Summer Garden… before it’s burned to a CRISP

Since we’ve had days on end of 95° plus temperatures and only 6½ inches of rain since last fall, my green world is browning out by the minute. Here are a few images of my summer garden before it’s dead and gone.  
   The view in the photo above is from my patio to the east corner of the yard. Most of these flowers were planted from seed. I like for the different varieties to blend into one another without borders.

The view below is the opposite side of the same bed. Purple coneflower has a fabulous scent, and it’s a perennial like the salvia growing next to it. The frosty-looking plant is called Dusty Miller. It’s supposed to be an annual, but this little bush is 3 years old.  

We’ve enjoyed the water lilly growing in our bathtub pond. The tub is home to three goldfish named Fred. Bacon named them. Cherry and Coco remind him daily, “It’s time to feed the Freds.”

It’s been a good year for sunflowers. They don’t mind the dry weather and love the heat. The bloom below is smaller than most of these Mammoths, but still as big as a dinner plate. I’m hoping to harvest a few seeds before the squirrel population beats me to it!