August...Peak!

It doesn't get any better than this, since the Black Eyed Susans are already starting to fade.  They're not a huge section of the garden, and I can force them to re-bloom, but it won't look like this again this year. As always, you can click on any of these photos to embiggen them!

Here's the standard lawn shot. We've had so much rainfall that the lawn never went dormant this year, and never stressed in the heat.



And the standard garden shot:



I posted this approximate shot last time, so I did it again.  This shows the fading Black Eyed Susans as well.



Visitors are extremely common here.  Although many shots have incidental butterflies in them, they usually won't allow me to get that close.  The bees simply don't care, and tend to ignore me as I'm distracting them from the cosmos.



This was an heirloom flower that apparently crossbred the yellow and orange zinnia from two years ago into a very attractive tangerine color that I've never seen before.  I'm allowing all the flower heads to age on their own, and I'll collect them to see if they breed true next year.  They're an imperfect double flower, taller than the average bedding zinnia, but very attractive.



Sometimes little surprises hide under the leaves, peeking out when the sun touches them.  This is a Sun Lady dahlia, cheaply available every year at Home Depot and a good performer in any sunny spot.