wacky, weird, and wonderful

Today's post is going to be kind of a hodge-podge. Once again I have a little blog housekeeping to do, so I'm going to just throw all the miscellania together in one post. (Is miscellania a word - and if not, why not? I kind of like it! And if it were a word, is this how you think you would spell it?)

First, look what I got in the mail this week - more blogger seeds!! Jean at "Ms Green Thumb Jean" sent me some foxglove seeds - and a seed pod from her trumpet vine! Thanks, Jean - I am totally excited to see how these do next year.

Next, Lynne at "Lynne's Little Corner of the World" said awhile ago that she'd like to see our 'Vette. Mark and I were born the same year, and in honor of our turning 40, we bought a Corvette. Our first one was a '79 Stingray - black with red interior - a gorgeous little classic. We had it, I think, two years before we totalled it. No one was hurt - but the car did not come back home with us. The good news was we about doubled our money in that two years - cars as investments: what a hoot! With that little windfall, we moved up to an '84. We have totally loved this car, but we're finding that we drive it less and less each year, and we're thinking it may be time to let someone else have fun with it. I'll keep you posted. Today it was washed and sent to the storage garage for the winter. The best part of having summer toys is bringing them out in the spring - it's like having a brand new toy each year. But it is incredibly sad to put them away each fall.

These are from my scarlet runner beans. I have a question - will these reseed on their own this winter? I've never done scarlet runner beans before. I'm going to save some of the pods so I can start new ones next year, but I'm wondering if there's a chance they'll come back next spring. I have grapevine growing on the fence along our neighbor's cement wall, and I planted two runner bean plants there. They grew up into the grapevine - it was really cool because the grapevine is nice and thick, and the runner beans added wonderful little red-orange flowers everywhere. I got a lot of comments on these over the summer.

Today I emptied out my window box planters on the fence by the patio. I had some sweet potato vine in the planters - and I found this HUGE potato growing in one planter!!! This is a normal-size shovel. I have never had this happen before. It has both Mark and me laughing.

NOTE: Peter Hoh just left a comment about another sweet potato posted at http://martagon.blogspot.com/2007/10/avert-your-eyes.html

Check it out - it is too funny!

I cut down my dahlias today and dug out the tubers. They look really good, so hopefully they'll grow again next year. This is the biggest stalk I had - that's a quarter beside it. Are dahlias related to the bamboo family? This stalk looks like bamboo to me.

And finally, I just had to show you the high score I got playing Bejeweled 2 last week. It took me about a month to finally break 600,000 after getting into the 500's. I play one or two games maybe 3 or 4 times a week - major time waster, but also totally addicting!

The last couple days have been pretty productive. Mark stained the shed yesterday - and I just realized I didn't pull a photo of that - so something to look for tomorrow!! It came out really nice. I planted all of my tulips - dug up dahlias - and cleaned up the last of the containers. I shredded the last of the leaves and drained most of the hoses after Mark pulled the lake pump out. I still have compost to move, and I need to cover some things like the fountain and wood pile with tarps. But we are getting very close. I feel like I need a vacation!

fall blooms - pt four

Another beautiful day - although quite a bit of wind this afternoon. We started taking the dock out this morning - and after two sections (out of nine), Mark asked if I still had the number I'd seen on a sign advertising dock removal. We have a ton of toys and all of the work that goes with them - and we ALWAYS do that work ourselves - so this was HUGE!!!! The guy came out about an hour later and had the rest of the dock out in about another hour. Boy, was that nice!! And easy!! It also made both Mark and me feel old, old, old - it would have taken us hours working together. sigh

I started moving my compost over the weekend and am over halfway done. It goes pretty fast once I start, so a few more hours and that job will be done. Then I have to shred a few more leaves that have fallen into the yard, and that job will be done too. I think we may be close to running out of jobs!!

But not yet - I still have all those lovely tulip bulbs to plant. And my dahlias are still in the gardens - blooming away - and I really hate to cut them back when they look so beautiful. But if I'm going to save them, I think I'd better do it soon. From what I've read, I need to cut them to about 6 inches - and then a week later I can dig them up, dry them, and store for the winter.

This was my first time planting dahlias, and I have been simply delighted with how gorgeous they are and how many blooms I've had. Very fun.

dahlias

We've had some cool, fall-like weather the past couple weeks. But today it was sunny and warmed to the mid 70's. They're forecasting 80's this next week. Yeah, I'm okay with fall and cooler temps, but I really can't say no to a few more days of 80's. Once winter hits, I'll be very happy we had one more dance with summer.


There are still a lot of things blooming in the gardens. The dinner-plate dahlias are stunning. This yellow color is hard to capture in a photo, but it sure adds a bright spot in the garden.


These pinks are also a lovely bit of color in the fall gardens. They're growing sort of incorrectly. I didn't stake the plants when I put in the tubers this spring, so most of them in the garden by the gazebo are laying on the ground. I think I have smaller flowers, but more of them because of the stem being horizontal. Whatever, they're cool!

