Autumn and October Bring ...

October has always been a favorite month for me. I chose to get married in October when the temps were cooler and the sun cast a soft warm glow on all below. As much as I like spring and the soft pastel colors, autumnal colors give me a warm and cosy feeling. The golden yellows, brilliant oranges and the glowing hues of maroons on the trees signal a time of rest is coming.

And I, for one, am more than ready for a rest-from the garden and from the hectic pace of summer. Hooray for cold rainy, snowy days where I can sit by the fireplace and drink hot chocolate, read gardening blogs and out my feet up.

The garden is winding down, but a few flowers are making their first appearance. This toad lily, while very small yet, is a glorious new addition to the garden this year. It is surprising how the blooms start at the top and open down the stem at each junction between the stem and leaves.

The native Aster that I bought early this spring is beautiful with it's purple petals and golden center and more than lived up to expectations.

Next year I will have to remember to stake it as it now looks more like a ground cover. :)

This cosmos must have taken a cue from the aster-it is also happily blooming on the ground. More staking is needed! Actually, both these plants and a few others suffered wind damage early in the summer and no amount of coaxing could make them stand tall again.

While most plants in the garden are experiencing their last hurrahs, this transplanted cone flower is just beginning to bud. I love the light in this photo.

Another sure sign of fall in the garden is the spider webs. At least in my garden they can be found in abundance. I do NOT like spiders! But having said that, as long as they stay outside and kill bad bugs, I will leave them alone. I have put them on warning though. Come into the house and I will not be held responsible for my actions!

Some of the containers are still looking great. These purple Calibrachoa have been one of my favorite containers this year. I will be planting more of these next year-they were very low maintenance and only required a little water now and then.

Another sure plant for next year are these cherry Profusion Zinnias. I had 5 plants left after doing my containers and stuck these in the ground next to the raised landscaping timbers. With purple wave petunias on either end, this has been a favorite spot in the garden.

With the arrival of fall, there are certain rituals that must be observed. One is making floats for the Homecoming Parade before the big football game. Our 2nd granddaughter is a sophomore this year and asked if we would help on one of the nights they were putting together their class float.

I won't admit here how many years it has been since I last worked on a float, but was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiasm and work ethic of the many who showed up to help.

Parents and the kids were all willing to do what ever to get this float built in a short 4 nights. Here, the girls are rolling squares of tissue paper to be glued to cardboard signs.

This is where I spent most of my night-gluing the balls on. I was so pleased that our granddaughter thought us cool enough to meet and work with her friends. Their float came in 2nd overall and first in originality.

Another must-be-observed-ritual...

Visiting the pumpkin patch!

This weekend we loaded up 5 of the grandgirls and on a cold, windy, rainy afternoon made our trip to the local patch. We let them pick out their own and load them into their wagons-for the most part they even pulled their own wagons.

The 2 older ones picked pumpkins weighing 46 and 51 pounds!

This one weighed in at 43 pounds. She also pick a swan necked gourd.

The youngest wanted this one, but was content to just have her picture taken beside it.

Papa supervised the wagon train back to the barn so we could pay for our prized pumpkins. They are being used as decorations around our gardens now, but in a couple of weeks we will be doing some carvings. Be warned-photos of their creations will appear on this blog!

After 3 weeks of having hubby at home and learning to deal with his just diagnosed diabetes, he is back to work and the house is mine again. :) He had a Dr. appointment on the first day of his vacation-we were pretty sure of the outcome and that is why he decided to take some time off. We have both been learning how to eat and cook to satisfy his dietary needs. He has done really well and I am very proud of him. He has been walking each evening and plans to keep that up even though with his job of driving a truck will make that a challenge. Also a challenge will be eating on the road and eating on time. I am fairly confident that with the food we packed and the menus I sent he will be able to do it. He is just stubborn( determined) enough to make this work. :)

Have a great fall gardening week!

Yes, I'm Still Here!

I remember these beautiful twin cosmos from this past summer. I am so looking forward to growing these lovelies again. In fact, I am looking to the day soon when I can start seeds of cosmos indoors along with all my other seeds.

Rose and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon going through our seeds and all the ones we have each been sent from some of you. We divided them up and put them in little plastic craft bags. It seemed that each packet we opened had smaller seeds than the last packet had! I honestly am not sure how I am going to plant some of them. We have our seed starting mix, our peat pellets and peat pots, our trays and our seed. We are ready! Hopefully in a couple of weeks, there will be seedlings to show.

I want to apologize for my lack of posts and especially for my not getting around to reading many of yours these last couple of weeks. Things here have gotten very busy and complicated. My Dad has Shingles and has been very ill with them, even spending a night in the hospital. He developed a staph infection from them and is on several medications. So I have been over there 2 and 3 times a day. I have been working 4 days a week on top of that, plus taking Sara to the Dr. to get her weekly shot in the neck. Besides her back-which they are going to do surgery on next month, she is having disc problems in her neck. And last week she fell down the stairs and sprained an ankle. Poor dear is just about at the end of her rope.

My point is...after taking a long weekend starting this Friday, I will be back and should have much more time to devote to one of my favorite activities. And that is visiting with all of you!

Do take care dear friends, and think Spring!

GBBD October 2008

Fall has at last come to our neighborhood. Tree tops shimmer with golds, oranges and yellows. Leaves come floating down on the gentlest of crisp breezes and crunch under foot. GBBD is brought to us by Carol of May Dreams Garden on the 15th of each month. Although my entry is a little late and a little sparse, I decided to post anyway. I wanted to be able to look back next year and compare the fall garden of 2009 with garden 2008.

