I spent some serious time weeding this weekend and in fact, I can’t feel the tips of my fingers as I type this. My fingernails are permanently dirt filled and my hands are painful to the touch with mini thorns and other sharp plant particles sticking out of them.

But hot damn if it wasn’t worth it.

There are still some frighteningly weedy areas I have hidden from plain view, but overall, we’re lookin mighty weed-free right now. I took a whole bunch of “before” and “after” weeding pics and originally that was the inspiration behind my post for tonight. Except it was really boring, lacking color and not so pleasing to the eye. So instead, I did one of my late afternoon tours of the yard and snapped off some photos of new activity, chock full of eye candy. I also added, with the help of my daughter, a new “focal point” to the garden that puts a smile on the face … and friggin terrifies at the same time. More on that later.

The Lobelia siphilitica (Great blue lobelia) are in full bloom and I’m digging the blue color this late in the summer:

This sneezeweed (cultivar unknown) has been blooming non-stop for 3-4 weeks now and I love the color. And most importantly, all living creatures have ignored them. I need to find me more of these:

My small Hydrangea paniculata ‘Little Lime’ is coming along nicely and that bloom color is to f’n die for:

Speaking of Hydrangea, this Hydrangea ‘Lady in Red’ did not provide a single bloom this year (to be discussed at a later date) but that leaf color is worth it alone. Maybe I’ll cut off the blooms in subsequent years to highlight the foliage:

I can discuss this ornamental grass – Panicum (Switch Grass) ‘Northwind’ – all day and night and now that it is blooming … swoon …

Remember that focal point? Here he/she/it is:

Nice looking fellow, eh? Actually, not really. I find it secretly evil. We have all jumped out of our drawers in terror inside the house when we view this being through the back window. I am banking on a few phone calls from neighbors informing us there is a fully denimed burglar near the house. My only hope is that this creature will scare the hell out of the deer who emerge out of the back woods:

Will be sure to report out more on Project Scarecrow.