Good morning, again, everyone. Can you believe that July is half over? We are always amazed by how fast the days, weeks, and (now years) go by. It was cool enough yesterday that we wished we had put on long pants. We did today because the weather people say we will have cool temps today. I got half of the garden back under control yesterday and will finish up today. I saw lemon balm, lemon verbena, basil and rosemary ready to cut. The dehydrator will be busy again today. If the weather holds, I hope to get the shed cleaned out so I can find things again.

I have a few new pictures to show. The first up above is the marigold I put in at the last moment. I had an empty pot holder on the fence and I decided to take a chance it. It is quite pretty and (thankfully) short enough to stay easily on the fence. I can't put anything taller than 8 to 12 inches because we can get high winds at any time.

As I said a couple of days ago, the Teddy Bear sunflowers survived the winds in spite of being blown over. The flowers are filling out nicely. We will definitely keep these in the gardens.

Next year I will put them in a couple of the large containers. I looked at the seed packet again and found that the height is only 18-24 inches so they would go in front of either tomatoes or peppers very nicely.

The last plant will not be making a return appearance though it is pretty. Mom saw it on the fence and asked what it was. It is the catnip. She used to have a large bed of it when she had a bit of acreage along the border of central Indiana and Illinois. But she had so many barn and feral cats that her's never had a chance to bloom.

It is a pretty plant, as I said, but I crushed some and gave it to Kuma. He looked at it. He sniffed it. He batted it around a couple of times. Then he looked at me with a look that clearly said, "You want me to do what with that?" The only reason I had it in the garden was as a treat for the cat.