Such beautiful flowers! What a lovely way to handle the run-off rain.

Cameron, Your garden is just stunning whether wet or dry! Beautiful, well planned plantings. I seem to remember you saying that you did all of the design work on your gardens, is that right? But I would like to ask if you also did all the dirt moving and rock laying etc. yourself too? It's a very ambitious project but it has come out perfectly in the end. Good Job!

MeMo

Beautiful and fresh! Echinops 'Ritro' is my favorite. I would love to grow them in my garden - they look so whimsical!
Glad you had some rain, and looks like lots of it. Gardens love rain!
~Natalie

Wow, you really got some rain! What forethought you had to put in a rain garden.

I love your agastache. Blue fortune is hardy here, but I tried "tutti frutti" and others that were not. And as an annual it took a long time to get going, so it hardly seemed worth it. But yours is just gorgeous!

How wonderful you finally got some rain!! It looks like it was a gully washer (which is what our late day storms usually are). I don't know how you manage to keep everything looking so lush even when you don't have rain. I love your Echinops. I sure wish I knew the secret to growing those. I planted two and they are barely hanging on. I think I'm going to try them again in the fall when it's cooler and they have a better chance of making it.

Mary

I love your rain photos. We here in California won't get much, if any, rain until late October or November. I am so jealous. Could you send me some?
Donna

Beautiful pictures as always, Cameron. I love, love, love your streambed. You have obviously put much thought in your garden design.

I bought several Ruby Star coneflowers the last couple of weeks at our local Home Depot. They had Ruby Star and also the Big Sky coneflowers (which I'm staying away from due to the posts I've read). The Ruby Stars were just so gorgeous, full, and healthy looking that I couldn't pass them up. Well, that plus I remembered your posts that it is a marvelous coneflower. :)

-Sharon

Back from the grocery and such...now for more fun things like gardening talk!

It's raining cats and dogs here again now. During that 5:00pm storm, 3 of our 7 ft tall buddleia are leaning at a 45 degree angle from the downbursts of wind. We hope that the roots are in good shape. We'll probably have to cut them back to lighten the tops and try to replant them upright again.

We (DH, DS1 and I) built the dry streambed ourselves in a few hours on one Saturday morning. We had the river rock delivered on a palette right beside the spot where we literally just dumped them by wheelbarrow loads.

DS2 and DH laid all of the flagstone stepping stones throughout the outer garden that you see flooded. BTW, all of that water had soaked into the ground or flowed down to our creek by 6:30pm. When we first moved here, a rain like that would wash away our driveway. So, this was a necessity and we're trying to make it pretty.

Monarda, Japanese irises, iris pseudocorus, iris palladia, the Ruby Star coneflowers, perennial ageratum, cannas, amsonia hubrechtii, illicium, bog salvia, creeping jenny, nepeta subsessillis (the only nepeta that likes moisture), all do well in the rain garden area and then survive a drought, too.

Another clump of 'Ruby Star'. This picture was taken from above them on the slope and that's a bit of perennial heliotrope showing on the ground below. This group is not down in the rain garden, but mid-way up the slope.

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Cameron, what an absolutely gorgeous garden. I am so impressed by all the planning that went into your rain bed. You turned what could have been a very frustrating gardening situation and turned it into something stunning.

I've grown agastache "Acapulco Rose" (I believe salmon and pink is part of the same series) but mine are nothing like the spectacular plants you have. Yours are just gorgeous.

*sighs*

I wish it would rain at MY house....

Lovely gardens and nice rain.

Beautiful gardens,and i also wish someone would send some rain to Calif.
Kathi

I never tire from seeing your beatuiful beds! I am so happy that you got a good rain. Last year you guys had such a terrible draught! Everything looks gorgeous!

I love your water garden! The flowers are beautiful, and whatever level the water is, it looks great!

I love my globe thistle, but wish I had planted it closer to the fence, at the back of the bed that is only about 5 feet wide. I tried dividing it, but I don't know if the moved plant will survive. I have some seedlings I can move, but it will take awhile before the plant would be as big as the current one is.