GardenNess: Monday In Bloom

Beautiful days with wet weather and cool nights have been the standard this week. Not a whole lot of sun, just that nice, lovely rain. Lots of showers or threats of showers. The ground is absolutely saturated. I’m loving it, and my plants are too, most of them anyway. Not the mums or pansies though. I’m also loving that we can keep the windows open and don’t have to run the a/c anymore. There are few days like this around here, usually we have to run either the a/c or the heater, so having the fresh air is … like a breath of fresh air, lol. Plus, I hate the constant noise from the units running, so the quiet is nice, too.

There has been some die-back in the garden. I can see it in the daisies and lilies, the phlox and a little in the lavender, too. It’s getting ready to sleep, I can see it. I can feel it. And when the rain is falling, I can smell it, too. There is the faintest whiff of crisp in the air. It feels wonderful, if a bit too humid. I’ll take it though!

School begins for us Monday. I have been trying to get ready. The kids are naturally not looking forward to it. They saw me pull out the books, and groaned. I got some of the things accomplished on this past break that I wanted, but not nearly as much as I hoped.

I can’t believe how vibrant these colors still are. I thought they’d be fading by now, but no!

These mums aren’t doing too badly, unlike the other pot of mums I have. These don’t get nearly the amount of rain as the other one, so these are doing better. Thank goodness! I feel like the other plant was a waste of money, considering how quickly it’s dying. Hopefully these will last until the first frost.

Here I am trying to get “artsy,” lol. I had to hold the camera low to get the colors of the pot and sweet alyssum that were hidden by the coleus.

This is currently my happy pot. I see this combination of textures and colors and my heart sings.

The lilies are going to sleep. Their leaves are turning brown, the blooms are dying off. It makes me sad. But, seeing how they thrived this past year, I know I have lots to look forward to next Spring. I think I’m going to need some stakes to keep the stalks from leaning so much.

This Artemisia plant cracks me up. I have decided that instead of taking over the garden, it simply has boundary issues and has decided to hug every other thing it can find. It’s just super friendly!

The Veronica is simply thriving. Yay!

You can see how saturated everything is in my neighbor’s little plot. We have had a lot of rain.

The lavender still looks pretty. The dead branches in the middle are really hard to see. I’m hoping to be able to save some branches and buds when I cut it back for Winter.

The sage is still looking pretty, even though many of the buds have died off. I found a slug on one of the leaves after I took this picture. Yikes! Guess what I’ll be doing this Winter?