Archives for September 2015

Summer has extended right into September here.

At the end of September, trees are just starting to turn.

Lots of blooms still out in the garden.

The familiar mums in red and yellow.

Japanese anemones – single white and double pink.

Perfect conditions for the reblooming iris, and a daylily blooming again.

The fall crocus are just about finished, but I found a few still standing.

Monkshood is such a beautiful blue.

The Rose of Sharon shrub finally gets to show off.

And the miniature roses are full of blooms again.

Toad lilies have such interesting,  orchid-like blooms.

The asters in pink and purple are always a highlight of the fall garden.

I’m so glad there are still flowers to enjoy.  I’m not quite ready to give it all up just yet.

In late spring I bought a Passion Flower vine for the pergola.

It has taken some time but now it is full of buds.

The long tendrils seem to keep growing until they find something to curl tightly around.

The blooms do not last long, but they are exotic and flamboyant.

Amazing colours and shapes!

I was thinking of taking it indoors to keep it over the winter, but that’s not always successful.

I read it might be zone 6 or 7 hardy with protection.

So I’m going to give it a good mulch and leave it out there.  It’s not that expensive to replace.

And if it survives, it will have a good early start, and earlier blooms for me to enjoy!

 

I’ve never had many roses in the garden, just too much work it seemed.

But those miniature roses that are available at the local grocery store seem to fill my need for some kind of rose.

Once a season, they are on sale for $2 a pot, and I buy a few for the garden.

Here are some just at the edge of the beds.

No fragrance, but such beautifully tiny little roses.

They are hardy plants and prolific bloomers, showing off long into fall.

For the last two years I’ve had some trouble with caterpillars, but generally they are pretty healthy, easy care plants.

Try a few for your garden.

Every garden should have room for a rose.

I have heard that this is an excellent apple year.

We have only one very old apple tree remaining on the property and it is heavy with fruit.

I can’t remember ever seeing so many apples on this tree.

The crabapples are also the fullest I’ve seen in many years.

This branch hangs low over the hosta beds.

It makes for some lovely fall colour.

 

Sometimes there is a new visitor to the pond.

I was quite surprised the first time I saw a snake in the pond.

This time he brought a friend.

I imagine fish or frogs were on the lunch menu.

This one slithered quite smoothly among the lilies.

But they both moved on.

Without lunch.

These three pots have definitely been stunning this year. I really tried to plant in a strict colour scheme. Now I can hardly bear to put them away for the winter. I’ll be saving those begonias,  the tradescantia, and  maybe the red spikes. So I can enjoy some of it all winter long!

I am ambitiously  working on three new beds this fall.

Two are extensions of previous beds.

Emptying the compost pile on this bed.

The third is going to be a new sunny place for some shrubs and perennials that are getting too much shade where they are now.

I’m setting out empty pots to lay out the bed.

This will be a low maintenance bed. I just dig holes for the plants, add good soil and compost and plant in those spots.

There will be mulch on this bed so no need to till and compost the whole bed.

Already dreaming of what they will look like in 2016!

Iris? you say.

Not the time for iris blooms.

But this is a reblooming white iris.

And when conditions are just right, it comes back with more blooms in the fall.

So there it is!

This bed was started about 17 years ago. There is a gingko tree,  high bush cranberry, snowball viburnum, dogwood, euonymus, burning bush, nest spruce, a boxwood, and some daylilies.  Now.  Different plants and shrubs were moved in/moved out through the years. The shrubs grew, but the daylilies still managed to get enough sun to bloom. In the last years, the clumps are really big, but not so many blooms, especially on the north side of the shrubs and trees. I dug out the four daylilies, brought over some good compost and replanted with some hostas. The south side daylilies should be okay yet.  But I think this side looks  really good now.