Tina's Garden Blog: 2009

Saturday, September 26, 2009

September 26, 2009

This baptisia has gotten too big - I need to expand the whole front border of this bed so that the baptisia doesn't hang out over the edge so much!

This beautiful white cleome self-seeded from plants earlier this summer and managed to flower all within the second half of the summer.

I think I'm going to rip these knotwood (persicaria?) out -- they were recommended by White Flower Farm but have not done anything -maybe they need more sun.

We have had lots of rain for the past few weeks and the garden is looking a bit ragged. It has made me try to focus on what I need to do for later in the fall or next spring. First of all - this front bed needs some more room! The Rozanne geraniums continue to do well, but the coneflowers need more elbow room.

I have never seen this before -- these zinnias should have been deadheaded but evidently set seed - which actually sprouted on the flower head! I guess that's from all the rain we've had!

September 22, 2009

Spiders! We've had lots of orb spiders in the garden this year - at least i'm pretty sure that's what they are called. there are two - each with webs on either side of our front porch.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

August 29, 2009

Fall is on its way. The Coral Bark maple is starting to show some color.

I've replaced all the dead hydrangeas with these Hydrangea Paniculata 'Lime Light' plants. I hope they do better!

I've also added some sedums (Autumn Joy) and a short variety of golden rod along the upper part of this bed. I'm planning to interplant some pink phlox and garlic chives around the sedums -- you'll see why in the pictures below.

The winterberries are starting to color up.

See what I mean about this combination? I love it!

And here's the phlox and sedum combo.

I've started some lettuce and cauliflower in the veggie patch. You can see I still have a few plants of arugula going (on the far right).

The zinnias are VERY happy!

This is a caryopertis (sp?) that I bought mailorder and it came as a tiny plant. It's at least 3 feet x 3 feet now and I am loving the pretty blue flowers this time of year!

You can see how the garden filled in this summer. I've started planting dwarf mondo grass between the pavers - I think I'll really like it in a few years when its all filled in.

The butterflies are loving the pentas. Can you see the black and blue one there?

This is a sweet flag (a type of yellow iris) that I had in the pond but its happier living in the damp spot created by the water dripping out of hte a/c condensor.

The fire thorn (pyracanthus sp?) is getting so pretty - I cut back all the scraggly bits that don't have berries. For the holidays I plan to cut back the parts with berries that are not flush against the garage and get it under control even more.

This grass has been very pretty in the urns. I'm thinking of planting them along 10th avenue - my new "fall garden" - and putting little evergreens of some sort in the urns for the winter.

The scarlet runner beans have been pretty and lush all summer. But next year I'm going to try one with a less vivid color!

August 24, 2009

I'm thinking . . . snail eggs on the side of the pond?

August 15, 2009

The sedums are coming in well. This one is in front of the garage where it doesn't get all that much sun (behind the furniture), but it seems to like it just fine. There's a tiny purple coneflower that got swamped by some other plants -- I'm hoping it gets bigger next year b/c the purple color is pretty with the sedum as it turns pink and then burgundy.

This corner hasn't done too much after the lillies bloomed. I planted a shrub form of moon flower and its done okay, but not great. I also planted some moonflower seeds andsome morning glory - not sure which one is starting to move along the trellis, but htere are buds so we'll see soon!

Nearly all of my Endless Summer hydrangeas died this summer -- as did my big Nikko Blue (nearly) -- we had lots of rain and cool temps,so not sure what happened to them!