around the yard

the echinacea in the front bed is blooming. when i bought it 3 years ago, it had one bloom. this year there will be about a dozen blooms. (please pretend i had the camera set to the proper exposure value. this way i don't have to walk downstairs and take another photo. thanks.)
crocosmia in the back. i wasn't a fan of this last year, but it's become one of my favorites. and i love its color against the rocks. this bed extends about 30 feet. i think a row of these against the rock would look spectacular.
i planted this sun bed (click on it to enlarge) on saturday. the cedar tree was already there. and the bush with yellow blooms (sweet broom, i think). i filled in around the two, with ninebark, spearmint, barberry, fountain grass, rockrose and guara. and now i'm sore from all the stooping, bending, digging, and heaving of bags of compost.
this is one of my new favorites. never really noticed it before this year, now i'm seeing them everywhere. variegated rose barberry. it's a b*tch to plant. thorny. thorns hurt. especially in the face when you're stooped down patting him into place.
and, on a side note, how did this happen?? it's august.
i had hoped by this point that steve and i would be spending our weekends leisurely sitting on the new patio, reading, staring at our flowers, and petting pixel. nope. still finishing up details on all the house projects. hopefully we'll be done soon. very soon, cause i'm tired.