Around this time much of what is growing in my garden needs serious cut back. For some it may be the second cut back of the year.
The native cosmos is one that you can cut and cut and cut and it will still come back. It will take on a more bushy, pleasing appearance.
I cut back the chocolate daisy about 2 weeks ago. It is already flowering again.
I love the blanket flowers for their ability to keep going through all that heat with no loss of color on the flowers. They will look just as good in the fall.
I usually pull out the Gulf coast penstemon after it has flowered because of the need to reduce seed head production. This year I just cut off the heads. It has surprised me with a second flowering.
Other plants a cut back severely a few weeks ago were catmint, Salvia greggii, daisy fleabane and wine cups. Now it's the turn of the wine cups again, lantana, lemon balm, knockout roses, purple cone flowers, tomatoes, zinnias and on and on. Doing this now will ensure a good flowering in the fall.
I made a start today by cutting back the lemon balm and look what I found. My very first chrysalis. In all my years of gardening it is the first I have ever found. Not surprising. There are plenty of places to hide in my garden! Following the advice of someone on the internet I have put it, along with twigs, leaves and some sugar water in a clear plastic container with lid. I shall be watching it daily for its emergence. Hope it is something pretty.
I keep asking myself, "What is wrong with my birdhouses?" This one I carted all the way back from England about 4 years ago. I saw a wren pecking at the entrance one time, but no one has made a nest in there. I thought it was perfect for my English garden.
Then this beautiful dovecote, also in the English garden. Austin gardeners will recognize this as once having been in Pam's former garden. I know birds made nests in there because I had to empty their old nests. No easy job because everything that went in through the small doors had to come out through the small doors. On the wall behind is the only birdhouse which has ever been inhabited. So what am I getting at?
This. It is not a birdhouse but a planter hanging on the front gate. Inside is a plant shared at one of our blogger meets. I thought it a perfect spot, being a plant that required no watering or sun. 
They have moved so much furniture in there and reorganized my plants to the point where they are now starting to wilt. Not to mention that we will no longer be able to use the front gate. This all happened in 2 days. The question is, will they actually use the nest? You know those wrens. Make several nests and then bring her along to choose the one she would like to lay her eggs in. Will we be honored? Only time will tell.
When I was in Dallas at the weekend I went with my son and grandson to the new butterfly garden at Fair Park. There I learnt that shortly before the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis it becomes darker. Yesterday morning I saw changes. I left at 11am and when I came home at 4 pm the butterfly was out. I had missed the emergence.
It was hard to get a shot for all the fluttering. I wonder if it sipped from the sugar water I had left in the container. Now free to go and lay more eggs on the few parsley leaves they haven't eaten! 
