Category: Garden

Additions

Yesterday was an overcast day, with a bit of breeze, and rain on the way.  Perfect day to put additions into the garden.

Saturday I visited the local garden store.  I decided to bring home three additions.  One was a chocolate colored sedum, to fill in a spot that previously had a chocolate drop sedum.  It did not return last year but I held out hope.  It did not return this year so I decided to get another chocolate colored sedum to match one we alread have (SUNSPARKLER Plum Dazzled) and see how that goes.

20190811_165146-1

The other two additions are coneflowers.  Years ago, at our house, I had a 20′ x 20′ wildflower and daylily corner.  I really enjoyed that.  We need a bit of late summer/early fall color on our path by the linden, so I tucked the new coneflowers in there (POWWOW Wild Berry).

20190811_15572320190811_155714-1

Today also started the daylily wrap up.  Our last ‘South Seas’ daylily bloom of the season was today.

20190811_122513-1.jpg

I suspect the last ‘Hush Little Baby’ bloom of the season will be tomorrow.

It’s all good.  Today I watched as the bees and butterflies flitted from bloom to bloom on the hostas.  They do the same on the daylilies.  Next year they’ll do it all again.  And maybe those seed pods that are forming on the daylilies have something beautiful in store for us down the road.

A whole lot of thinking begins

We may have almost 6 weeks until the official start of fall, but fall is definitely poking it’s head around the corner here in Minnesota.

20190810_114138.jpg

Mid-week I also noticed we are past the half-way point of daylily blooms.  I still have a wonderful palette of all the colors each day, and seeing what the new day has brought continues to be breathtaking.  Sadly, however, we are only a few days away from having some colors wrap up.  The peach, the ‘South Seas’ and the ‘Hush Little Baby’ daylilies are at the “one bud left” stage.  The red daylilies are not far behind.  They  bloomed in abundance for the past couple weeks and were absolutely gorgeous individually and en masse.

20190810_114259-220190810_114206-120190809_184135-120190729_095831

20190729_095631-120190731_102528-1

But … the sedum are looking so good, and their color is right around the corner.

And so begins the “thinking” time of year regarding the garden.  First I “think” and think and think and think.  Then I plan, then I do.  I have some Aureomarginata hostas that are huge and should have been divided last year.  Now a year later I have joined our association’s “newly formed” landscaping committee – as in three of us – lol.  There are people in our association that have expressed interest in a landscape refresh.  We have loosely discussed going more toward perennials.  They are beautiful and can easily be trimmed to ground in fall by the landscape service.  So I’m looking through my garden and thinking, and thinking, and thinking.

There will be gifting.  I love to do that.  But what scope?  The Aureomarginatas deserve space.  Could divisions be a good start at single, easy landscaping for folks that don’t or can’t do gardens, but like them?  I suspect that’s where I will reasonably land for this fall.  “Do not despise the day of small beginnings” (Zechariah 4:10).

A hint of fall, daylily abundance

The past few days have had just a hint of fall – a bit of crispness in the morning air, a few early leaves dropping, the seeds from the amur maple turning pink.  (I will be pulling hundreds of seedlings again next spring, but right now they are beautiful.)

20190808_173722-1.jpg

And the ‘Marque Moon’ daylilies are blooming abundantly – 28 blooms a few days ago!

20190806_072319-1

The hummingbirds are also beginning to come by much more often, so both feeders are back out, and the butterflies are stopping long enough for me to catch a pic.

20190808_104947-1

I am also starting to see the daylilies produce seed pods.

There will still be plenty of very warm days, but fall is starting to peek around the corner.

 

 

August

August is here.  The grass starts to look tired.  Every corner crevice needs to be swept at least once per week to prevent a webby effect, and it’s going from warm to nice to warm to nice.

This week was gorgeous.  This weekend was a bit warm – high 80s and humid.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 10°F cooler.

The dayliles are still beautiful and the hostas are in varying stages of bloom.  The sedum look very full.  Soon they will start to pink up.

20190804_16433320190804_16434320190804_164423-120190804_164432-120190804_16445420190804_16463520190804_16465520190804_16470320190804_16470920190804_164714

What is going on here?

Tonight I realized I never took a picture of the 18 ‘Marque Moon’ daylilies that bloomed all at once.  I enjoyed them tremendously.  I was thrilled that the whole wave had blooms today for the first time.  I even “rescued” one from not reaching it’s full potential because it was wedged between two stems.  I “freed” it – lol and it started to open.  Yeay!  But I didn’t take pictures.  So out I went, after sunset, to see if I could capture it.  Instead I scared a robin off its perch for the night.  Then I really felt bad.

Maybe tomorrow.

This is the second time I’ve done this in four days, and I did it up north a month ago.  I get caught up in the beauty, the whole big picture, the experience of being in the middle of it, and the last thing on my mind is to take a picture.  It might be because a picture just can’t capture something that big.

The bees are really enjoying the hosta flowers, the butterflies and hummingbirds are flittering through. It is just all so beautiful.  A camera can’t catch it all.  I just have to experience it.

Well, here’s some I have captured over the last week.  The blue mouse ears are done blooming, as are the gladiolas.  But all of the daylilies are blooming at once now and it is … incredible.

20190731_102528-120190731_102507_HDR-120190731_10225420190731_102204-120190730_203546-120190730_203542-120190730_20340620190729_20215320190729_09583120190729_095631-120190728_17454520190728_174257-1

 

Naturalized beauty

On the way home from our recent trip up north, my husband and I were talking about how different “gardens” are for us up north.  He said something interesting – In the “city” we plant gardens to bring nature and beauty into our outdoor spaces.  We long for it.  Up north nature is already there, abundantly.

Every time we go up north new massive waves of flowers are blooming.  We’ve seen some of those waves for years.  The applicability of those experiences to what we are doing is now slowly dawning on me.  Yes, the different waves were technically “planted” over time, but they are naturally all over – in fields, in the ditches, in the woods.  I don’t need to create “garden” beauty up there.  It’s already there for me to enjoy.

This last time the tiger lilies were blooming.  I realized when we were on the way home I didn’t even take pictures.  Wow!  I was “in the moment”.  I just enjoyed their beauty, for long walks, and for miles and miles of driving.

Perspective is coming forward.  My tiny attempts to bring “garden” beauty to our land up north have quickly been overtaken by the massive natural beauty that is already there – a gigantic garden, planted over thousands of years, doing its thing naturally and with more beauty than I could ever put together.  My part as a gardener in that environment is to realize it and just enjoy it.

Now, if we ever move up there, we may want to grow some food, and that will take more work.  And at the homesite area we are slowly clearing we eventually want to have a clover “lawn”.  But that is a topic for another day.

Back at our townhome, I confirmed what I suspected – I missed the first ‘South Seas’ daylily blooms of the season.  But before we headed up north I caught our first ‘Purple D’ Oro’ daylily blooms, and when we came back we caught the first ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylily blooms

20190721_160847-1.jpg

along with a couple ‘South Seas’ blooms.

20190721_161106-1.jpg

Today I caught the first ‘Hush Little Baby’ bloom

20190722_121042.jpg

and the first red daylily bloom (in the way back)

20190722_120943_HDR-1

along with over a dozen ‘Purple D’ Oro blooms.

20190722_121124.jpg

And after work, after our dog got his daily walk, I spent an hour putzing in the gardens – trimmming here, weeding there.  It’s all good.