Sparse really is the word for the blooms in my garden this month. I have several zinnias still producing flowers and attracting butterflies.

Although this is a little hard to see(the photographer's fault), these twin zinnias have twin 'painted ladys' on them. I should call this gardening year, 'the year of the painted ladies'. There have been so many for so long-I am amazed.

The cosmos I started indoors back in March has bloomed continuously since early June. What and endearing flower. Just plant it and forget it. I am going to give them their own little area next year and try to find a variety of colors. This year I have just had the pinks and maroons.

And of course, I have to show yet another picture of 'heavenly blue'. Still blooming!!

I have enjoyed seeing the other GBBD posts this month and amazed at the colors and varieties some of you still have. I will have to work on extending my bloom time next year. That means adding more flowers to my wish list. I have enjoyed doing the list-easy enough to add to it when I see something that strikes me. But what I should have done is made a notation of where I saw the flower-which post. I guess there is always next year to do that as I am sure my list will be even longer after seeing your gardens in 2009.

Rash update** Yes, I still have it. Yes, it is a little better. Yes, it is still draining my energies. And yes, I am sick of it!

Thank you for all your concerns, caring and offers of advice. I keep telling myself this will pass-and I know it will. I'm just feeling grumpy yet. And I can't even blame it on the Prednisone now. :)

Hope you are all enjoying your autumn!

A Late August Garden

Today, I thought I would post a little of this and some of that. There are no new flowers as of yet. The summer ones are fading and the fall ones have not quite appeared. My beds are very dry and needing a good rain badly. I have been watering my containers, but am hesitating to water anywhere else. Were I to water, some might come back for a few days, although I know most of them are on the up comimg fall decline. So I am in a quandary as to what to do.

While outside the other evening watering the containers, I saw this giant of a fly siting on the wet patio stone near my outside faucet. I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but he's at least an inch long. Is this what they call a deer fly? Should go to What's That Bug and find out.

A new butterfly this week. A lovely brown velvet looking one with blue and white spots at the bottom of his wings. Not quite a swallow tail, but more tail than a lot of butterflies. Another one to look up. What book do you recommend for identifying butterflies and moths?

The garden is full of Painted Ladys. and the white cabbage butterfly.

But this one is yellow with a pale brown edging. Again, I don't know it's name, but am enjoying watching their type. They seem to like the yellow flowers best. Maybe, they are harder for predators to see on yellow.

I said I had no new flowers yet, and that is true. But just look at what finally has buds! My moon flower is loaded with them.

I took these pictures at night because the ones I took during the day just didn't show the buds very well. The whole top of this plant is covered with buds. A pay back maybe for having to wait so long for blooms?

Betty Prior is still putting out a few blooms. I'm not sure which type of rose I like best. The hybrids can be spectacular but have little scent. The old fashioned singles are lovely and not very showy, but make up for that with a wonderful smell. This one has a slightly spicy fragrance.

Believe it or not, I still have a day lily blooming. This is one of the purple d'oro's. The color has faded some from when she first began to bloom, but I think her still very attractive. And she seems to be blooming just as long as her yellow counterpart. I wonder if there are other colors in the d'oro line?

I have showed the pink cosmos and now I have a deep pink almost purple one blooming. These were some I started indoors way back and I have been very happy with the results. They were easy to start, transplanted well and have provided another flower for the bees and butterflies to enjoy. I am planning on starting more next year.

This mystery plant has been identified. After much googling(a verb now?) I found a site that says it is grain sorghum. How it got into my flower bed is any one's guess, but I'll bet it had to do with birds and what they are best at-pooping!

While life has calmed down some since the departure of the grand girls, it is still keeping me very busy. I thought as you aged things slowed down! Our son-in-law graduated from a MABAS on Friday evening. It is an extensive 6 mo. course requiring attendance 2 night a week for advanced firefighting techniques. He is a volunteer fire fighter in the small town they live in, and when the opportunity to do this presented itself, he committed himself whole heartedly. JOB WELL DONE, J.! We are very proud of him.

We attended a wedding on Saturday at a small town over by Springfield, IL. It was held in a small but lovely Catholic Church. Someone or some group have taken very good care of this 100year old church and the landscaping was beautiful. Huge maple leaf hydrangeas formed the backdrop for lovely old fashioned shrub roses. Double rose of sharon bushes lined the front sidewalk and were alternating colors of pinks and whites. I know- I should have taken pictures!

Last week and this week, I am working an extra day. While that may not sound like much to many of you 5day a week workers, I am still adjusting to working after 10 years of not. And to top it all off, hubby brought home a big box of Michigan peaches last Friday. We have eaten several fresh and now I need to find time to freeze them. Won't they taste wonderful in cobblers this winter?! Ah well, when winter comes there will be time to rest.

Have a great gardening week!


***I apologize for the spacing, blooger is doing it's own thing again today.

August Muse Day

Muse day, August 1, 2008. Brought to you by Carolyn Gail of Sweet Home and Garden in Chicago.

"Fairest of the months! Ripe summer's queen

The hey-day of the year

With robes that gleam with sunny sheen

Sweet August doth appear."- R. Combe Miller

"Whilst August yet wears her golden crown, Ripening fields lush- bright with promise;Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn."- Michelle L. Thieme, August's Crown

"Summer's lease hath all too short a date."- William Shakespeare

Hope August brings you lots of gardening joy!