The Propagator. The invitation is to share six garden things on Saturdays. See more here.
ONE
It’s been a tough year for gardening for many people around the world, given the extreme heat waves, flooding, and generally crazy weather patterns. On the west coast of California, we’re dealing with an historic drought. To keep the plants alive, everything is on an efficient drip irrigation system, and we are saving every drop of greywater that we can for the food and habitat plants. So I can’t get too carried away with extravagant flower plantings and any flower bravely holding forth this year is dearly appreciated! Pineapple sage is a tough survivor, smells amazing and loved by hummingbirds and honeybees. Because of our rampant gopher population, we tend to grow flowers in the edges of gopher-protected raised garden beds, to keep company with veggies.
TWO
Rose of Sharon is another tough ol’ plant that, while not exactly thriving at the moment, is gracing us with a few beautiful blooms nonetheless.
THREE
I’m making a determined effort to grow more butterfly habitat plants, like this zinnia. I was glad to see it providing for the Gulf Fritillaries and honestly, its effusive color is really cheering me up during this challenging year. It began to steal the show as a nearby artichoke retreated for the summer.
FOUR
These pale sunflowers are really pretty at dusk and are inter-planted with some winter squash and beans.
FIVE
I always make room for a cosmos or two. This year I’m trying out this white variety in a garden bed that also had early snow peas and kale.
SIX
I love this new dahlia I planted last winter in a container. (Mexican sage in background). On a hot day it makes me think of lemon and raspberry sherbet.
Hope you have a lovely rest of your weekend!
Read more about our 5 acre garden here — fruits, veggies, habitat, herbs, and some upcycling projects to inspire your own creative flowering!
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Despite the challenges of the weather your garden is looking great. That dahlia is a stunner and I love the white Hibiscus with the red splotches in the centre. Smashing photos too.
Thank you so much! Hopefully we’ll get rain as normal this coming winter.
Weather extremes also here in Belgium with floodings and a lot of homeless people…. Never seen it before in my life.
I love the many flowers in your garden, the dahlia’s are realy beautiful. Glad to read that you try to help the butterflies to…. Insects are important and ! Enjoy the weekend and many greetings.
So sad and frightening about the flooding there! What is a major newspaper outlet there? I would like to read more news on what’s happening in Belgium. Glad you like the flower photos! Yes, we love the butterflies a lot. Thanks for writing!
Welcome to Six on Saturday, it’s great fun! I love your selection. Salvias are such great plants, we need them both for their toughness in droughts and for their insect-friendly credentials, and I’ve also featured them this week. I should think of sowing some Zinnias next summer, thanks for the tip that they are butterfly friendly. Glorious Dahlia and sunflowers!
Hi Sel! Thanks so much! The garden is so very dry that I had to take closeups of the flowers to edit out all the brown crispiness in the background! Ha. I read your blog with the salvias and enjoyed it! Was just getting ready to comment on yours. Didn’t you mention an insect ID app you got? How neat! I just got a bird ID app that can identify by sound and I love it (Merlin Bird ID). Local gardeners online are also excited about an app that ID’s plants/weeds using the iphone camera. (iNaturalist) I thought I would mention these in a blog sometime. Thanks for writing!
Funnily enough iNaturalist was recommended to me when I was asking around about insect ID apps. For plants, I use PlantNet, which is pretty good. It’s a nice idea for a blog post, hope to read all about it!
It can be a challenge to have flowers at this time of year but yours are great. I love the Cosmos. My cosmos seem to be coming up only in different shades of pink this year which is a bit boring. Amelia
Thanks Amelia! Yes, I’m so grateful for any flowers this year in the drought. Glad you like the white cosmos…it’s funny…I think I prefer the pink ones. ha! I loved your blog post this week with the birds and your tortoises! So charming!
I’m always drawn to plants mingling together like your Dahlia and sage, the photo is lovely and I bet it’s even better in reality.
Thanks Jim! Yes, my garden is sort of wild and mingled together in general. 😉 As I was joking to Sel, I did closeups of most of the flowers because our drought has taken a heavy toll on the garden this year, and the background is very dry behind what few flowers I have now. Thanks for reading and commenting… I just found your blog and am enjoying it. Will comment momentarily.
Fáilte go Six-on-Saturday, Lisa! Welcome to Six-on-Saturday. The dahlia is stunningly beautiful. I’d happily grow it in mo gháirdín beag.
Also, I do like a SOS wherein I learn some new things… greywater/gophor. Many thanks, a chara. I hope you’ll be joining us regularly.
Thanks Pádraig! I look forward to enjoying more posts by the Six-on-Saturday community!
Some really fantastic photo’s there and that is a beautiful photo of the butterfly. Sadly butterflies are in short supply of my area of the UK this year. Glad you are overcoming the challenges of the weather. Looking forward to reading future blogs.
Thank you Sedums! 🙂 I hope your butterfly populations will rebound. I know so many of you gardeners in the UK are very good about providing habitat. I look forward to reading your blog as well! Warmly, Lisa