Fall Colors

So my last post was all about how I'm ready to be done done done with the vegetable garden.

My flowerbeds, on the other hand, just continue to delight me.

 

Check out the fall colors I'm enjoying out front!

 

That lovely orange is a peony.

I know!

I don't remember it doing that before!

Maybe I had already cut it down in years past?

I feel sure I would have remembered that gorgeous color.

 

These mums provide a nice spot of pink right as I pull up to the house.

Closeup of the peony.

Snowball bush on the top terrace.

So pretty!

Add them all together, with the green from the boxwood and the deep brown of the Echinacea and wow! I could stare at it all day!

When I planted these I didn't realize how much I would enjoy them in the fall.

Plus, there is no work involved for me at this point, just enjoyment.

Makes it even better!

Garden Fatigue

 

[This was taken 3 weeks ago, but was still fairly accurate until we started ripping things out today.]

I'm done with the vegetable garden for the year.

It was not done yet, as the giant zucchini and mounds of green tomatoes on my counter can attest.

But I am done.

It happens every year about this time.

It's like Jack Frost and I have a handshake agreement somewhere around the beginning of October:

"Yep, 'bout time to wrap things up around here." 

Really, that last frost comes just in time--usually.

 

 

This year we have yet to have a killing frost, and won't for at least another week, if my phone's weather app is to be believed.

There was a part of me that felt guilty today, pulling up live tomato plants.

These could have had another 2 weeks!

On the other hand, will I care more about the garden in 2 weeks? No, I will not. 

Up came the tomatoes.

Plus, today was mild. It was not raining or windy. I had time to do it.

None of those things are guarantees in the remaining days of garden life.

 

 

[Petrified pea patch intact, as of a week ago. Keepin' it real around here.]

 

 I enjoy vegetable gardening, and I marvel at it. It's amazing how those tiny seeds, sown in the warming soil of May can produce many handfuls and bucketfuls of delicious things to eat in just 2 or 3 short months. Also, I'm grateful that our family is not solely dependent on what I grow for our yearly food.

 

Even as late as August, I'm usually still gung-ho, despite the heat.

30 more tomatoes? Bring it on! Homemade tomato sauce all winter! Hooray!

Zucchini bread, yum.

All of it. Awesome.

 

[From 2 days ago: dessicated pea patch gone. Everything else the same.]

 

Then along comes September, and my enthusiasm begins to wane. I see another round of ripening tomatoes on the vines and my eyes start to glaze over.

I stop watering.

Completely.

I have already pinched off the growing tips of all the vines, in hopes that what is on them will ripen up before frost. That's kind of how I feel, too.

Pinched back.

Ready to take care of what I've got without a bunch of new stuff cropping up.

 

 This year I've had it especially bad, due to the marathon backyard work project that's been going on. I haven't set foot in my backyard in 2 months.

To even get to the garden, you have to make a trek out the front door and all the way down on the side wall. There's a somewhat dry spot where you can step to climb up onto the garden wall, then finally make your way over to what you're hoping to pick.

Then you get to carry it with you as you do the whole thing in reverse.

Heaven help you if one of the kids has to use the restroom RIGHT NOW!

(Run fast darling, but whatever you do, don't fall off the wall and crush the grass seedlings!)

 

[Everyone look at me! Ha! That's about right.]

 

I've talked with friends who are big into extending the season.

They start planting peas and beets and all those cold-weather veggies again in July or August, for harvesting in the fall and early winter.

I admire their energy.

I just...I can't do that right now. I don't have it in me.

I may not be ready for winter, but ready to winterize?

Yes, I am.

 

[This year's potato harvest, with the last of the carrots.]

One More Eyesore Gone

So if you turned your back to the lovely terraced flowerbeds in front, this is what you used to see:

 

An eyesore of a flowerbed with many problems:

1. It was too narrow, so all the shrubs lay directly beneath the overhang of the house.

No water = unhealthy shrubs

 

2. Chock-full of grass and weeds

 

3. The water faucet leaked right here all the time, causing a muddy mess on the end near the stairs.

 

 

It was time to DO something about this bed.

I had pretty much ignored it for the past 3 years, other than to prune the spirea on the corner.

  

First things first: I ripped out all the dead, ugly bushes.

The spirea on the corner stayed, as did the euonymous under the window.

After we got the bricks pulled up, and the bed widened a bit, it was time to add soil, compost, and give a good tilling.

 

Then came the fun part--adding the new plants!

 [These pictures were taken October 20.]

 

 I put in an Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers' between the 2 existing shrubs.

 

To help soak up the extra water from the leaky faucet, I planted a hosta 'Guacamole' (apple green with darker streaks) by the front steps. It's supposed to reach up to 36" high.

