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!

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!

Look what I found today! Caterpillars on my butterfly weed. I was so excited. Now I wonder what butterfly they will become?

This butterfly weed is one that I started indoors from seed. Several of them lived after I transplanted them in to the garden, but this is the only one that bloomed this year. I am hoping they survive the winter and come back strong next year. Just in case, I plan to start more next spring.

I have had a lot of 'painted ladies' in the gardens this year. They seem to love the giant zinnias as well as the butterfly bush. Definitely going to plant more zinnias next year. I started most of them indoors, but did direct sow some. They all grew at about the same rate. I am thinking of starting a few for containers and just sowing the rest directly in the gardens. That way I will have more room to start other plants inside.

The sum and substance hosta has put up flower scapes tall enough to be seen from behind the cone flowers. This is the first year they have really done well. The plants are about 4 years old and they are finally living up to their description of being huge.

This area of the garden is still looking very pretty and I am pleased that it is lasting. A lot of the other areas are looking piteous(not sure if that is a real word, but it describes the areas well!)

Does anyone know what this plant is? When I finally noticed it wasn't a flower, I thought corn stalk. But no...

... this is a corn stalk. And yes, it is growing next to the house. It may be Indian Corn from some fall decorations last year. The squirrels found the corn and there went my decorations. It will be fun to see what the ear looks like when ripe-if I get to it before the squirrels.

Have a happy gardening week end!

A Quiet House

The house is quiet. Too quiet after 10 days of giggly girls, 'Hannah Montana' and 'Sponge Bob Square Pants' on the TV, doing crafts, baking, working in the flower beds, chasing butterflies and going places. I miss my girls.

Our one big adventure was to the Indianapolis Zoo. Pictured below are 5 of the 7 granddaughters and my soon-to-be-step granddaughter and grandson. We had a wonderful day of sunny cool weather and lots of animals. The Indy Zoo is really a nice experience. They have 5 areas of wildlife including the Ocean, the Plains, the Dessert, Africa, and the Forrest. Each area has animals in a natural habitat with lots of educational materials about them. I think the kids enjoyed the Ocean the best. They got to 'pet a shark' and there was a dolphin show. Although a little on the pricey side if you bought food and drink inside, we took a picnic lunch to have in their very clean picnic area. I think we will make this a yearly summer visit.



The girls and I got a lot of enjoyment out of watching the finches at the sunflowers. They had never seen so many bright yellow birds in one place before and learned to be very still and quiet so the birds would stay. We even noticed them getting the seeds out and bringing them to the 'table' to break open. Most of the big sunflowers have been picked bare but there are still several smaller ones for them to enjoy.

Not much new blooming in the gardens now. In fact, I can see a real winding down of all the summer flowers. Except, that is, the zinnias. This is profusion cherry and I have been so pleased with it that I am going to look for more colors next year and do a border of them.

Some of the ones I started from seed-still looking very fresh and putting out more buds. I seem to have a lot of lavender and pinks. I swear, even though those are my favorite colors, I planted mixed colors.

Occasionally, I find some oranges and some reds. I have started to save seed heads from all the colors and have a feeling I will plant many more next year.

There have been so many beautiful Clematis shown on posts these last few months and I have drooled over them all. Mine finally bloomed-1 bloom! It is pretty, but hardly worth the effort and the space it takes up. I have moved this one(name unknown) a couple of times trying to find a happy home for it. This is it's 3rd year in this spot, but only grew to about 2' tall. I may leave it one more year, but am going to get a couple of new ones next year. Maybe then I will have some good bloomers.

I have enjoyed reading all the wonderful posts these last few days and have missed not posting. But I wouldn't have given up my time with the girls for anything. I miss my girls...

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Have a great gardening time!

News! and More Blooms!

Life takes many twist and turns, doesn't it? We go merrily along our way thinking we know just what is going to happen next and then surprise, an unexpected comes along. What is this all about, you ask?

Well, I'll tell you. After 10 years of being on disability, a new medicine has come along that has changed my life. Many of you know part of my story and for those that don't...I was diagnosed about 10 years ago with Fibromyalgia. I was happy at the job I was working at and fully intended to work there until I retired. It was not to be. I simply could not continue to work. I spent many years in pain and my world became increasingly smaller. This January, I started a new medicine called 'Lyrica'. And as I have said to anyone who will stand still and listen, it has been a miracle for me. I have worked many hours in my gardens, have been able to do more with my granddaughters, and in general have enjoyed life so much more. All of this is to tell you, I have a job! Granted , it is only part-time , but I feel useful again!

The only down side to all of this is I won't have as much time to garden or blog. I will probably only get to post twice a week. But I intend to visit just as much as before. I can't give up all the friends I have made in blog land. I would miss out on all the great posts you write, and all the wonderful pictures you share. Nope! Not going to give up blogging. Housework...maybe.

You are probably getting tired of seeing my Asiatic lilies, I know. But I just couldn't resist showing some of the new ones that have bloomed.

I wish I had kept name tags for these, but that was before I knew I should-or ever guessed I would be showing them on the Internet.

Still, I am so pleased with these. They are providing spots of color in the gardens during the transition from spring to summer bloomers.

I love the freckles in this one.

This is such a delicate pink.

And a perfectly peachy bloom.

This is from the wildflower seeds I started indoors. Sorry, no clue as to what kind, but it's pinkle(pink-purple) so I love it.

Zinnia's from seed. Pink and purple...notice a theme here?

The butterfly bush is just starting to open-purple. Need you even ask? Now for some butterflies.

My cone flowers(pink, what else!) are looking pretty good. I never did see what was eating them, and they seemed to have moved on, thank goodness. So I have about a zillion getting ready to bloom.

So that's what's blooming in my gardens at the moment. The containers are starting to fill in and the roses are getting ready to bloom. Perennial Phlox are about ready to blossom, and sunflowers should be opening next week. Oh, and I have flower scapes on most of my day lilies. I was beginning to be a little concerned about them, but guess I was trying to rush the season.

Great gardening to you all the rest of the week and have a wonderful weekend.