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

On a Clear Day You Can See Canada

 

I took a couple of days off last week and J and I traveled to Paradise, Michigan to stay at Whitefish Point.

 

Panorama of Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum Campus -- Photo by Chris Winters

http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/whitefishpoint

Whitefish Point is located in Michigan's upper peninsula -- at the extreme southeastern end of Lake Superior.  It is a critical turning point for all vessel traffic entering and leaving Lake Superior.

The Whitefish Point Light Station was established by Congress in 1849.  It is the oldest operating lighthouse on Lake Superior.

They have a museum dedicated to the ships who met their demise in these waters:

 

In 1975 29 men went down with the Edmund Fitzgerald  in the waters of Whitefish Point. Many of you may remember that  Gordon Lightfoot made this wreck famous when he released his song - The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, in 1976.

The museum has many artifacts from the Edmund Fitzgerald, including the 200 lb. bronze bell   recovered by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society on July 4, 1995:

 

Here is J arriving at  the original U.S. Coast Guard barracks building, constructed in 1923 for the Whitefish Point Lifeboat Rescue Station.  It has been meticulously restored by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society with assistance from Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs and the Michigan Department of Transportation.

 

 

There are only 5 rooms available each night. This was our room: Room 1: Station Engineer’s, queen bed second floor

The present light tower was constructed in 1861 during Abraham Lincoln's administration. This is the view of the lighthouse from our room right after the sunrise on Friday morning:

 

In addition to the  five rooms that can be rented each night, there is a living room shared by all:

 Where I spent an hour or so reading my current culinary mystery novel before retiring to my room for the evening.

J really enjoyed the community kitchen

 

which was stocked to the brim with breakfast/snack items:

We had a very enjoyable late afternoon cup of coffee together.

 

We also walked along the Lake Superior shoreline and picked rocks to bring home.  Many people were doing the same--I guess everyone wants some souvenir rocks. :)  I put some of mine on the deck as a reminder of our wonderful evening in the UP (upper peninsula):

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Whitefish Point.

  Unfortunately I was so busy collecting rocks that I did not take a picture of Lake Superior.  Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes.  On a clear day you can see Canada from the shores of Whitefish Point.

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.

Doing a Bit of Fluffing on the Deck

I wanted the deck to look cozy and inviting because we had some of J's family over for dinner last night.  We brought out some seat cushions, a rug, a few pillows, and even a quilt:

I don't have many flowers in bloom on this end of the deck, so I picked a colorful bouquet of daisies and ditch lilies:

The bouquet matches this sign I bought a few weeks ago:

 

I made my own side tables this year using old milk cans and old TV trays.

I am quite fond of them. I think they have so much more character than what I see in the stores.  I have two of them.

 

These lilies (from Patti in Missouri) fit perfectly on the potting bench shelf.

 

The other side of the potting bench:

I am really enjoying this container combination.  I was thrilled to find the daisy with centers that match the top plant (its name completely escapes me at the moment).

View from this end of the deck through the liatris that are almost ready to burst out in their glorious purple spikes.

Most of the containers on my deck are planted with dahlias, none of which are in bloom yet.  August is always the best flowering month on the deck. 

We had a wonderful evening with J's family.  They are gardeners so they are always appreciative of our efforts to provide an inviting deck and yard.