It rained just about three inches in the first three days this week. That total is three times the amount of rain we received in the prior three weeks of September. That seems to be our new normal: Rain that rarely makes it through the leaves to the ground and then a sudden catch-up. Not the best pattern for the garden or the gardener.
The big question is how many days can I go without watering again, given that we're going into October with sun and temps in the high 70s° and low 80s°.
The leaves haven't started seriously turning color and most of my fall flowers are still in the bud stage. But the seedheads are looking great.
Diphylleia cymosa - American Umbrella Leaf. This has huge leaves and clusters of tiny white flowers in spring. But it's the autumn berries that are the glorious surprise.
When I went looking online for the proper name for this plant, I discovered it's been changed and now appears to Podophyllum cymosum. Mine is getting too much afternoon sun due to the loss of a neighbor's tree. I am going to have to move it if I want to keep those giant leaves from getting fried.
Paeonia japonica has small seedheads but I love watching them make their appearance.
Even though they're small they make a bright pop of color in the garden.
Paeonia obvata var. alba is the star of the show with its glossy blue seeds. They are the fertile ones, not the red ones.
For the first time in the many years I've been growing P. obvata var. alba, it sent out a pod that only had infertile seeds.
If it wasn't on the same plant as the more typical seedpod, I might have thought that's just how they typically were. I'm wondering if it did this because this big plant was grown from seeds that appeared in the garden.
Every time I saw a recognizable leaf, I grabbed it and planted it with another baby leaf until I had a big, full-size Peony plant in only a few years.
The "Wild Time Border" is the name I gave to the front garden that borders the street. Initially I imagined it as a more Shakespearian "wild thyme" garden. But it turned out to be a repository for any debris drivers felt like tossing out of their car windows; thus "wild time." (The old Sugar Maple in the center of this photo came down in the fall of 2021 and the Pagoda Dogwood on the left is doing poorly.)
Luckily we knew from the get-go that the city actually owned the first 14 feet of our property; typically the sidewalk area. So we planted things we could easily replace should the day come when the city arrived. That's been pretty much the last nine months since the first crew came to measure and mark the street for the roadwork. This is how the garden looked in late June (below). One of the crews damaged the curb on the left and so that was replaced which meant the bottom strip of garden along there was removed as well.
We're almost at the finish line. At the end of the first week in September, the crew filled in all the spots where equipment had been digging in our front garden with lovely topsoil.
These guys were very pleasant and asked questions about our garden and the ground cover Geraniums.
Next we put in a sign and hot pink flags to alert the next team that we did not want grass planted in our space.
The tall stick with the ribbon marks the access to the water line. We left the marker in place in case they need to know that location again.
Mark immediately got a load of cedar bark and we spread it over the new soil to protect it from washing out in the forecast rain. Luckily the initial rain was more like a mist and we worked right through it spreading the mulch.
We then spent a chunk of the weekend and into the next week replanting the area. Mark had dug out all the Hostas and Hakonechola macra grass in the area where they were going to dig in June. I stuck them in my stash of plastic pots that big plants and shrubs had come in. They've been sitting in the shade since then; getting watered when it rained or I remembered them. They were so huge when we removed them that we broke them into sections in order to make the job manageable. Rather than put them back in the ground as big plants, I spread them around so it will take them a while to fill in again. I didn't want to have to turn around and divide them again next year.
We hadn't quite finished replanting this area when the next stage of the project hit our end of the street.
Multiple loads of gravel were spread and graded to get the roadbed ready for paving this week.
I told Mark I thought we should plant the replacement Geranium macrorrhizum plants on one foot centers. He was shocked and said that meant we would have to put in a good 300 plants. This is where he started and he clearly was planting much closer together than my suggestion.
Since half the front garden is planted in big root Geraniums, I continued the planting at one foot intervals if not closer. Those plants are so easy to pull out and we had so many available that it seemed silly not to fill the space fairly heavily if we had time and energy to do so. It looks like the rest of this month is going to be nice and warm so I may get out there again and fill it in a little more.
What the big root Geraniums look like right after they're pulled out. Easy to see where they get their name.
They were supposed to start paving the street this morning but it's raining. I want the project finished but I am happier to get some needed rain instead.
Too little rain, too many days in the 90°s and now too cool and cloudy. It means a lot of flowers are half fried and many are not yet blooming. But the road work is nearing an end and it's pleasant gardening weather, so I'm not really complaining. However, as a result of the weather, I did decide to just use this recent vase as my Bloom Day offering.
