This month has been a bit cooler and more overcast than we usually get this time of year, but there’s still plenty to keep me busy. Here’s what I found during a quick morning tour!
One — A Decade to Get Dangerous
The monkshood (Aconitum × cammarum ‘Bicolor’) is in full bloom again! As toxic as ever, but so pretty. We inherited a small patch with the house, and these two well-behaved clumps are now a respectable size — but they’ve taken well over a decade to get there. It does tend to flop a bit when the heavy flower starts, so I have to remember to give it some support next season.
Two — Cold Feet
Lippia dulcis, Aztec sweet herb, hanging out in a pot with cute little flowers. The leaves have gone purple because we’ve had a few nights below 10°C in the past couple weeks. We’ve still got plenty of growing season left but I might have to take the more sensitive tropicals inside next month if they start looking sulky.
Three — Earning Tenure
This bronze oak leaf lettuce was part of a mixed seed packet and has lasted all summer and provided many a tasty salad both as loose leaves and later as full heads. It’s performed the best out of any variety I’ve tried so I’m happy to let the last few plants go to seed and hopefully spread throughout the beds like some prior varieties have.
Four — The Air Up There
The Jerusalem artichokes are now officially taller than me again. That didn’t take long at all.
Five — Thriving, Inexplicably
Cheery clump of bedding nasturtiums, which have done oddly well this year, despite temps being cooler than usual.
Six — Not Quite Sunset
Scarlet runner bean ‘Sunset’ is pretty but the flowers are admittedly smaller and more pastel than I had anticipated. Not really putting on as much of a show as I had hoped they would climbing up the arches. Maybe mixing them with another runner might be interesting next year?
Six on Saturday is hosted by Jim at Garden Ruminations — go see what everyone else is up to.
One response to “Six on Saturday | 22nd August 2026”
Goof luck with the lettuce! My spring lettuce is flowering now and I am looking forward to cutting the stalk and fwapping it on the ground wherever I want lettuce to come up in spring. I am also planning to scatter some seed of another variety now for fall lettuce. Thankfully we have not yet hit 10C, but in northern Minnesota it recently got down to about 7C . Ahh yes, the seasons will change. I am not ready. In Spring I am running towards summer. In late summer I am backpaddling to stay in summer. A side effect of growing up in southern California where it seems an endless summer. I am getting scarlet tunner beans now. Mine are standard red flowered ones from seeds I collected from my former Seattle community garden, so I would grow vegetables to remember them by. Of course, our summers are too hot, so we get flowers but no beans until things cool down and then the harvest comes in.