No Time In The Garden This Month

Health issues have denied me time in the garden for all of this month.  Desired plants are on their own and the weeds are rapidly reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.  There is still great beauty to be found if the pictures are carefully limited.  This ice plant is new here this year.  Three were ordered with one totally dead on arrival, the second nearly dead and the third showing some hint of life.  This single plant looks like it will divide with ease next season and soon there will be a row of bright yellow flowers edging this bed in front of the house.

Our cardinal flowers were totally on their own this season.  We usually pot up a dozen plants so that they can be moved inside when frost threatens but this year we found no time for this task.  Left to their own, their display this year is the best ever.  Again we tried to identify plants self sown from seed but weeds moved in and we lost track of the desired seedlings.  Some obviously made it as this is the largest appearance this plant has ever made here.

A close relative of cardinal flower is blue lobelia.  Blue lobelia is a highly invasive true perennial.  Unsure that we wanted this plant to remain, these plants were levered out of the ground with the root masses left on the ground.  Unfazed by this harsh treatment, these plants have flourished.  They need a more remote location away from our tended garden.  It may be too late to move them.

Clara Curtis Chrysanthemums continue to winter over here.  We have enough to plant an acre but how can one discard this hardy beauty?  Spent flowers need to be pinched off but this year that is impossible.

New England Asters have captured and held our fancy for years.  Their purple and yellow flowers just seem a perfect combination.  Hardy beyond belief, they quickly take and hold our enriched planting beds.  Plant breeders have worked with wild stock to create new color combinations.  Several years ago I traded some cash for a sad scrap of a plant.  After four years here it has finally produced a single flower.  It is not shown in this picture.  Every year we see this naturally occurring color sport in roadside ditches.  Never have we been able to steal one of these roadside weeds.  Last year one appeared on land that we own.  It was carefully moved into a planting bed so that we could see if the unnatural color remained.  It has.  This plant has expanded wildly in our rich bed soil.  Many divisions will be taken as we have wanted this plant for several years.

My decline in health may be telling me that it is time to leave these treasured thirty-six acres.  The twenty-one years spent here have been filled with more memorable experiences that one could expect to enjoy in an entire lifetime.  We will wait to see what comes next.

Back to White

The plants have been happy under the snow.   This is a nice clump of cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis.  We let as much of this red beauty grow here as we can.  The hummingbirds love it and so do we.

The Great Lobelia looks healthy too.  Some of these plants will have blue flowers and some will be white.

This foxglove growing at the base of one of Ed's walls should flower  this year .  It is something else to look for in the spring.

Today  the snow is back.  Once again everything is covered with white.  I went outside to take this.  Ed is working on clearing the paths and the driveway.

This picture shows the view out the front door of the house.  Fresh new snow covers the garden with white.  Not even the animals have made footprints yet.  I still enjoy the quiet beauty of a new pristine blanket of snow on the garden.

New Growth

Death seems to be a large player in the fall garden.  Slippery slime from frost blackened squash leaves still coats my garden gloves.  Less tropical plants take the change of season in stride and are presently putting out new growth.  This foxglove seedling found itself growing at the west facing base of a dry stone wall.  Shelter and warmth should carry this plant into next summers garden.  The picture would look much more impressive without the dead leaves but finding and operating the pruner with cold gloved hands seemed too much.

Mammoth pink chrysanthemums are reliably hardy here.  Soon the ground will be frozen and the old growth will be cut and placed over the new growth.  The light airy mulch will help the young plants overwinter.  Wood sorrel and Johnny jump ups are persistent weeds here and will overwinter no matter what.

Great lobelia has finished two seasons with us.  Some are blue flowered and some are white.  Not everyone understands why we buy this rather common ditch weed but taking any plants from the roadside comes with risk of a fine.  Many new plants crowd around last season's stems.  Spring division will be required to keep these plants growing freely.  For now, it is time to cut the stems and place them over the new plants.

Only the first Rose campion  requires planting by the gardener.  Following that they come up everywhere.  Their delicate looking whitish foliage and the promise of magenta flowers combine to make it difficult to weed them out.  We always leave more than we should.  Their delicate appearance belies the toughness displayed in the face of frost and freezing.  Compare that with my unwillingness to take off my gloves and snip off some dead leaves.  Working in the cold used to be easier!