It is filled with sprays of the massive Thalictrum 'Splendide', Agastache 'Blue Fortune', Anemone japonica 'Max Vogel' and the first flower of Tricyrtis 'Togen.'
Also in bloom in the garden are Anemone japonica 'September Charm', Kirengeshoma palmlata, Caryopteris 'Snow Fairy', multiple varieties of Heuchera and Geraniums and swaths of Calmintha nepeta ssp. nepeta.
The more pleasant weather has seen me working in the garden for hours at a time: Watering, weeding, pruning, deadheading and working on beds where I ripped out half the plants last fall and need to get them replanted to my new design before the weather cools down too much.
Late last fall Typepad did some kind of massive update that screwed up my blog for a week or so. At first I was annoyed and frantic. Once I calmed down I began to think about what I might do with my unexpected free time.
In December of 2020 I made a 20-page magazine via Blurb.com. "A Christmas Miscellany" contained old family photos, pictures of my holiday decor and three family-related Christmas stories I'd originally written as newspaper columns back when I worked at a daily paper. I gave the book as a Christmas present to my sisters, nieces and nephew and a few close friends.
I was so pleased with my Christmas effort that I stared a 48 page 7" x 7" book called "The White Album." It was going to be white flowers and winter garden shots.
I abandoned it when I got too busy with other things. Now I looked it up again and decided to finish it. Luckily I found a few notes I'd saved that helped me figure out everything I forgotten in the two years since I last made a book.
I finished that book and did two others between Oct. 25 and Nov. 17. I did these just for me; a way to remember hundreds of moments in my garden for the day when I am no longer living in the midst of it.
Back cover of the autumn book. This is also 7" x 7" and runs 152 pages.
IVOM is the third in this 7" x 7" series of garden books. It is 140 pages. I'm not sure how many more I will do at this size, but I expect at least a couple more to showcase spring and summer in the garden.
Currently I'm working on a small one about our ducks and a 6" x 9" book on "The Sweet History of my Dining Table." They are very satisfying projects that also include learning a new computer program, taking new photos and finding old photos from the blog that need to be resized. Like any art project it's all about the process.
HOW THIS ALL BEGAN:
Mark had two of his photos selected for a competitive exhibit this past fall. We went to the opening and stayed for the excellent lecture by the judge, Aline Smithson. I was particularly struck when she pointed out that my generation is the last one to have had the experience of shooting film, taking the roll to the local drugstore to get it developed, followed by the thill of picking it up and discovering what we had captured — or didn't.
She also emphasized how technology is constantly changing and there is no guarantee that we will be able to access our images when we want them again. Prints — real, physical prints on paper — are the only archival way to retain our treasured images.
Mark has done almost 30 books of all different sizes, kinds of paper and subjects. I decided it was time to join him; though I consider mine more like scrapbooks than photographic art publications. They are essentially vanity publications but I am happy with them; knowing that I can look at my house and garden when and wherever I want once my images are committed to paper.
You can look through my books page by page without buying them if you are curious. Here's a link to see the three I've recently done. Click on the preview link and full-screen. You can also find Mark's books on Blurb.com here. Scroll down to see them all.
I am loving all the green still visible in my garden, despite snowfalls and temperatures below freezing. I am especially fond of the contrast between the green Carexes and flopped over ferns at the top of the slope and the swath of golden Hakonechloa grass at the bottom. When the Hakonechloa blows in the wind, it's perfect.
Autumn ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora 'Brilliance') are still looking good and standing up compared to many of the other ferns. You can see these in the first picture at the top left of the hill, if you click to enlarge the photo. If you don't grow Autumn ferns, it is worth pointing out that the autumn coloration is on the new growth of the fronds when they emerge in the spring, not in the autumn despite the name.
On the left of the hill in the first photo, the Carex sidersticha 'Variegate' (above the Hakonechloa) is all flattened and brown from the snow and cold. Meanwhile Carex plantaginea in other garden areas, though not on the hill, looks as spiffy as ever.
Luzula 'Solar Flare' with a noid Hellebore. The foliage on this emerges very yellow green though it's less obvious in December.
Moss always gets center stage when there is not so much other greenery competing for attention.
