u/Federal-Boat3732

Michigan, Zone 6. Top of a hill. Gets about half a day of shade and half a day of pitiless sun.

Everything is pretty overgrown and crowded, but it's just too hot to do much clearing out of extra flowers. The bee balm is just coming into bloom, though, and there are happy little insects everywhere! I could not get a good enough look at this guy to identify the pollinator...

Submitted for your disapproval: bindweed curling around the base of some eager young quackgrass. This was right next to where I parked my car at a chain nursery that asked to be kept anonymous in this photo.

1. "Apricot Sparkles," a miniature type; 2) my neighbor's big, reachy-fingers melon-colored lilies; 3) "Royal Frosting," a fragrant rebloomer; 4) "Jaws," just a great big yeller feller; 5) another neighbor's lilies that looked blowtorched in yesterday's heat; 6) "Gaylord Gold," an unusually tall fragrant one that seems to bloom forever, true name unknown, found growing in Gaylord, MI; 7) your basic Hemerocallis fulva

Just a single flower here and there so far, but wait until next year!!! The Latin name is Oenothera speciosa*

These seedlings were sold to me as pink-flowering, but whatever, man, close enough.

I was aware of these showing up in the house at times, but they also are very much in evidence out in the yard. Here is one exploring a dogwood leaf. I thought they were strictly a household species, but research informs me that they cannot survive Michigan winters outdoors. On top of that, they're not German at all; Blatella germanica apparently hails from Southeast Asia. TIL

This is a Wikipedia photo but I met one of these working in the yard. Startlingly pretty but of course I didn't have my phone ready to hand. They host on quite a wide variety of trees, from maples to pines.

I have been working around lot outside and have only gotten 3 bites, total, for the whole garden season. Normally in an hour I'll be covered in bites. Not sure what's going on but I think I like it.

Have spent part of each of the last 3 weekends digging everything out of this flowerbed, which is almost soilless after years of neglect. What's left is a morass of intertwined roots, mostly daylilies too beleaguered to bloom, purple cranesbill that blooms cheerfully no matter what is happening, and 5 baby trees. And, oy gevalt, the quackgrass.

I planted the original one quite a few feet away from this spot, and the new one has muscled right up to the edge of the swamp so passersby can easily see it. What I don't know is whether Rose Milkweed spreads via runners ir only by seed. I did not spot any caterpiggles, but I am hunkering down to wait. This is such a triumph for me because only the swamp has enough sunlight to support any sort of milkweed in my yard.