Pond, path and side garden tour.

 I've been enjoying the front garden so much lately that I've hardly taken time to enjoy the rest of the garden this summer.  Our front yard is the sunniest and warmest place to spend the day, and with the lack of sun we'd been having for most of the summer, I chose not to spend the sunny days in the shady backyard.  After lots of sunny days in a row, and more predicted to come, I took some time to clean out the pond and enjoy how pretty it looks in the backyard now.  There are still plants that are behind in their blooming, but I'm hoping they'll just bloom longer into August and September.

 A fairy sitting in a mass of Geranium 'Rozanne' flowers enjoying the view.  I have to echo what everyone else is saying about 'Rozanne', my longest and best blooming perennial in the garden.

 The red Fuchsia magellanica by the waterfall has been spreading and so huge and wide I actually had to cut it back quite a bit.  I had no idea they spread like that, but it must love where it is.  Agastache, Daylilies, Hostas, Oakleaf hydrangea, Hollyhocks, Coneflowers and Clematis are all blooming behind the pond.

 The fish love when I fill the pond with new water, they can reach the edges and find lots of bugs to eat.  There have been fewer waterlilies this year and lots more algae than usual.

 Clematis 'Ville de Lyon' is finally starting to bloom, but the flowers are much smaller than usual.

 This time of year the path garden has pretty much finished blooming and isn't at it's best.

Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Snow Queen' is just beginning to bloom.  It's finally starting to get tall.

 Halfway down the path things are a little greener.

 I finally found some plants that like this wine barrel planter.  Lamium, Japanese Forest Grass, Hosta, Cardinal flower and Astillbes are all doing great.

 The corner under the big cedar tree usually looks fuller, but I found that Sawfly larvae have just about completely defoliated the currant bush.  I've never had that happen before and didn't notice until it was too late.

 The side garden was a bit neglected this summer.  The Sunflowers coming up are from a package that spilled there.  Of course the ones I planted did not come up.  Clematis 'Etoille Violette' is blooming on the fence.  The blueberry bushes are loaded and very late in ripening.  We've just started picking them in the last week.

 Most are still green.

 In one of the raised beds the Littlest Gardener and I sprinkled in a Fairy Mix packet of seeds.  Unfortunately all that came up was lots of Candytuft and this one beautiful pink Poppy.  From looking at the seed list on the packet, I think this is a Corn Poppy (Papaver rhoeas).  I will be saving seeds and if I have enough I'll share with whoever else wants some.

Hope everyone is having a beautiful summer and there has been some letup in the heat.  We are finally enjoying some consistent sun here in the Pacific Northwest, and it's amazing how quickly I forgot about the rainy cool weather we'd been having.  Gorgeous blue skies and temperatures in the mid 70's are our reward for months of rain and gray skies and cold temperatures.  It was worth waiting for!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.