OMG! You can see the exobitant price on the name tag of this small fern — Cheilanthes lanosa 'Mighty Tidy' — out in the Moon Garden. Hairy Lip fern has made it through two winters and is slowly increasing in spread. Though only 6" high, it's ultimate width is supposedly 1'. I like it because it likes full sun in rocky, well-drained soil. Not the usual location for a fern.
Another rock garden fern; this one likes shade however. Dryopteris affines crispa — Dwarf crisped golden-scaled male fern — is a Z5 plant and should do well for me. I've been growing the full size version of this fern for more than ten years. Here's hoping this miniature version will do as well.
Polystichum setiferum 'Divisilosum' is new this year from Fancy Fronds. It has settled in nicely and still looks lovely. I am hoping this one makes it through the winter as I am pushing the zone here. I took a chance as this was nicely priced. It arrived as a good sized healthy plant well-worth the money.
I always bring in the last good-looking foliage and seedpods to make an autumn arrangement. This time I forgot about watering it after the first few days. So I remade it as a study in brown.
Have a pleasant Thanksgiving. I'm not the cook this year, so it will be very pleasant for us.
October began with a few gorgeous days in a row letting me empty all my containers. The perennials went back in the ground, while I brought my Begonias indoors to see if can manage to overwinter them. Then I scrubbed all the pots — the ones that were planted — from the smallest to the largest.
The small pots went into the garage until next spring. Mark and I turned the biggest decorative ones ones upside down to winter in place. Since they won't be able to hold water, they should be fine with this treatment. Mark can still pretty much turn these pots over by himself. I just help put the wood risers under them.
They are very big pots. Here's what they look like next to a person . . .
and next to the fence for the winter. Also sitting on wood blocks.
We moved the rest of the decorative pots down to this storage area on the east side of the house. It's a surprisingly protected location with the garage wall, fencing and a big maple tree overhead. We've never lost a pot to winter weather yet. Knock on wood.
I got my work table all cleaned off (except for that big branch) and bagged pine needles from neighbors and a friend by the beginning of the last week in October.
The weather was terrific so it wasn't as frustrating raking up the endless maple leaves from my neighbor's tree as it would have been on a miserable day.
We spent the last nice day — Thursday, Nov. 10th — cleaning the garage, washing tools and putting them away. I cleaned and organized my metal shelving and cabinet and Mark did everything else.
Just as the sun was fading and the temperature dropping the team from Tiplok came to blow the leaves off of the roof on the house and the Tea House. Rain was forecast for that evening so we really wanted to be sure the gutters were not going to get clogged up. They did a great job, including blowing the leaves from the roof off of the yew hedge where they initially fell.
We did get rain as predicted that evening and the temperature took a dive with snow showers on Friday and Saturday. It snowed lightly starting on Monday but it was enough to cover the ground. The view Tuesday morning.
It snowed on and off all day yesterday. Note the snow depth this morning at 7 a.m. My theory of winter is that it will be a long winter if there is measurable snow before Thanksgiving.
The temperature is supposed to hit the mid-30°s today. But the high temp doesn't get out of the 20°s for the next few days. That's January weather. I was going to add more leaf mulch on some of the newer plants and already I can't locate them because of the snow cover. That's gardening in Wisconsin.
I cut the seedheads off of my Belcamda chinensis knowing they have a reputation as rampant self-seeders. Given that it's planted next to the gravel-filled upper pond, I could just imagine my frustration if the seeds landed there. Thus I've been enjoying this small bouquet of shiny black buttons indoors, instead of worrying about them free out of doors.
Our recent warm weather pushed my Thanksgiving rose — Helleborus niger — into spectacular bloom. Here it is last Monday, Nov. 7th.
Last Thursday we finished our winter prep on the last warm day. Overnight the temperature dropped from the low 70°s to the 30°s. That was followed by wind, rain and snow showers. When the temperature finally hit 32° early this afternoon I went out and cut a few Hellebore stems.
The flowers were lightly brushed with snow with iced and downward curving stems. It didn't take them long to perk right back up however. You've gotta love a plant that can deal with serious weather.
The garden has never looked better in autumn than this year. This is the view from the spot I aways sit in our living room. Once I sit down, I've hardly been able do anything but look out the window at this glorious scene.
Of course, the above photo is one I intended to post when Typepad started acting up. In the intervening days, that green tree turned red and now all of them have lost most of their leaves.
Gorgeous warm weather today, followed by rain and temps dropping into the 30s — if the weather forecast is to be believed.