Flowers, food and fun!

Forget what I said in my previous post about the feel of fall in the air.  Summer has decided to stick around for a bit longer.  It's been hot!  Daily watering has become a must to keep the vegetable garden going.  Many plants in the backyard that compete with big trees have needed frequent watering too. 
With school starting back up for the kids I hope to have some more time to do some garden work that needs doing.  There are perennials that badly need to be cut back and lots of weeds that seem to popping up everywhere.

 This is the gigantic Sunflower that was only supposed to get to about 18 inches high.  I'm not sure what happened, but the leaves and flower are just huge.  It's probably about 3 feet tall, but I don't think I've ever seen such big leaves or flowers on such a small plant.  The birds will be feasting on it.

 Rose 'Honey Perfume' has started another round of blooms.

 I started all different types of Nicotianas this year, and had terrible luck with most.  Since they have gotten mixed up in my planting I'm guessing that this is Nicotiana sylvestris.  This is the third year I've tried growing it and glad to finally have at least one plant bloom.

 Rose 'Iceberg' hasn't looked as good as usual this summer, but this last flush of blooms has been much better.

 Rose 'Harlow Carr' and Geranium 'Rozanne' look so pretty together.  I keep missing a good time to get more of this flower bed.  There is a hardy fuchsia and Heuchera 'Crimson Curls' blooming with these two and it looks so pretty.

 Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is absolutely covered in Honeybees.

 Look at this forecast!  The last several days have been up in mid to high 80's too.  This has been the weirdest summer weather.  Now it decides to get hot (but I'm not complaining).

 I'm hoping that upcoming heat starts to turn these guys red!

 Hope the heat helps the Butternut Squash grow a bit bigger.  These were started from seed this year.

 Also started from seed were the Pattypan Squash.  We've been eating lots of these and they're really good!

 Found this cute sign over the weekend.  I'm not sure where it'll go, but I thought it was so cute.

 The Littlest Gardener (who is about to turn 5) loves to help water.  She has been enjoying helping me water and look for vegetables to pick in the front yard.

 Some of the fun I've been having has been redoing a couple of beds.  This bed I rarely have shown pictures of because it's sort of been a bit of a mess.  I kept trying to grow full sun plants here, but they just leaned and looked floppy.  So I took almost everything out and started over.  One little spot gets lots of sun, so I planted a Chocolate Eupatorium there.  I also added Heucheras, Astrania and a hardy fuchsia.  I left the Hydrangea 'Pinky Winky' which was new last year, Clematis 'Jackmanni' (which loves it here) and Daphne 'Summer Ice'.  My goal is to keep this bed a bit more orderly than the rest of the yard since I need to get in to water the window boxes and put a ladder in here when we clean the gutters (something that we need to do frequently since there are several large trees that drop leaves, needles and cones year round).

I've also been working some on the driveway bed which isn't quite as much fun since it's in the full hot sun.  I've been starting a few more greens that will hopefully last through the fall and into winter. 
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.