Monday In Bloom

The weather has been lovely.  And by lovely I mean cool nights, temperate days, and low humidity.  Ahhhh!  That’s my kind of weather!  These kinds of days are few and far between in my neck of the suburbs, so I relish them when they arrive.

I pulled up most of the pansies finally.  They just … yeah.  Weak, scraggly, struggling.  So I just put them out of their misery.  I have one pot of them holding on, but not for much longer, I think.  And that’s about all I’ve done in the garden this week.  I’ve been so busy with other things that I just haven’t had much time, or inclination, really.  There isn’t a lot to do except water and deadhead, and God’s been doing a lot of the watering for me so that’s nice.  And as for deadheading, it’s kind of late in the season for that.  Trying to force more blooms this late would be more trouble than it’s worth, in my opinion.

While the sweet alyssum is gearing down, it seems like the globe amaranth are just going gangbusters!  Their bold color is a definite bright spot!

And of course, all the coleus and salvia make my heart so happy.  All that color!

This pot is one of my favorites.  Piles of sweet alyssum with the trailing ivy vine – love it.  Since the rope holding it up broke and it’s been sitting on the outdoor table, I’ve been able to enjoy its awesome fragrance more often.  I’m thinking I may have to re-think which plants go in the hanging pots next year.

Lily.  Still around, much to my happy surprise!  It still has a few more tricks up its sleeve, I think!

My overly friendly Artemisia, lol.  It really is just too soft and feathery to be what anyone could call aggressive.  The leaves are about as substantial as fog.

Love the happy Veronica!

I think of these two as The Twins, even though they’re not the same kind of plant.  And it’s so silly because I don’t think of the ones that are the same as twins.  But they’re both tall, spiky, and purple.  Clearly I have a thing for tall, spiky plants. 

Even though a lot of my garden is dying off and looking less than stellar, there are still some trees around here putting on their Autumn attire, and I thought you might enjoy the promenade.   

That’s how my garden’s growing this week.  How’s yours doing?  Are you doing Autumn prep, getting ready for Winter?

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 23 | Flickr //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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

So That's How You Make Catnip

So That's How You Make Catnip: