Tomatoes and more

Tonight we had fresh tomatoes and basil in a salad for dinner - straight from the garden. These little cherry tomatoes are wonderful, and they ripen much faster than a regular tomato. The vines of our two cherry tomato plants are loaded - the harvest should be steady for a while. And we do have a few large tomatoes ripening, too.

The hosta, painted lady fern, and hellebore are thriving in the corner of the side yard, where it's shaded by the fence and overhanging tree branches.

I didn't pinch back my mum to make it fuller and to keep it from blooming until fall. . .but I don't mind the blooms in August. I had a large mum in the garden for two seasons that was covered in blooms by the end of June. I cut it back and it bloomed again in the fall. Maybe if I'm good about deadheading this one, it'll bloom for a while.

This begonia has spent the last couple of winters in my sun room, just barely hanging on until it's warm enough outside to be moved to the deck. But by the end of the summer it's regained it's health and is full of colorful blooms. I love all varieties of begonias, and especially like to mix them with impatiens in the pots on my steps.

I'm looking forward to seeing the berries on the nandina turn red, and to using some of them in winter arrangements.

We're already seeing some leaves turn. All of the dogwoods are showing some color, and the sassafras is as well.

Liriope may be rather boring most of the time, but when it blooms as profusely as it did this year, it's striking.

Though the color has faded from the hydrangea blooms by this time of year, they are still beautiful.