One more day in our garden in this crazy 3-day intro to Gardeny Goodness. This time we're visiting a few other areas in our yard/garden with a few odds and ends. I'm running out of stuff to show you guys! But that just means things will get more and more interesting from here on out.

Seriously, the last two days have been so, so cool. Thanks to everyone for all the kind words, encouragement, and compliments. Right back atcha!! I'm so excited to be back in the game and in touch with all of you again, and I can't wait to make even more new gardening friends!

Some interesting ideas Rob and I have been throwing around for Gardeny Goodness:

1. Guest bloggers. We have a few kick-ass gardening friends who might stop in once in a while to offer a different perspective.
2. Garden news items. We won't always have time to do a big new post every day, now that my money-making endeavors don't involve sitting at a desk 8 hours a day...so once in a while we'll share some interesting garden related items we've come across in our web meanderings.
3. Reviews. Books, tools, apps, gardens, etc. I'm usually not a huge fan of reviews, because they're so darned POLITE. I'd rather be brutally honest. We will see.
4. My garden travels. Some of you have already heard, but for those of you who haven't, Rob, Kaia, and I are taking a huge leap and leaving on a major vacation in a few weeks. We'll be searching out gardens in Amsterdam (and cheese! but not "coffee shops"....traveling with a 9-year-old, people!); Bruges, Belgium (Flemish fries and chocolate and beer!); and western Iceland (hot springs and from what I've heard, amazing hot dogs! [whuh??]) to bring back and share (the gardens--I'm not sharing the chocolate) with you. It's a big step for me. While I've traveled all over the US, I've NEVER LEFT THIS COUNTRY. Eek!

What else should we cover in Gardeny Goodness? Let me know what you think. It's wide open here at GG.

Anyway, here are some tidbits from my garden.

A couple of huge mulleins near the terrace overlooking the river, with an unknown yellow daylily, a baby smoke bush, and a purple bee balm that seems to be all over my yard!

There's that bee balm again, along with a healthy clump of sage (why are the herbs I use least the biggest ones in my garden??) and a baptisia.

Around the other side of the baptisia, with a purple-stemmed iris that bloomed in spring.

Speaking of that baptisia, look how wonderful it was in bloom!

Purple elderberry and variegated euonymus

Gooseneck loosestrife, white dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis), and the nicest stand of perilla I've ever had. I think it hitchhiked in with the loosestrife, which was given to me by a friend. All my other perilla is of the curly variety.

Doesn't it almost look metallic?

Here's my curly perilla in another bed, scattered with Rozanne geranium blooms.

Can you tell which is the perilla and which is the coleus? Not my best plant combining work....

Speaking of perilla, here's another variety, Perilla 'Magilla'!

Hosta 'Empress Wu'. I am hoping that in the next couple of years it will grow to mythical proportions, as it's supposed to..... Fingers crossed!

Lovely red berries of the doublefile viburnum

Hey, there's that bee balm again! I think we might have an issue....

Joseph's coat. Swoon!

More lowly plain green hostas, this time in the hellstrip. Those flowers are awesome against the wildly overgrown yew hedge, yes? Oh, but the deadheading to come...

The first of a few closer looks at things we saw yesterday. This is the oakleaf hydrangea in the front yard.

That painting by the shed, plus a metal piece we found in the trash in the East Village in NYC while visiting a good friend!

A closer look at the container by the side porch. Coleus, Hibiscus acetosella cv., begonia, calibrachoa, and a tall gomphrena that I didn't quite fit into the frame.