Close by is a fern, Polystichyum munitum 'Western Sword.' I was impressed that it's supposed to be evergreen and naturalize well.

 

 

To either side of the hydrangea, in the back, I added 2 Astilbe chinensis 'Visions,' in a raspberry pink shade. Also filling in around the shrubs are two heucheras, 'Sweet Tart' and 'Lime Marmalade'; a second fern: Polystichum 'Soft Shield'; and one more hosta: 'Aureo Marginata' (deep green with yellow margins.)

 

The final step was to add bark to everything.

I'm so pleased with the change.

 

 

Apparently there was a big hailstorm while we were on vacation, that threw down 1" hailstones. Some of the hosta leaves were shredded, but they both seem to be bouncing back.

Now if I can just keep it watered through August!

(We're looking at a solid month of 95+ temperatures.)

Story of My Life

Still life with lupines and gravel bucket.

 

Yup, this about sums it up right now.

There's construction and there's patches of beauty.

I can appreciate both, for different reasons.

The Garden is Finished!

Last blocks laid and terraces filled with dirt and compost.

 

It has all been rototilled in and my seedlings planted out.

 

 

A lot of hard work, right there, but so great!

I get to plant squash and pumpkins this year because there will be room for it to roam!

Woohoo! 

 

Roses, Daisies & Salvia: GBBD June 2014

Better late than never, right? 

 

The bad news is: the irises are already done.

 The good news is: I've got all kinds of other stuff blooming right now.

 

Let's get to it, shall we?

 

In the back, shade bed:

 I still have some columbine going strong.

There are some violas and pansies back here, as well.

 

On the shady side of slope, the hardy geraniums are battling valiantly against the grass.

 

Slope, sunny side: we've got wild daisies and wild lupines

I just love that combination!

Back flowerbed: 

'Yellow Topaz' rose

You can't cut this one to bring in, as the petals fall off at the slightest bump, but it's a star right now in the June garden.

mockorange starting to open up

 

Between the Topaz rose and the mockorange, this section of the backyard smells heavenly.

 

My poppy bloomed! I was so excited, as I just put it in last year.

I love that color, too.

 

Heading to the front:

Dutch iris

 

 The salvia really bring some great color to this bed.

And of course, that dianthus won't be ignored, either.

 



 I was tickled to see so many blooms on this peony this year.

This is its 3rd summer and the first time it has really bloomed.

More salvia, with lamb's ear going for broke, and a few small petunias.



Believe it or not, these daises are wild.

They just happen to grow right here at the end of the flowerbed proper, and they're doing so well I decided to leave them.

The daises in the background along the side of the house: also wild.

Some people pull them out as weeds.

I don't mind them a bit.

 

I can hardly believe how huge this salvia has gotten.

I like the contrast with the foliage of the Sem False Spirea right next to it.

 

 

Speaking of spirea, this little shrub is blooming again.

Last but not least, the 'Watercolors' rose that I moved up front.

 

Take a look at other gardens, too:

http://www.maydreamsgardens.com/

 

Happy Bloom Day, friends!

 

A Few Little Additons, & 4 Big Ones

 

I decided 2 of my containers needed a little something more:

 

This one was looking a little bare between those petunias:

[Before]

So I added a few Asparagus sprengeri.

 

 

[After]

Aah, much better.

 

I have no pictures to show for this one, but I also added another sedum to the succulent boat.

A Sedum acre 'Aureum', (Golden Carpet). It looks good. Trust me.

 

I also added Ipomea, petunias, and lobelia to the front flowerbeds, and portulaca to the back.

 

* * * * * *  * * * *

As for our big additions, my husband had mentioned to me a couple of times that the top part of the slope above the garden needed a little . . . something. It has some big bushy lupines, a scattering of daisies, and the rest weedy grass.

 

So I got 4 big shrubs to put up there, all of them American Highbush Cranberry, or Viburnum trilobum. (Our first choice was staghorn sumac, but the ones at the nursery looked so ratty I just couldn't bring myself to buy them.)

 

Can you see how steep the slope is right here?

We dug them in deep and far, slipping and sliding all over the place, but it still looks like it's about to slide right on down the hill.

 If they survive (this is sometimes called the Hill of Death, after all), they should grow up to 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. I don't know that I would let them get them that tall, but not to worry, they can pruned to control size and shape.

They are supposed to adapt well to a most soils, and bear edible berries in the fall--although not the same cranberries as are sold commercially, I found out. Not even the same species!

Deep red fall color, with red berries persisting over winter.

I'm not completely sold on eating the berries, but I'm hoping these shrubs will add some much-needed structure, color, and interest to that part of the slope.

 

If they survive.

I'm really trying not to get too attached at this stage in the game; I have learned by sad experience with this slope. I have been watering them, and I'm hoping the rain we had last night will do them a whole lot of good.