It's been a Pretty Dull Week in the Garden

It's that time of year when I wonder why I do all that garden work.  Everything looks dull, dying or drab. Everything that's interesting has already finished blooming. The daylilies are not very impressive this year. I cut down a few wheelbarrow loads of dead perennials today.

Even my deck containers are blah this year. The Ipomea vine in the center container has not grown at all since it was planted the beginning of June--that is unheard of!

This dark-foliage vignette still has no blooms:

I still like the color combination of the striped Tropicanna,  the silvery purple Persian Shield, greenish-brown canna Wyoming, Tropicanna Black , the Mystery plant (I still have never found out what the dark rubbery thing in the front is) and Sedona coleus. There are two buds on the Trops, so I should  have orange and orangish-red flowers soon.

The only colorful spot right now is the entrance to the deck.  DH gets the credit for this display.

He choose and planted the red and gold combination that flanks the main steps to the deck.  J loves marigolds. I am starting to like them more -- I told him it would look nice if he planted them all the way down that sidewalk border he cleaned out last week. That border leads to the deck entrance.
 

 

He had flowers left over so he planted a number of small containers in the same flower combo and placed on the steps  He insisted on doing all the planting himself.  I think he did a great job!

 

I am really enjoying J's new hobbies--helping with the garden and cooking.  He is even cooking on the weekends.  Last night he grilled this steak and foil-wrapped redskin potatoes with onions:

He also tossed some yellow squash with olive oil, salt and pepper and grilled it.

 

 The meal was delicious.

 

I have always envied women who had husbands who cooked for them. Now I have one-- I am a lucky woman!

 

I also did another project this week that caused this:

This pic was taken after 7 days of healing....No kidding!  If you want to find out what caused this click here.