The picture is looking very different this year in the Findleberry garden with the intense heat we have had over the past few weeks.  Some of my flowers are blooming at least a month in advance.  Many of my plants including the lavender have already flowered and are ready to be pruned back.  I am trying to be conservative with watering but my flowers and shrubs are suffering.

Needless to say I still have a good amount of colour in the hanging baskets and my faithful perennials are hanging in there, i.e. the rudbeckias, shasta daisy, coreopsis.  So glad that I added a few more annuals this year (grown from seed) just to add some more colour).

I am still getting some good blooms on my pink hydrangea and because it is located in the shade the flowers are holding up despite the heat.  I am amazed to see the hydrangea paniculata starting to bloom.  This shrub normally does not bloom until the end of July, beginning of August.

   The poppies have peaked but there are still a few blooms left on clumps around the garden.

As much as everything is advanced in my flower bed,  the same applies in the vegetable patch.  We have an abundance of tomatoes to harvest already, plus one cucumber.  Again, I normally would not be harvesting the tomatoes until late July, early August (the ones in the greenhouse).    The spinach has already gone to seed so I will replant in that area.  We continue to get a good harvest from the lettuce crop and I will have a good amount of basil this year as it just loves the heat.  I will be making plenty of pesto sauce.  

I heard that we may get rain in the next few days and it will be truly welcomed in my garden.