It's a jungle out there

Not only does the late summer garden resemble a jungle, the humidity today is so thick that it's almost like walking through water. It'd be lovely if it created a buoyant sensation but it creates more of a bogging down sensation.

A view from the upstairs bedroom, showing one of our pastures in the left corner

and our neighbor's pasture to the right. The Bidens have really
sized up and will start strutting their stuff in another couple of weeks.

I hadn't grown kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate for several years.
It's a relative of our Lady's Thumb. Here it is with Texas sunflowers.

I still haven't tasted Malabar spinach but it's worth growing for its looks alone.

The corn is done, and the pole beans are taking over and getting ready to set a second crop.

I love the frosty mauve pink of the wild type Joe Pye Weed. There's a darker version too but it didn't come back in the big bed this year. A mildew or fungus has been attacking some of the plants, mostly the summer phlox and Joe Pye; I can see where it has encircled the stem at the soil line when I pull up dead stalks. I think the extreme heat and general dryness has been making the plants more vulnerable than usual. The Bidens in front of the big perennial bed are a good 4-5' tall. As much as I love these plants one day I hope to have most of them outside of the garden beds, where I can just mow them with the tractor in March. Cleaning up the old stalks by hand is a bear.

The Indigofera has formed a small picturesque tree this year. I love the lacy pink flowers.

The garden is full of insect and bird life; there's currently a Cardinal pair fluttering about the big perennial bed in a state of worry over newly fledged youngsters, and there's always sparrows, warblers, Summer Tanagers and Blue Grosbeaks about. There's a constant twittering of Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds as they dive bomb each other and squabble over the flowers. Butterflies, bees, and Hummingbird Moths by day and Sphinx Moths by night. The Sphinx Moths make up for their annoying youth as Tobacco Hornworms by transforming into entrancing fairy-like creatures with big doey eyes and a flight pattern that looks like they are attached to a magical yo-yo.