Each Little World

Aargh . . .

Typepad has been doing some kind of upgrade that knocked it out of commission since last Thursday. Not only could I not post, I could not make any kind of connection to my blog. By late today I discovered the post I'd set up early last week to automatically post today had done so. Alas, there are no photos in it again. I am assuming it's Typepad's problem. I am just going to ignore it all for another day or so and hope they get everything corrected.

IVOM: Halloween

Whenever I get bored, I change up the items on top of this pair of Chinese wine tables. Or on the glass shelves we added on the bottom to provide more display space. Recently I wanted something to punch up this room and bought this pair of lamps at a new antique mall in town. Mark is less than thrilled with them because they limit the size and number of pieces of art that can be put on the wall behind them — which is why I saved the pair of smaller scale lamps that had been residing here. 

I put this grouping of objects out at the beginning of October. I wanted something that felt like Halloween but didn't include typical items. This group showcases a Japanese incense burner, a squash-shaped box of unknown origin and a Chinese ceramic piece that was likely used as a roof decoration. 

I immediately fell in love with this piece when I saw it at an art show at a friend's farm the summer of 2021. It's an actual dried pumpkin covered with lead bullets and sculpt metal. It's called "Pumpkin Mine" and is a comment on the marine mines used to blow up ships. I'm still not sure why I am so drawn to it. I'm not a violent person and neither is the artist — a friend — who made it. But it certainly has that eerie Halloween feel. 

This big wooden bowl full of Honey Locust pods comes out every autumn. When we first lived here, we rarely got pods from our three trees. In recent years, we are buried in them. We fill a lot of big bags with them and send them off to the county dump. 

As a means of turning these lemons into lemonade, I saved the longest, shiniest, most velvety pods for display. They live in this bowl year-round in the basement except for their month in the sun every October.

Wordless Wednesday

Where they went No. 2

More looks at where some of my 2022 plant purchases have gone.

. . . 

The Lower Moon Garden

Thuja orientalis 'Franky Boy' performed beautifully in a pot all summer.

It has such great texture that it was nice enjoying it up close.

Its permanent location is far out in the front garden. Given it's potential size — 4'-6' high x 3'-4' wide — I am hoping it won't take too long for to become visible at a glance out the kitchen window. Right now it's barely noticeable among the nearby ferns, ground cover shrubs and trees.

Once the leaves disappear and the Geraniums die back for winter, it will definitely be more visible, especially with a little snow cover on the ground.

The West Gate Garden

On the west side of the house we planted three seedling European spindle trees that I bought from the original Heronswood nursery. Opposite them were three burning bushes original to the house. Over time, both plantings were devastated by tent caterpillars and we removed them all.The ground covers in this 2011 photo are also long gone.

I loved the transition from the shady front space to this short sunny corridor. But Mark has been after me to put something taller in there. I don't want to lose all that light so I have been focusing on tall but narrow plantings. 

On the front left is a Thuja occidentals 'DeGroot's Spire' which will get around 16' high and a little under 3' wide. This is the last big plant that I intend to put in this area. It went in late in the summer. 

There are clumps of Epimediums echoing the same plants across the path. Between them on the left is a very small Taxus cuspidata 'Amersfoort' (6' x 4'), followed by a Cornus sericea 'Pucker Up' (eventually 4' tall) and ending with a Carpinus betulus 'Columnar nana', a dwarf fastigiate Hornbeam that will ultimately get up to 6'-8'.

Where they went

I think my sister's unexpected death early last December sent me on a garden buying spree. Online or in person, I have been buying plants non-stop since last winter. The last perennials just arrived along with bulbs from two suppliers.

I've posted pictures of my worktable covered with plants a few times. But I've never shown where the plants went. Many are being used to correct problems, fill in unfinished areas or to create a focal point once a plant attains some size.

. . .

I planted Helleborus 'Kingston Cardinal' in 2008. At some point I added a self-seeded boxwood from elsewhere in the garden and a clump of Japanese painted fern. These days the Boxwood is hiding the Hellebore and the fern has spread wherever it could. 

The biggest problem is rabbits who keep chewing the ferns off midway and lolling around in them. Each time the ferns grow back and everything starts to look good, they're attacked again. The loss of a tree also means the ferns are getting more sun than they like.

I decided it was time to redo the whole area. I intended to quickly rip out the ferns — which took two days of intense labor with my "Root Slayer" Shovel and a Cobrahead weeder. This area is a little over 2' wide in the rear and 4' wide along the gray gravel path. 

It was just an inch shy of six feet back to front. 

I bought this Salix candida 'Iceberg Alley' on sale and plopped it in a pot that I set in the spot where the rabbits ate the ferns. There it sat during the last two big tours of our garden. 

