Playing Hooky in the Garden

It was way too nice this weekend to be inside quilting, so I'm all about reporting on the garden today. I bought some new plants that needed to get planted out since it supposed to be a hot week.
First a new basil plant. The other one I had going is kinda used up and tired and now it is finally tomato influx time, and I know I'll be needing it frequently.
Our mint patch hasn't been getting watered enough this summer so the mint was kind of dying out. Plus I found this neat variegated one to add into the mix. This is the cage-match corner of the garden, the competitors being mint vs. honeysuckle vs. lemon balm.
A six pack of nicotiana (yes related to tobacco plant!) yielded three very distinct colors.Red is a nice look too.
But my favorite is this vibrant yellow/green.

Two plants that I'm trying out in the deer-infested front yard. One is called "Eryngium Blue Hobbit", it is a very thistly bristly plant that I hope will deter the deer from the less obvious leaves down below. I like the subtle blue-purple flowers, and its very different texture. It is next to the society garlic and sweet marjoram, near the lavender.

Helichrysum 'Limelight' or climbing licorice. With the fuzzy leaves I hope the deer will be put off. I'm hopeful that it will grow up onto the fence.

And finally, the Naked Lady is blooming. I've been seeing these all over town lately and was wondering when mine would shoot up and appear. In this picture you can see the mass of dead leaves below, then the flower stalks appear like a resurrection of the dead.

Aren't the buds themselves lovely? I particularly enjoy the shape and the pink/green color combination.

It is almost time to divide these and have another clump growing somewhere in the garden. These are one of the few big juicy flowers that the deer do not eat around here. I think I'll be starting a new iris/amaryllis spot, someplace that needs big showy flowers once in a while.