flowers and edges

I thought I was going to loose the potted nasturtium on the stump, but it has been doing better since I started throwing soapy dishwater over the garden regularly again.

Not many flowers but I hope for a few more as the weather is beginning to show signs of cooling down.

Red 'velvet' marigolds float above their blue-green foliage. These are doing loads better this year too (dishwater knocked out the whitefly early in the season, that bothered them last year).

this one has a funny whorl in its center-

I have a few cosmos left but pulled most of them up this week- they were just too decimated by the insects- and the pink ones failed first- always for some reason. Oh well.

The most I can say about my newer clematis is, it's still alive! and climbing a bit. I will be patient- I remember it took two years for the other clematis to really take off.

Pleasantly surprised that my 'kiwi fern' coleus in pots near the garden is doing so well this year. It's not bothered by the aphids and leaf hoppers at all. Maybe because the insects are busy ruining my green beans, collards and chard nearby.

Also a nice surprise the ice plant looks so good. I don't find any sign of insect pests on it at all. I wonder if the spiders and skinks took care of that? I do drop spiders on any plant that seems ailing, when I catch one in the house.

Speaking of skinks, I haven't seen many of them this summer. Which is sad. It's been plenty hot- but I've only seen a few juveniles. I wonder if the heavy rains we had drowned some of them in their hiding places. Or if the mature males in my yard finally all got old? their average lifespan is only five or six years, I've read, so I suppose some of the older ones could have just died from age.