Mid-Atlantic Gardening: FIRST FLOWERS OF SUMMER!! AUGUST Edition :), 5 by wind

wind wrote:
hello, how is everyone? we just got back from vacation. had a nice time 'after' we bought a new used car!! our '99 Jeep finally got traded in. It decided to break down the first day we left the house. it broke down on us last year too (brakes went). This year, we didn't get too far. We were going to the Adirondacks and made it to Ramsey NJ before breaking down. Anyway, glad to be back. I finally got out this morning and took a few pics. hope to take more later

lots of Gita's four o'clocks, but I wish I didn't collect seeds last year from my favorite hot pink broken colors because I never got to planting them. The blooms that came up are mostly yellows thanks to me collecting all the pink seeds!!! still pretty though

our Joe Pye weed is full of buds and is shorter this season for some reason

also, we notice that the swallowtails are few and far between... does anyone know why are there so few butterflies this year? I've seen others commenting about noticing fewer butterflies too