Outdoor Wednesday: A Garden Visitor

In the garden at Le Beau Paon, I had a very small visitor yesterday..............

I had to really zoom my camera close to get a nice picture of this guy. He was so small; probably not much more than an inch long. I don't often see any of these pretty green grasshoppers around my yard. He was sunning himself on my back porch railing.

Luckily, I had my camera close by (I was actually trying to get a picture of a monarch butterfly who was sampling my orange butterfly weed, but he was too quick and sneaky for me!). I took this picture of the purple coneflowers in the garden that presses right up to the back porch steps. Some of these are double-decker purple coneflowers and will sprout additional petals on top of the center cone.

My bee balm (monarda) is also blooming now!

White coneflower, "Swan"

Gaillardia, "Burgundy"

Gaillardia, "Oranges and Lemons"

My "blue" hydrangea has a sort of 'variegated' appearance again this year! I've got pink blooms on one side and blue on the other. I usually have to add LOTS of aluminum sulfate to the soil to get blue blooms, and even then it's hard because of all the limestone in our area. Our house's foundation is locally quarried limestone, which leaches lime into the soil and raises the pH and makes "bluing" difficult.

The pink and green coleus in the pot with fuschia, which sits on my porch, has been growing very quickly lately. I have some more like it in other pots which aren't this big, although planted at the same time. I think this completely shaded area suits it better.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'll be linking this with A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday!