October Blooms

There isn't a lot still blooming in my gardens, but here are a few October photos. We were really dry for awhile, but then we got a wonderful soaking rain, and even the plants that are yellowing with the changing light appear to be renewed.

This is a Chihuly Rose that Emma chose earlier this summer, and this is its first new bloom. It's named after the artist Chihuly, who works with blown glass. His work is amazing, and I really recommend googling his name. Emma and I had never heard of him, but we looked him up to figure out why the rose had such a difficult-to-pronounce name and spent a good half hour looking at his work.

The flash went on this photo, but the little spider is so cute.

We also have asters and goldenrod blooming. I'd like to get some dwarf asters, but so far the ones I've purchased have all been tall and gangly.

I have a few garden decorations, mostly "fairies", although of many different types. This one was given to me over five years ago, as a Christmas present, and it's been hanging in this birch tree ever since.  I like it's "wild woman" style.

Rob bought this one, and it stays nestled in the shade garden during the summer, but we put her in the garden shed over the winter. With cold nights and frost coming, she'll soon be finding a place inside.

I am always happy to have the garden season wind down in fall. I really love gardening, and I've been planting bulbs for next spring, but I also get a bit tired, and I'm ready to have time to work on other things over the winter.  I love the cycle of the seasons --as soon as I get tired of one, another one comes along and feels new again.

Self-seeding

I found this impatiens flower in the lawn. I'm not sure where it came from, but it's kind of cute. Of course, it didn't start blooming until late September. It is surrounded by walnut leaves, and that's a walnut up in the top left of the photo.

Fall planting

Well, I got my two new iris, and got them into the ground, both on the west side of the house. I have a few other plants I'd like to divide and spread around, and we're having perfect weather for it. The only difficulty is that you have to dodge falling walnuts, and be careful not to twist your ankle on the ones already on the ground. It's a banner year for walnuts!

Here are the two iris I planted:

Fall Blooms

This spring, we were the recipients of several pots of asters, the result of thinning by a friend. These are more pink than the asters I already had in the garden, and they're looking beautiful right now.

My other asters are a little slower. They still look like this:

Next to these darker purple asters, I have some goldenrod, which is also just opening.

 

It's a very lacy goldenrod.

This is a dry well my husband made off the front porch, to take water from a gutter. I love the way this looks, and it works really well. This summer we added some rounded beach rocks from the Lost Coast of California, where we vacationed.  It's surrounded by hostas that are beginning to bloom.

I have a few plants that arrived recently to still put in the ground --some ground cover sedum, some orange yarrow, and a catmint.  It had been very dry, but we got a good soaking rain today, so the ground should be good for planting over the next few days.  There are also a few things I'd like to divide --hopefully I'll get to them before it gets cold.

September

 The little red bugs on the milkweed pods have turned into larger orange and black beetles. I don't know what kind of beetle they are, but the contrast between the orange and black is kind of cool. I hope the birds are filling up for their journey south.

The Autumn Joy sedum is just beginning to open its buds.

The gardens look mostly green, but if you look closely there are still a few things blooming. An overblown rose with beautiful color:

Some dianthus in the pot, mostly smothered by the sweet potato vine:

 

Isn't this guy a monster? Of course, that's why we planted him.

And the dark red sweet potato vine in the other barrel is actually blooming! I didn't even know it could bloom. It's pretty, although the blossoms stay hidden inside the leaves.

The bachelor's buttons are still blooming, and I hope they're dropping lots of seed for next year. I love the blue, and I have too little blue in my gardens.

And finally, I walked down to the edge of our property, along the road that I drive up each day to turn in the driveway. I really enjoy this view, but I don't usually have a camera with me when I see it. The building in the background on the left is the barn, and the house is completely masked by the trees. The trees in the foreground are locust, and we call them our Dr. Seuss trees because of the way the branches have grown -they're old and gnarly. When they bloom in the spring, before the leaves come out, they look amazing.

Expecting Beneficials

 Someone has taken up residence in one of the fairy houses . . . and we're expecting more.

Goodies from the garden

We planted some carrots this year.  A mix of orange, white, yellow and red, grated for muffins:

Carrot-walnut muffins --very yummy!

And tonight's dinner, with tomatoes and basil from the garden: