What is Eating my Black-Eyed Susans?

Any idea? 

On the opposite side of the house, they are in much better condition.

It Took One Hour to Make This Change

Obedient plant at 11:00 AM today. It's the little white specks you see amid the Black-eyed Susans.

Here is a close up so you can better appreciate the nothingness of this plant in my garden.
I have seen this plant in other gardens where it has a bigger head and looks much nicer. In my garden it never gets much better than this---until today...

Obedient plant at NOON today:
Don't you think it looks so much better here? LOL. I am off work today and I decided there is nothing I like about this plant, so I dug it all out!

Now I have this big empty spot to plant something that I will enjoy more.
I have no idea what yet. I may leave it bare until next spring. This is a prime spot in the garden--right up front and I need to think about what to put here. I want something that has more WOW factor than the wimpy Obedient plant.


Here is a long shot view after the removal. To me it looks so much more neat and tidy.

Did you notice that the Black-eyed Susans are much more full than the last time I showed them to you? I think they are at their peak now. I have removed most of the the stray volunteers. I really enjoy them in big clumps. I think it will be really nice if that area I showed you a few days ago fills in....it is way at the end of the above pic. You can see a ton of BES's there now. Once they fill in, though, that area will wrap around another 10 feet or so into the woods and, I hope, be quite spectacular in late August.

Have I shown you this pine tree trunk full of Black-eyed Susans? It seems like I have. I moved it in front of the old wagon wheel a few weeks ago. It seems to work well in this woodland area.

I am posting this pretty late to link to Jean's Blooming Tuesday. But I will anyway. I hope to have time later tonight to check out all the other gardens. My days are so full when I am off work, that I can hardly find the time to post. There are a zillion and one things that I have to fit in to the extra 8 hours. Usually I post at 5:00 a.m., but today I slept in until 6:30 a.m. and then got up and scrubbed the floors and the bathtub so I would be sure to get that in. At 9:00 a.m., we had to go to a window showroom to pick out the type of windows we want installed. The contractor should be able to do the inside work in about two weeks.

Tomorrow I hope to show you some changes I made on the deck yesterday.

Globe Thistle and Little Laura

The globe thistle has now turned blue.

Did you Ever Look Closely at a Globe Thistle?

They are amazing flowers. First they are nearly perfectly round--amazing in its own right.

Then all those little spiney things turn into teeny tiny little petals that open to form the whole flower.

Liatris is another one where many tiny flowers form the whole.

Saturday morning I moved half of the 'Little Laura' phlox to this area behind the lavender at the beginning of his garden.
Now the purple color is distributed throughout this garden.

Ah, here we have the black-eyed Susans. I've been removing them from most of the gardens for the past two summers. They do takeover everywhere! But I like them in certain areas, like here by the deck entrance:
This area next to the main arbor is one where I intend to remove them.
From this angle they look pretty nice. But overall I think they look weedy. This is a difficult area to grow anything, so I am taking my time before I remove all of them. I think I have removed about half of them from this area. I will probably leave the rest until next year.

It's Blooming Tuesday over a Jean's today. Be sure to stop over and see what everyone else has blooming this week!

I Bet Everyone is Sick of Seeing Black-Eyed Susans

For most you they have probably come and gone by now. But for me they are just beginning their best bloom. So please bear with me as I toss out a picture or two.

This burst of golden yellow is all that is left from last year's major removal of the overgrown masses of Black-eyed Susans next to the main arbor. Do you see that the big Sedum Autumn Joy behind it is turning pink? It's a sure sign of fall.
You can see here that even though I removed wheelbarrow loads of BE Susan's last year, I still have plenty left. Can you see the bit of Obedient plant that is still left in the front of this border? I thought I had it all out last fall. You are right, Betty, it's not a very obedient plant!
When I got home from work I found this big plant had fallen over. It's in an old plastic pot with a bottom that is smaller than the top. . . not good for large plants.

Luckily I had that new container I just bought. I just put the old container inside the new one. It will work until the season ends. I will then replant everything and toss the old plastic pot.

After work today I ran to the library to return a bunch of books from last week. I was drawn to the cookbook section and grabbed a few to skim through this weekend.

I always get in the mood to cook when September rolls around.

I had about 20 minutes to kill before my nail appointment, so I went to the boat harbor and sat in my car and skimmed one of the Ina books. I like her books because they have narrative as well as good recipes.

Maybe I will find some new recipes to cook this weekend.

Almost Bedtime for the Gardens

I haven't taken a garden walk for at least 5 days. So as energyless as I am tonight, I forced myself to grab the camera and go for a stroll.
Boy, what a difference since last week! Almost all of the black-eyed Susans are gone now.

There is little left to the coleus in the old milk can.

The globe thistle has turned completely brown.

As has the .....the......the......
I hate when this happens.....I can't remember the name....coarse foliage....rudbeckia........purple flower.............well, honestly, it's a common flower......

PURPLE CONEFLOWER.
Whew, it was tought gettting the old brain to pull that one out.

The deck looks even worse.

I'd say the wall planters are finished.

I have SO MUCH work ahead of me getting all this cleaned up and put away.
I hope I get some energy by this weekend.

Oh the Joy of Sedum Autumn Joy

I have it EVERYWHERE. It's quite a change from all the orange I have during mid summer, isn't it?
Today I spotted my first aster in bloom (the purple flower on the left). I have quite a lot of asters in this area. They should all bloom within a week or so. I hope they bloom while the black-eyed Susans are still around. Often they bloom so late that nothing else is left. This year I did not cut them back because I wanted earlier blooms.

A Summer Day of Gardening

I spent a good part of my day digging all the plants out of this area.

Nothing wants to grow here. I am guessing it's lack of sun, since the soil is probably the best in any area of these gardens.

I am going to turn it into a hosta garden by removing pieces of the dozens of hosta I already own. That's the great thing about having a well-established garden. When you get the urge to redesign, you can just go around digging out things you already have. It's very cost effective.

I have to hook two hoses together to water this area. I am willing to do that now and then if I can get something to grow and look decent.

I also cut down spent lily stems & shasta daisies, and dug out a bunch of pink mallow. Just a lot of general tidying up. I think I had about 3 wheelbarrow loads.

I removed stray Black-eyed Susans like these that seeded themselves too close to other plants.

I have a lot of white phlox blooming right now. I moved a few clumps of that, too.



All in all, I had a busy day outside.

Now I am going to shower, put on my "Green Acres" gown with my Crocs and break open that case of Relax. Then I'm going to grab my camera and go out to the deck to stalk the hummingbirds.

Lots of Black-eyed Susans and phlox and not much else at the moment.

It was 45 degrees when I got up this morning. Brrrrrrrr...a little chilly out there.
DH is washing the house today. The outside siding - he does it every year with bleach and water.

Everything had to be pulled away from the house

That looks like a re-arranging opportunity if ever I've seen one!

Right now I have to go out and wash all those windows. (Bleach and water leaves all kinds of little spots on the windows)

Hope you're all having an equally enjoyable Saturday morning. :)

8:00 p.m. Garden Views



It won't be long and all the sedum Autumn Joy will be blooming.

Scaevola and Popcorn

I thought the black-eyed Susans and the Scaevola made a nice combo.


Last night I made some real popcorn (not the microwave stuff).
Remember putting oil in pan and popping it on the stove, then melting real butter to drizzle over top?
How long has it been since you've made popcorn like that?

The Orange is Gone

I am always amazed at how this border changes each month. All the bright orange Asiatic lilies and daylilies are now gone and it's returning to mostly purple and as soon as all the black-eyed Susans bloom, there will be a lot of gold.
I realized today that most of my flowers have finished blooming already. I only have Sedum Autumn Joy and asters left.

Another season is almost over!

Take a Bow, DH!

I did a lot of gardening work today (after almost two weeks of hardly doing any). I edged the beds in the woodland area, moved about 8 black-eyed Susans, a white phlox, a barley-surviving butterfly bush, and 3 hosta. It felt good to be digging in the dirt again.

After a few weeks of adequate rain, my garden is looking very, very nice (if I do say so myself). DH cut the lawn today, so I took a new picture of the arbor beds to show off his grass (he loves it if I mention his contribution on my blog!). He does do a great job and he knows how much the green lush grass contributes to the overall look.
Did you notice that the Sedum Autumn Joy is beginning to turn pink?

There is not much happening in the gardens right now. The black-eyed Susans have started to open, but are not yet in full bloom. As with the majority of my flowers this year, they are smaller than normal. Here are two arbor views that I took at 7:45 pm tonight.

Bee balm, coneflowers and black-eyed Susans (almost open).

Rudbeckia Hirta 'Autumn Colors'

I bought a new black-eyed Susan last week. It is Rudbeckia hirta 'Autumn Colors'. I have masses of black-eyed Susans, but they are all just the yellow variety. These colors just caught my eye.