Sedum and more seeds

The official start of fall is almost here and the sedum are starting to really shine. The front of the house is starting to look ‘fallish’.

The ‘Purple D’Oro’ seed pods are opening and showing an abundance of seeds.

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I counted 28 seed pods on the ‘Purple D’Oro’ daylilies alone. Very exciting!

This spring I planted one spot in front with some of last year’s ‘Purple D’Oro’ seeds and got greens. I’m considering tucking more in the front among the sedum next spring and seeing how sedum and daylilies co-habitate in our garden. (Sedum I previously had among asian lilies and tulips were not so nice – lol – but I’m hoping the daylilies might be able to hold their own.)

Should be fun to see what we get in the next few years.

Lyndale Park Rose Garden

Tonight a friend and I went to the Lyndale Park Rose Garden in Minneapolis by Lake Harriet. We picked up dinner from a french bakery and ate by the lake after our garden walk. We did this last year too. Absolutely delightful!

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You keep some, you lose some

It was very rainy here yesterday, and I wasn’t able to get out to look at the daylily seed pods. Today after work I checked on them, and bummer, one opened. One shiny little seed remained.

Oh well, to nature the others returned early. Or maybe into some bird or squirrel or bunny’s belly? (Not sure, do they eat daylily seeds?)

“Mornin’ Neighbor!”

A week ago, fairly early in the morning, I was sitting outside in the garden, and a street over I heard, “Mornin Neighbor!” Although I don’t know who they were greeting, I’m guessing I know who the greeter was. It was a pleasant “over-hearing” and it made me think – Over the years here we have enjoyed many days of sitting on the patio and having neighbors come over – to see the garden, or just to chat, just as we have enjoyed walking our dogs and stopping by to talk.

We are also coming up on the time of year where we literally “give” some of our garden to neighbors. It’s so cool to have neighbors tell us in the spring to come and see how well something we gave them is doing! It’s different from the neighborhood we raised our kids in, but just as fun, and just as social.

It was a perfect morning that day I heard the “Mornin’ Neighbor!” greeting and a nice reminder that almost 16 years later we’ve made a lot of memories here, and friends and neighbors.

September showers bring … falling leaves

What a delightful weekend it was. Our guest in the garden was here. He got a new collar (fancy padding on the inside even 😍).

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We spent a lot of time just relaxing, watching the young chickadees and cardinals. The monarchs are coming through, and the hummingbirds too. There were also quite a few dragonflies.

The bees are all over the ‘Chocolate Drop’ sedum (out front) now,

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and the daylily (and hosta) seed pods are starting to dry. A few early daylily seeds were added to envelopes again this weekend.

Yesterday cleared up just in time to give a beautiful sunset.

We expected it would be rainy and today did not disappoint the predictions. The linden was shedding early leaf turns all weekend, and the rain is assisting.

It’s transitioning into fall.

Lazy weekend

We’re planning a lazy Labor Day weekend. Sometimes those are THE BEST! Our Gueat in the Garden (Sandy the dog) is here, I went to the store and got a whole bunch of questionably healthy food items, got him some treats, got my garden clippers handy for the Saturday morning trimming, queued up a book for the thunderstorm times that are forecasted Sunday and Monday, and we are just going to chill.

If we don’t post until Tuesday, have a wonderful weekend!

Onward

My cloud photo reminders (This day in 2017, 2016 …) are kind of tough to look at right now. I had three huge ‘Touch of Class’ hostas that bloomed about this time of year, cheering up the garden after the daylilies finished blooming, and drawing the hummingbirds and bees.

Something got them over the winter/early spring. Only one came back, and that one is about 1/4 of the size of previous years. I am sad. But I used that space for more daylilies this year, some of which were seeds planted directly in the ground. I also used some of that space to add the two new ‘Hush Little Baby’ daylilies I enjoyed so much. And I took the opportunity to buy another ‘Rainforest Sunrise’ hosta to put in that space. I am fairly in love with those, similar to my affinity for ‘Blue Mouse Ears’! Multiples, multiples.

So onward and upward – gardens evolve. Which leads me back to the ‘Rainforest Sunrise’. Could there be a more beautiful leaf? And combined with the purple scapes and lavender blooms, no wonder they draw the attention in the garden this time of year.

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I think I “need” an arch of them, similar to the arch of ‘Blue Mouse Ears’ that bloom so profusely in early summer.

Last daylily of the 2018 season

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Today our last daylily of the 2018 season bloomed.

I was fortunate that none bloomed while we were up north. Yesterday none bloomed either. But the inevitable day came today. I wished it was Saturday so I could have enjoyed it all day, but alas, it was a work day. Still, it was a gorgeous night – just on the edge of brisk. We grilled out, watched the birds, including a hummingbird who absolutely loves our hostas that are blooming (more on that tomorrow), had a squirrel stop by, and I took plenty of pictures of our last daylily of the season.

Clover, over and over

I have a thing about clover. I know they are considered a weed, but Dad got me going on keeping some of the clover for the bees. I noticed, however, that we are getting some in the grass now and that’s probably not great. I will reluctantly pluck that. But the adorable new species ‘Blue Mouse Ears Clover’ (pictured above) gets to stay 😁

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Once again yesterday it was time to back my pictures up. Not to the cloud, because that happens automatically, but also to my laptop. Amazingly, I have survived taking pictures with just my phone since our first digital camera died many years ago. We talk about getting a new camera, but 12,500 + pictures later, I am still using my phone.

The upside to using my phone is that all my pics are super accessible. I can share them at will – or save them to the blog folder! The down-side is that I get lazy. It’s so convenient, and they get backed up to the cloud, so I let it go far too long between backing up to our hard drives. Today was the day.

As with many procrastinated things, there was not an easy way. I had too many photos to simply plug in my phone and download. A workaround was in order, so I set about finally trying to figure out how to upload from the cloud. Many tries and two app downloads later, I learned that a sync was my best option. Hours later, the sync is now done. Next weekend I’ll tackle the download to the external hard drive.

Today’s pics were an unexpected catch. I was getting ready to leave for work and noticed that one of the white squirrels was on the front feeder. That little acrobat! And then I looked and saw the other white squirrel was on the back feeder! It’s been around a week since we saw them together.