We have been enjoying Mediterranean and crock neck Squash since the end of June and still have more than my family can eat. Picked our first zucchini last week with more to come. Spinach did great this year and we enjoyed it up until the middle of this month when it finally bolted and seeded. We will be replanting a fall crop soon. We have a few varieties of loose leaf lettuce that we enjoyed all spring, it is still growing but has become bitter so we are periodically pulling it up and using it as chicken food, which they love. Peas are still going! I planted them under a shade tree and we still pick some on a daily basis. Pole beans are Giant and we should have some beans coming on soon. Kohlrabi we also planted i a shady area are starting to get large! well be picking them soon and replanting a fall crop. Chards are large but almost done. I have 15 Tomato plants and four varieties. The Romas are doing quite well, loaded with medium to small fruit right now and some are still blossoming. I have had some blossom drop due to the hot weather though but it hasn't really slowed the fruit from setting. The Celebrities are done blossoming and should start riping in the next couple of weeks. My old Germans are just now coming on strong.... I didn't get many early blooms but now that they are 6ft+ they are getting more and more and are closer together. I don't know if that's normal for that variety but the first blooms on both plants only had two flowers an neither one of them produced. the next set happened at about the 3.5 ft mark and they produced one each. the next group had twice as many flowers and have about 4 or 5 each and is get better the father up the plant you get.... it's strange but I have never grown this variety before. I have two Brandywines that I planted mid June, I rescued from D@B, they were half dead and very root bound. But they have done tremendously well after I transplanted them and trimmed them up. both are about 5 ft high now and are loaded with tomatoes. They just started setting fruit about two weeks ago and even the high temps didn't slow them down. It's been a good year all around so far for me.

Thank you all for your lovely responses. I really love it as well and agree you don't see it much in decorating today. Funny thing about the rug. Its actually on the wrong side. I previously purchased it when the room was going to be blue and gray. I didn't think the blue matched so I turned it over instead of buying a new one. LOL The ottom is a paisley, burgundy and beige. I love that chandelier too. Link below. I really did want a nice tan/light brown color for the walls but couldn't seem to find the right one. I moved the loveseat to the other wall to see if the chaise would fit since its almost the same size. The chaise is too long and would come out too far into the room. Plus the wall were the sofa sits isn't as long as the one opposite it. That is the entrance into the livingroom so moving both over to make more room would narrow the entrance path between the sofa and loveseat to much. So now I'm not sure if I will have the chaise facing the wall unit or the sofa. I'll try both when it comes. Here is the room now with the loveseat by the window. Now I just need some endtables for the lamps I snagged from my bedroom. The two photos that were over the loveseat (three if I can fix the other one) will now go over the sofa and I'll have to find something to go on the wall by the chaise. . . . . A close up of the rug. . . Here is a link that might be useful: Garbe's Chandeliers

peren.all - yes, a non-seeding campanula would be good - as long as it is also not a big spreader from the roots! Does it spread? I agree that the two helenium pictures do appear somewhat different. It could be a factor of different light conditions when the two photos were taken (years apart; different cameras....), or the current helenium could be a seedling that has reverted to something in its ancestry. The only other helenium I've tried in that area other than the reds I've already mentioned, was 'Moerheim Beauty' and that doesn't look too much like what's there now. Another mystery plant....?! My Persicaria polymorpha in the front full-sun garden starts blooming in early-mid June and is finished by the end of July. The ones in varying degrees of shade in the backyard start a week or so later and last a week or so longer, with an occasional flower blooming in mid-Aug./Sept. Extra water is a rare-to-never event where the Persicaria in the front grows. DH sometimes does scatter some of the compost from the Town's spring compost give-away into that area. The bigger potential limiting factor is probably that it is in/near the root zone of some trees and shrubs that are now much bigger than when the Persicaria was first planted. It might eventually get crowded out/need to be moved, but so far it seems to be holding its own there - even if it doesn't bloom as long as yours!

Sure. All of the original grafts I did in early 2019 failed. Almost certainly due to rookie mistakes (My guess is I didn’t keep the fresh grafts humid enough). My buddy with much more experience got a few to take and of those one is still alive, but its not a great looking plant so far. Here’s a fairly recent pic of it: This is a double graft on one rootstock and I think he may still have some of the rootstock left on it. The broom is still on the tree and seems fairly well, though somewhat shaded. On the tree it’s a nice baby blue color, but this graft is sorta dull in color. He has it in full sun. Not sure if that‘s a good thing or not. I went back and collected more scion material this past January to try again. This time I sent a good number of scions to a professional and I grafted 7 or 8 myself. This time I had a 100% take (initially), but with varying degrees of vigor amongst the individual grafts. Some pushed very strong and others are still alive, but pushed very little and they don’t look good. The ones that pushed strong all died after about 6 months. Not sure why, maybe too much shade and too much rain. Before they died they looked like this: I had some that looked even better than that. One thing that was encouraging was they seemed to be growing a bit more densely than the broom on the tree. Hopefully I can keep the stragglers alive over winter and get some healthy lasting growth next year. The professional grower is having better luck, but even they haven’t been particularly impressed with the results As their grafts are pushing slower than they expected. It‘s my understanding that some brooms are just stronger/tougher/more graft friendly and I’m afraid this broom might be a bit on the weak side, but it’s my first broom and Deodara is my favorite so I’m not giving up on it that’s for sure. Deodara was planted heavily in my area around 100 years ago. There are many huge trees of the species. Since I found this first broom I have gone on to find almost 90 more, mostly on native pines, but I have scoured many more Deodars for brooms and was beginning to think I would never find another broom in one. About a month ago I was excited to find this guy though: It’s definitely not as dwarf as the other, but I’m hoping that means it might graft more easily and be a little stronger in general. In my part of the world I find that I’m having better success grafting in September/October so I didn’t waste any time getting scions off this guy (twice now I’ve had trees with brooms get cut down before I collect so I’ve learned my lesson). I ended up doing about 12 grafts on 7 rootstock. It’s been almost 3 weeks and I’m starting to wean them off the humidity. So far they all look good. I put some cuttings in my rooting chamber as well. Fortunately once again the broom is pretty accessible so I can always get more. And I’ll probably send some to my professional friends when they graft this winter.