I planted it where the Hellebore had been and moved the Hellebore forward.

I added clumps of Adiantum venustum (Himalayan maidenhair fern) from elsewhere in the garden. I'm hoping to add a few more this fall so it will fill in quickly and suppress weeds. 

The big question is whether I got all the Japanese painted ferns out of the area.  I want to be able to just enjoy my handiwork and not have to do any more digging in this space come spring. 

Wordless Wednesday

Typepad problems

While trying to figure out why the photos in my recent blog posts kept disappearing, I stumbled across a message from Typepad. They said they will be doing "housekeeping" in October. That's the only reason I can think of for this problem. 

As I sat down to write this message, we lost power at 10 a.m. We checked with our local supplier and they estimated the problem would be solved by noon. Power came back on at 11:55 a.m.! Wish Typepad was this efficient and informed their clients what was happening and what to expect. 

GBBD: 10.15.2022

I'm doing a little fudging here. It was lovely on Tuesday when I was working in the garden. Rained on and off Wednesday, with a lot of wind. Thursday we had an arborist crew here dealing with tree issues.

That said, these flowers are still blooming but the photos were taken earlier in the week. The plants don't look quite as good after wind, rain and an almost frost.

Crocus pulchellus

Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta flowers endlessly. As the weather cools, the tiny blossoms become more lavender colored. 

Aconitum fischeri is a Monkshood that I bought as lush, budded plants at K&A Nursery. They went in the ground in the beginning of September. They've been a joy to watch as the buds enlarged and darkened. I planted three and hope to get more next spring. Sturdy stems and the rabbits ignored all three.

Over the last few years I've planted this bed with white, yellow and blue fall flowers. Alas, this year the timing was way off for this design to work. Some have not bloomed yet and others were done too soon. But I love this combo of Aconitum and Anemone 'Honorine Jobert.'

Eupatorium rogosum 'Chocolate' is finally blooming.

Frankly, I like it this Eupatorium better without flowers, when the leaves have that blue blush and the stems and veins are distinctly purple. I may regret planting it as it can reseed a lot. 

Despite my white/blue/yellow concept, there are mostly purple toad lilies in every part of the garden. So I just added Vernonia angustifolium 'Plum Peachy' to keep them company. Love that spindly foliage.  

My clumps of Tricyrtis miyazaki are planted in protected spots which keeps them looking good until a killer frost arrives.

I grow Tricyrtis 'Lightning Strike' for its gorgeous striped foliage. The flowers are a bonus but also distract from those wonderful leaves. 

Tricyrtis 'Lemon Twist' has such heavy flowers they pull the short stems over. The rabbits love these dotted leaves. I do, too.

Last, but never least, is Tricyrtis macrocarpa. This is a huge plant whose stems drape over a stone wall. It's covered with buds that are taking a long time to open.

It's common name is "yellow bells" toad lily.

To see what's blooming in gardens here, there and everywhere, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens blog. 

Serious fall color

The trees in the front garden have rapidly turned color in the last week and one has already lost its leaves. Most plants are still very green making the red foliage pop. For the first time the leaves on our Burning Bush are an intense red — the result of much more sun without the old Sugar Maple tree that came down last winter. I'm standing with my back towards the street, directly under the burning bush, looking toward the house.

The orange leaves on the left belong to an Acer Manchuricum, while the gold ones on the right are from Acer tschonoskii. The small weeping yellow tree in the center is a 'Tina' crabapple. 

The Burning Bush in all its autumn glory. 

The Acer tschonoskii lost its leaves first which means this gorgeous moment was very fleeting. 

'Tina' was bright yellow late last week and is already moving into less attractive brown tones.

This tall, narrow Acer triflorum is one of our favorite trees in the garden. 

I particularly enjoy this low branch that drapes over the Japanese forest grass. The grassy backdrop is perfect to set off the tree's foliage . . .

no matter what stage of fall color it's showing. 

The top of the tree in the sun is always brighter and often the leaves even look shinier than the more matte foliage down where I can easily see it. I think that is just the way it looks to me and not a true difference. 

First fall color

The orchard owner at the Wednesday Hilldale Market, here on the west side, has a beautiful and ever-changing selection of apples each week. I picked a mixed bag of crisp varieties out of his assorted baskets, not realizing what a stunning group I'd chosen until I opened my bag at home. 

I snagged this impressive pumpkin (squash?) at the first stand I always visit at this outdoor market. Once I saw this beauty, I had to stop shopping and carry it back to my car. It was too heavy for me to haul around while I finished my shopping. I love the fact that the dark green color is a perfect match for our house color.