Dying Perennials Have Value

I am deriving much pleasure from the dying perennial gardens this year.

I usually have most of it cut down by now, but this year I have done very little clean up.

I think my procrastination paid off! I enjoy taking a peek every time I walk by my bedroom window (it's the only place inside the house where I can see these gardens).

I had quite a few neighbors ask me what the flowers were in this new  roadside garden this year.

Most of my neighbors were not familiar with growing dahlias.  They all wanted them until I mentioned that they had to be dug out of the ground every fall. Suddenly they were all happy just to admire mine as they took their nightly walks down the road.  It is  a pain to do, so I was thrilled to pull into the garage after work and see 4 boxes like this:

Yes, my sweet husband dug them all out today and set them in the garage. Tomorrow he will hose off all the soil and let them dry out a bit before storing them for the winter.

Hope you are all enjoying the month of October in your part of the world.

Cattails in the Coleus

I had planned to do a lot of fall decorating inside this past weekend.  As it turned out, the weather was great for working in the garden, so I did just a small bit of outside fall decorating.

A couple of weeks ago, we stopped by the side of the road and J cut down some cattails for me so I could use them for autumn decorating.

Sunday I stuck a few of them in this coleus planter on the side of the garage. I also added a small scarecrow.

Then I plunked a pumpkin in this old floor lamp container on the deck. I added three more cattails:

That's a far I got on the autumn deck décor.  It was such a beautiful weekend, that I spent all my time moving plants and cutting down those that were finished for the year.

I just watched our local weather forecast for the next few days..........OMG.....down in the 30's for night time lows!  I am so glad I enjoyed my weekend outside in the last few days of summer rather than doing autumn décor inside!

In it's Former Life it Was....

A drinking fountain!

Corina guessed it correctly in the post below. :)

 

 

Can You Guess What this Tall Focal Point Container Began Life As?

Look way down the center path to the end.  Do you see the tall planter in the center of the Sedum Autumn Joy?

From another side:

From behind:

 Close up from the side:

 Frontal close up...

Any idea what this container began its life as in 1978?

Fall Colors & Good Eats

Loved this salad I made last night with fresh tomatoes, cukes and mozerella cheese.

I have a lot of gold/orange in the garden this week. Lots of black-eyed Susans. They go nicely with J's marigolds.

Golden orange cosmos and orange dahlias on the deck:

And soon there will be a big orange flower on top of the blue container. Yes, the Tropicanna Gold has started to throw up some bid buds.

Hope you are all enjoying your own fall garden colors!

Still Waiting for the Tropicannas® in the Big Blue Pot to Bloom

They may not bloom because they love heat and there has not been any heat this year.  Even if they don't bloom, I am happy with this container.  The foliage is huge & fabulous, so this guy has already performed beyond my expectations this year.  If you look in the center picture in my blog header, you can see this container in June before everything began to grow.  All that lushness just sits inside every winter waiting to explode--I know I keep saying this--but it's amazing!

Unfortunately the deer found the kale and at a big hunk of it.

Hunting season starts Nov. 15.  Hoping we still have some hunters left in the neighborhood...if you have a garden, you probably feel the same.

I have had these pink starburst dahlias for probably 20 years.  They were the first dahlia I purchased and I still love them.

 The cold weather kept them at a shorter height which worked out nicely this year.

I have them in a few other gardens and in containers on the deck:

I don't remember my liatris (tall purple spikey things in the background) blooming so late before. 

It's almost September and they are still in flower.  I will have to look back on the blog and see when they usually bloom.  It's been an odd year!

My Shrub Borders are at Their Best Right Now

 

I took these pics less than an hour ago.  This is the front of my home  looking from the perennial gardens to the new picket fence garden.

This is at the garage entrance looking toward the same picket fence road garden.

 And this is the picket fence garden.  It is planted with a Ninebark and 2 Golden Cypress Mophead shrubs.  Since the shrubs are still small, I filled the garden in with red and pink dahlias and J's favorite flower, marigolds.

I am happy to report that all of the Limelight Hydrangeas that I planted last fall are doing great.

I put three of them in the old apple tree border.
Same area looking in the opposite direction toward the picket fence road garden.

Did you notice all of the sedums just beginning to turn pink in my driveway borders?  I have dozens of them.  This is next to the sidewalk to the front door looking toward the old apple tree border:

 

 

A few feet to the right looking in the exact spot where the apple tree stood.  We are loving living without that tree there. This is the first time in over a quarter century that we have not had to pick up apples every day in late summer.

In a week the sedum will all be a lovely medium pink  color.  In two weeks they will turn their rust color and then sadly summer is over.  It goes faster every year, don't you think?

 

Amazing What Happens in Just Three Months

May 24, 2014

August 20, 2014

Loaded Crabapple Tree, Ligularia & Helenium 'Lollipop'

This branch is so heavily loaded that it hangs to the ground, making a nice frame for garden pics. :)

I am sure the birds will enjoy them soon.

The Ligularia is blooming.  I really enjoy this plant.

It is planted in a container, so each year I can move it around. I am enjoying it next to this wagon wheel.

 Right in the front I have Helenium 'Lollipop', another new purchase this year. 

I love the unusual form of this flower--tiny little eyeball with a wee frill of ruffled petals on the underside.  This flower is fully open. I think it's a great contrast to Ligularia's large coarse leaves and tall spiky blooms.  It needs to be planted in the front of a border to be appreciated. 

I usually cut down hosta blooms because they are  too tall and messy for my liking.  Since the deer ate dozens of my hostas, I don't have many to cut down this year. Somehow this one escaped the deer and I decided I like its flowers in front of the pink speedwell so I left them on.

Time to go outside to finish my weekend garden chores--mostly just weeding.

Happy gardening!

Calla Lilies

I always enjoy my bright yellow calla lilies.  This year I planted some in the ground (usually I only plant them in containers on the deck).  A few of them bloomed this week.

A few feet from the ground bloomers, I have that huge container which behaved beautifully by blooming at the same time.

Here's the frontal shot:

Thankfully, the deer don't eat calla lilies.

 Two of the two dozen  Asiatic Tango lilies managed to escape the deer banquet last week. I am grateful that I did at least get to see one flower bloom from this 'Lionheart' grouping:

As I had hoped, the planting would have look great against this Ninebark shrub. 

'Olina' is another of my favorite of the Tango series. 

These are the only two that survived.

 

I hope everyone is enjoying the last week of July.  I am LOVING our very cool summer this year.  Last week it dropped down in the high 40's one night! 

Light work weekend in the Garden

I did not do much work in the garden this weekend.

I did move this 'Magic Fountain' delphinium:

and pulled a weed here and there...nothing too strenuous.

Don't you love the blue of this little delphinium 'Night Sky'?  It only gets about a foot tall.

I planted four them last weekend. I like that blue color next to the silver Lamb's Ear.

Now here's a hot color combo-orange, red and purple--whew!

I do love the red bee balm with the lavender.

 

On the other side my pink speedwell is just beginning to bloom.

 

We went to a craft show on Saturday.

I bought one of those birdhouses because the color was perfect in my garden.  Here's mine at 6:30 a.m. hanging on the end of my largest arbor:

 

Unfortunately the dreaded deer found my tasty perennial garden this weekend. They demolished a number of hostas and almost every Asiatic lily bud that had not yet opened. 

 

Bummer! I always look forward to the lilies.  Now I have to wait another year for a decent display.

 

A few nights ago J grilled the most delish burgers. He called them 2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions,  on a NON-sesame seed bun. :)

 

 

They were very good. I am looking forward to an encore later this summer.