DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: Late Summer Back Yard Cottage Garden Update, 2026

I am a Victorian Soul, who lives in a small townhouse that was built in the mid 1970's, not a huge Mega Mansion!! I just recently lost my Hubby Joe, who was a Retired Letter Carrier. I worked night shift as an RN on a Hospital based Rehabilitation( Physical Medicine) Unit for 37 years before I had Knee Replacement Surgery and officially Retired in 2019 after 41 years working in Direct Patient Care ... I am so glad that we retired at 62 years of age and got to spend that time together before he passed....I still do love Retirement!!!!

I DABBLE IN A BIT OF THIS AND THAT!!!!

" IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN"
George Eliot

George Eliot was actually a pen name for a woman named Mary Anne Evans......

BLOGGING FOR FUN AND FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!

Monday, August 10, 2026

Late Summer Back Yard Cottage Garden Update, 2026

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

Blogging has always been a stress reliever for me along with an avenue to share my passions which are my home and my garden.....

I feel it is a personal Journal that, hopefully, someday, my Twin Granddaughters will be able to look back on to learn about who I was....

I will be posting 3 times a week on MONDAYS, THURSDAYS and SATURDAYS....

As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....

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A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS

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And since I have a very busy life, like most of us do, it may take me awhile to return your comments but I promise I will....

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In my last post, I shared the last in my Coastal/Nautical Themed Living Room Series....

Click HERE if you missed that post!!

And now for a few Personal Notes...

For the New Year, I am trying something different with my 3 times weekly posts....

On THURSDAYS, I will feature what I cooked and ate during the week, showcasing local cuisine and a few recipes for things that I actually made...

I decided that on SATURDAYS, I will showcase What I Have Been Up To in the past week, sharing events and places I went to, if any....

On MONDAYS, I will be featuring What I Have Bought or Been Gifted Recently, if anything...

It's Monday so what did I buy recently....

I have a small Dollar Tree haul to share today.....

These were all $1.50.....

Skeleton plastic flatware....

This Johanna Parker hack is part of a group of 4 that Dollar Tree is offering and they all have gone viral because of social media, mostly You Tube "Shop with Me" influencers....

I managed to snag this skeleton one and I am still looking for the cat one....

These are the other pieces in the collection.....

This year, I will be setting up my 6 ft. pencil thin Tree in the Dining Room to use as my Halloween Tree and passing on my silver 4 ft. table top Tree....

So I have been looking for a few items to add to that Tree in addition to what I already have.....

I thought this Ghost, which seems to be the big thing for Halloween this year, was cute.....

And also this skeleton spider....

And that is it for what I bought last week....

Today, I want to share an Update on my back yard Cottage Garden...

We have been having some oppressive heat and humidity over the past week so I was really not even venturing outside as I can not tolerate this type of weather physically....

So when I did go out early the other morning to try to beat some of the heat, I saw this.....

I have nothing against the birds building nests in my trees but not on my Patio.....

This was right above one of my chairs and on the chair cushions........

So I cleaned it all up, went back in the house for about 10 minutes, came back out and that determined little bugger was at it again so I fell back on an old stand by.....

Placing gloves over the light fixture and so far, it has worked to deter that little bugger from building that nest......

So I might as well start my update here on the Patio.....

I bought this cone flower, planted it in the ground where it was being gnawed down to nothing by what I later found out to be a groundhog and then transplanted it in this pot to try to save it.....

It is rallying and still alive so hopefully, it will come back next year in this pot.....

I thought that when the tree that fell down behind me was cut down, my back yard, which was mostly shaded, would now get a lot more Sun but that really is not the case.....

This is what that back corner of my yard now looks like......

You can actually now see the arborvitae's that were planted behind the fences many years ago.....

My purple plum leaf tree is thriving.....

Moving to the left a bit......

My arborvitae's and my lilac tree......

To the far left of my yard....

So I still get a lot of shade and it is still very private where no one can actually see me sitting out on my Patio.....

Now let's take a look at the yard.....

The left side of my tiny yard when you walk out my back door....

My little gnome garden tub.....

My loosestrife that I planted on each side of the arbor is doing well and full of blooms on this side....

This salvia that I bought this year also did not look too good after I planted it in this pot but it is also looks like it is coming back and even has some new blooms....

I moved the gazing ball over a bit as the loosestrife was swallowing it up where it was....