If the next photo will click big, you can see the stem laying on the ground - it's like having several plants there instead of just one. I like it.
(all of the pink flowers you see in the photo are growing from one stalk)

I spent yesterday moving plants around. Today I raked acorns out of the garden by our neighbor's big old oak tree. Last year, we didn't have many acorns fall - and had a very mild winter. This year, zillions have fallen - I'm predicting a cold and/or snowy winter. Luckily, I haven't been feeding the birds this summer, so the squirrels have been doing a good job of picking up the acorns. I'm sure they're preparing for no easy-to-steal bird food this winter too. Our neighbors also have walnut trees along the fence line, and the squirrels stored those away immediately. I have only seen one walnut in my garden this year! I love it!! (They probably buried them all in the gardens - LOL!)

more late summer blooms

On our walk through the garden yesterday, we found a surprising number of things still blooming, reblooming, and just starting to bloom. Maybe I'm the one who's tired - not the gardens!! Here are more photos.

dianthus (pinks)

Queen Anne's Lace

native rudbeckia or coneflower
These all started from seed brought by the wind or birds or ??
They bloom, like, forever! I love it!

plantegenia hosta
these blooms smell sooooo good!

dahlia

turtlehead

little blue stem grass

just starting to turn burgundy and develop seed heads

the phlox are winding down, but still some color

"David"

"Hawkeye Belle"

(this rose is just covered in blooms again)

one of the dahlias

hibiscus are still going strong

mallow reblooming

shasta daisy

"Autumn Joy" sedum, just starting to show color

hibiscus bud starting to open

delphinium reblooming

(surprising because I neglected to deadhead the first blooms)

one of the caladiums in the garden

odds 'n ends on a rainy day

"Rosy Returns" - repeat blooming daylily

Isn't this a beautiful daylily? I just planted it this spring, so not sure if it will always bloom late. I'm thinking I need to add more late bloomers, so hope it will. It's a smaller daylily bloom, but a lovely rich color.

Japanese fall blooming anemone

Japanese anemone again

I love Japanese anemone. They aren't real showy from a distance, but up close they are very pretty. I love the way they nod in the breeze. I have them in a couple gardens - in light shade and in almost full sun. They seem to be okay everywhere I try them.

dahlia

A couple more of my smaller dahlias. The colors have been so rich this summer - I love them! The dinnerplates are definitely more showy, but I'm hoping I can overwinter the tubers and have them all again next year. I do have to remember to stake them as I plant them though. This year the ones in partial shade are pretty much laying on the ground.

dahlia

Turtlehead

Turtlehead is another fall bloomer that I love. The plants get very large and the blooms aren't super showy until you get right up to the plant. But they are so cute! And it keeps blooming for quite a long time. When I first bought turtlehead, it was for a shady space. But mine does much, much better in full sun as long as the ground is moist.

Brown-eyed Susans

And what late-summer/fall post would be complete without brown-eyed susans? I used to think these were too "gold" for my gardens. But now I rely on them to add bright spots throughout my late summer gardens. I can't think of any flowers I don't like, but I do have a soft spot for the prairie-type flowers.

We have had a cool, rainy weekend here. No complaints - we desperately needed the rain. But I do hope it plans to warm up again, so we get more tomatoes. I roasted and froze several batches, but not nearly enough to last the winter!

more dahlias and glads

Have several more colors of both dahlias and glads to open. I'm thinking it will be worth the trouble of digging them up this fall and replanting next year!

too much yakking

We came back from our daily kayak trip this evening, and I saw new daylilies blooming that I hadn't noticed earlier in the day. Obviously I am not spending enough time walking around my gardens!! I am loving the kayaking. Yesterday we went out early in the morning and again just before sunset - the water was perfectly calm both times - the only sound was the splash of our paddles dipping into the water.
The photo above is one of my dinner plate dahlias - I think it was named Mystery Day (from Breck's). It isn't as big as a dinner plate, but you could certainly have a lovely big helping of dessert!! There are a ton of buds on all of the dahlias - and I'm wishing I had put stakes in when I planted the roots. Live and learn I guess. My first try with dahlias - I will be planting them again! This is another smaller dahlia. I have all of these names somewhere because I just did them this spring. Can't seem to lay my hands on the list right now - when I find it, I'll share the names. There's a similar sized purple just opening and a dark red that's just started showing color. This is very fun!

One of my oriental lilies - is this Stargazer? I used to have all of these names firmly in my memory, but this year I can't seem to remember anything except the roses. I love going to other blogs and seeing the name of each lovely bloom - really wish I could do the same here! My orientals are not doing as well as they usually do - bummer, because the smell is so wonderful. I have them planted right in front of the porch and the scent wafts up into the porch on breezy days. I love it. My favorite oriental lily is Casa Blanca - it looks like white dotted swiss fabric - and smells heavenly. I'm hoping it will still bloom, but not looking promising.