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? 

I tried to get a shot of this busy little guy, but he was moving too fast for me to get him in focus. 

Leaves.  Changing. 

That’s how my garden is growing this week.  How’s yours doing? 

cross-posted on my daily blog 

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2016 Garden Weekly 22

Monday In Bloom

It was a lovely day Sunday when I went out to water.  A tiny bit muggy but overall, lovely.  And of course it started to rain a couple hours later.  As I was taking my last picture, the drops started coming.  Slow at first, until we had a downpour.  Those rains are sure hit or miss for me.  If they don’t come at a certain angle, the plants closest to the wall won’t get a drop. 

I haven’t deadheaded.  At this point, I’m not sure I will.  Last week was so busy for me, and this week coming up will be, too, as it’s the last week of our school vacation and I have to get tons of stuff ready for classes next Monday.  Yikes!  I am so glad I “pre-recorded” all my posts for the September 19-Something Challenge I’ve been doing or I’d have probably failed at that one, lol.  So deadheading is going to have to take a back seat to everything else I have going on.  And I can’t even begin to tell you how much I miss my blog and all of you.  I feel like I haven’t read anything for days.  Not related to gardening, but if you’re the praying type, I would ask for prayer for my friend going through a divorce.  Things are piling up for her and she is overwhelmed and hurting and … I. Worry.  On another unrelated note, a friend came into town for a visit and I got to spend some time with her.  She’s one of the ladies who used to work here, so there was lots of laughing going on at the office, lol. 

It was an awesome storm, by the way.  Not enough thunder and lightning though but it did downpour pretty hard for a few minutes.  So, awesome but not epic, lol. 

Things are starting to slow down and relax quite a bit.  I did see that something has been digging in one of few remaining pansy pots, although my friend frog from the last 2 years didn’t show up.  Flowers are starting to die back and leaves are beginning to turn brown.  The plants know Autumn is here and are getting ready, even if the temperatures aren’t quite there yet.  I think we’re going to see a cool down this week though, with daytime temps getting –and staying, yay!- in the 60s. 

I’m thinking the globe amaranth are Autumn plants.  In the last couple weeks those little magenta globes have popped up all over the plants I have, like nobody’s business!  They died back and turned brown over the Summer so I thought that was it for them, but all of a sudden, poof! 

I am sure that anyone in their right mind would tell me I overloaded this pot.  The coleus is so huge!  I just can’t get over it!  But it’s so pretty with the spikes and the Dusty Miller, I love it! 

At least these mums are still bright. 

Last week I noticed all these little spatters that looked like paint splashes all over my table.  I was on the phone with my friend and saying, “It almost looks like someone spilled paint on my table.”  Now I look at it and I’m like, Duh!  The tiny flower petals from the Sweet Alyssum fluttered off, it rained at some point, and made tiny white spots all over everything, lol. 

The steadfast Marigolds.  I do appreciate their reliability!

These mums look like they’re dying a bit already.  I was so surprised, I just got them.  I haven’t been watering them as much as the other plants, because they like it on the dryer side.  So I don’t know what’s wrong with them.  I was hoping to get more than just a couple weeks out of them.  Still, they’re kind of pretty in their dying state

It’s just such a glorious shade of yellow! 

These Speedwell seem to still be doing great. 

The lavender, however, has some dead branches already.  *sigh*  They don’t show up very well in the picture, but in the middle, it’s brown. 

At least the sage is still pretty happy!

More of the globe amaranth popping up. 

So that’s how my garden’s growing this week.  How’s yours doing?  Are you doing Autumn/Winter prep yet?

cross-posted on my daily blog 

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2016 Garden Weekly 21 | Flickr  //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Monday In Bloom

I couldn’t get a screenshot of the temperature as I was on the phone with my friend when I went out to take pictures, but it was in the low-mid 70s, and the humidity was decent.  It was a bright, sunny day and not uncomfortable to be out.  We haven’t gotten as much rain this week as last, so things have been a bit on the dry side.  I’ll probably be out there Monday morning watering away. 

Overall, things are still looking pretty good.  The landscapers shaved a bit too close with the weed whacker so the grass edge around my little fence is all dead.  It’s actually a little trench that was originally landscaped in, and sometimes I think I’d like to fill it with smooth rocks or something. 

Do you notice what’s missing?

Still looking bright and lush!

In case you didn’t know, coleus is mostly a shade plant.  My little garden patches face East, South East.  So we get some morning sun, and in the afternoon the front section gets some, but everything else is pretty much in the shade by then.  So, clearly the coleus have been a good choice, and they really seem to love this corner, which also happens to be the shadiest.
 

Every time I see this pot, I think of a wedding gown.

These mums are finally blooming.  They are indeed more of a rusty color and not the burgundy I was hoping for.  Oh well, at least it’s a pretty plant. 

For Ryan, at Stormbound Treehouse, this is what I was talking about last week when I said this plant matched the marigolds better than it matches the coleus. 

Speaking of coleus (again!), can you believe how huge this thing is?! 

The potato vine has lots of flower buds on it.  I’ve never seen it have so many!  I’m thinking it likes the shade more than the full sun I’ve been giving it each year when I buy it.  It’s vine-y, so I hung it, and the little tag thingy said it liked sun, but I’m thinking it only likes partial sun at best. 

In case you didn’t notice what was missing in the first picture, here it is!  The hanging pot of sweet alyssum is no longer hanging.  The hanger rope broke when I was watering a couple days ago, just like its neighbor pot of potato vine did a few weeks ago.  So I guess I’m going to have to find a better hanging solution for these pots, or give up on the idea of hanging pots all together.  Yeah, I don’t like that last idea either!

Still some lilies left on the plant!

The lavender seems to be doing great.  I can’t recall how big they got last year (and seriously Vanessa, why do you take the pictures then?)  Okay just went to look back at last year’s pics, and the lavender, one of them anyway, did pretty well.  It made it through Winter but died in early Spring.  It was almost as big as this one, but that was in Week 28.  So, for all intents and purposes, this one seems to be doing better.  *fingerscrossed*

Annnnd Autumn is fast approaching.  Thursday, at 9:21 AM CDT! 

More snaps, yay!

I simply adore this combination of the silvery Dusty Miller with the purple Sweet Alyssum.  It seems every pot that has one, also has the other.  While I was on the phone with my friend I just started snapping all of them.  I guess you could call it … Study in Silver and Sweet. 

So grows my garden this week!  How’s yours doing?  Are you getting ready for Autumn?

cross-posted on my daily blog 

To see all my pictures from the garden this week, you can click either the link or the image below. Thanks for looking! 2016 Garden Weekly 20 | Flickr //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js