The bees and butterflies love these flowers...

On the table....

I have marigolds that are coming up from seeds.......

Along with this pot that I had in the front, and slugs were eating the plants down to nothing, that I moved here and it revived itself.....

The pots on the ground are for planting more seeds in....

At the end of June, I cut back all the Missouri Primrose once they stopped blooming, which allowed me to move some pots out into the yard.....

These asters were also being eaten by the groundhog and are now thriving once I blocked his entrance into my yard....

These will hopefully bloom with deep purple flowers at the end of August or beginning of September....

Under the arbor....

The impatiens are still hanging in there even with this heat and humidity and the fact that this one gets more Sun.......

So here's the funny thing.....

I planted seeds in the 2 pots on the sides of the arbor.....

I have no idea what they were but they seem to be growing .....

The seeds were either yarrow, morning glories or forget me not's.....Anyone have any clue as to which one these could be???

Phlox and impatiens were planted in the larger pot in the middle .....

I love the look of the moss that has started growing in between the pavers....

Those are columbine to the right of the walkway......

These poor lilies back here never even bloomed this year.....

The loosestrife on this side of the arbor needs to catch up to the one on the other side.....

I moved this pot of begonias into the yard after cutting back the Missouri primrose...

The hosta in this pot in the vintage coal bucket is starting to dry out like most hostas do this time of year...

My Fur Baby Memory Garden.....

Looking toward the back gate that we have not used in decades....

Those are faux flowers in the pots on the chairs....

The moss growing in between the pavers gives the garden an English Cottage look....

The hostas in the pot in the yellow crate was planted there several years ago....

Best thing I did was to plant 4 impatiens in each of the rectangular planter boxes here in the back of the yard.....

Since the back of the yard is mostly shaded all day long, they are doing fantastic!

I moved these planters out into the yard....

Again, loving the moss look....

I added pieces of coleus that I cut off plants in the front yard to this vintage bucket that has a Bell Flower perennial planted in it....

The coleus took and is doing well.....

This pot of asters was also gnawed down by the groundhog and has since recovered and is growing....

I also tucked a piece of coleus in this pot.....

The middle area of the yard, looking at it from the left side of the yard.....

The impatiens in this vintage watering can are doing well....

More coleus plants.....

The loosestrife in the middle of the yard.....

It is a haven for bumble bees and butterflies and I suspect hummingbirds, which I have not been able to see as I have not been outside too much because of the oppressive heat and humidity....

Again, the flowers on the Patio are all faux flowers...

Looking at the loosestrife from the other side.....

My Gnome Garden.....

The clay pot is a bee water station so they can get a drink....

The autumn sedum are starting to flower...

Looking at the arbor from the other side of the yard.....

In the back by the garden shed is another loosestrife.....

It is almost completely in the shade so it usually does not do too well.....

Like I said before, I am loving how that moss looks....

The right side flower bed....

In the corner back by the garden shed....

I planted some seeds in this planter in the wheelbarrow but they did not come up so I, once again, placed cuttings from my coleus plants in the front yard in here.....

They are doing well.....

As are the impatiens in this vintage galvanized bucket....

I moved this small pot with begonias in it back here....

Hopefully, my next door neighbor's arborvitaes will revive themselves a bit.....

Faux flowers in the pot and greenery in the vintage strainer...

The hosta that I transplanted in this pot is doing well....

I transplanted a piece of ground sedum in front of the rock....

These impatiens are looking okay even though they do get the morning Sun....

I transplanted a lamb's ear in this pot from the front yard along with a piece of coleus.......

And these asters seem to be making a comeback after being gnawed down to nothing.....

Hopefully, they will bloom this year with light purple daisy like flowers.....

And now we will take a quick look at the Patio from the back of the yard.............

Again, all flowers in the pots on the Patio are faux....

I did a lot of work on my back yard this year with replacing the mulch with rubber mulch, putting down more weed block fabric around the fences and putting Preen down twice throughout the Summer....

All has paid off as I had very little weeding to do and I am really happy with how it all looks...

I also anticipate not getting as many leaves in my yard in the Fall like in past years because of that big tree being cut down!!

I hoped you enjoyed seeing my back yard Cottage Garden Update in late Summer.....

And I hope you will stop by to visit again on THURSDAY for my next post......

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

And try to find JOY in every single day!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......