an extra week

Did you ever have one of those times when you're running around like a headless chicken, and suddenly, unexpectedly, you are given the gift of time? Well, that's what happened to me today. I've been scurrying around trying to get all of my fall chores done and feeling like I must be getting very old and very slow. There is so much left to do outside, and it's raining almost daily, and how am I going to do this?? Then today I realized that Mark doesn't leave for a week THIS Sunday - it's on the 28th - we have a whole extra week to wrap things up before his business trip! Hallelujah! I'll still be planting tulip bulbs and shredding leaves for next year's mulch when he's gone, but we will have time to get all the big stuff done. I cannot tell you what a load was lifted from my shoulders when I slowed down enough to realize this!

So now I need to do a little blog housekeeping. Violetlady gave me this wonderful award a few days ago. Thank you so much! I love it! I apologize for not thanking you sooner, but it is truly appreciated. She wrote on her blog:

The "Change Begins At Home" award originates from Bean Sprouts and is given to bloggers who live what they preach, who try to make the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world.

I guess maybe after my epiphany this morning, I can lay some claim to this nice tribute - I think it would be lovely if we all slowed down enough to enjoy and appreciate the things around us - especially all of our thoughtful blogger friends. Thanks Violetlady!

I am making progress on the fall prep front. The shed is nicely loaded - I have a few things left to throw in before we close the door for the winter, but this weekend I managed to get a lot of stuff cleaned up and stashed away.

I have become a zealot about the amendments I use on my gardens - and using what I get for free instead of spending money. Every summer I pull weeds from the lake to compost. Every fall I have the task of moving the partially composted pile to the various gardens. I mound compost over the crowns of all my roses and clematis, add it to the tomato spaces (to be worked in next spring), add to any gardens that seemed to struggle this summer, and then if there's any left, I choose a garden to amend. I don't work anything into the soil at this time of year, but by next spring all of that partially composted material will be like black gold for the gardens. I still have this huge task to do - but once I get started, it usually goes fairly fast.

The other big job I do is collect fallen leaves. I save some whole leaves to put on the gardens over the winter. I used to put about a foot of leaves on every garden, but now I pretty much just protect things that are marginally hardy here - and cover up any bare dirt so the dogs aren't tracking it into the house all winter. Next spring, I'll rake the whole leaves off the gardens so the soil can warm up, and put them in the compost bin. I shred the rest of the leaves and put them in a mulch bin to use as summer mulch on the gardens. I used to spend between $100 and $200 for shredded cypress - every year! Yikes! No more - the leaves add good things to the soil - and, in my humble opinion, look nicer. I go all around our area - about a 10 mile radius - collecting bags of raked leaves that would otherwise end up in the yard waste collections. I don't know if they incinerate yard waste here or put it in landfills - but I do know the leaves are put to much better use on my gardens!! I've started collecting leaves and have maybe 1/4 of them shredded. Still a lot left to do.

These are all things reblooming in the garden right now - I have several more photos to share - so maybe I'll get more posts up this week!! And I hope to visit all of you very soon. You're all so nice to keep visiting with me when I'm being such a slug - thanks! :)

more September blooms

Kind of a quiet, boring day here - we spent most of the day leveling a space for my new garden/storage shed. Hopefully, I'll have photos to share of the new shed within the next week. Tonight we went out for pizza with friends - a very fun evening of catching up.

Here are more photos of this weekend's blooms.


This is by far the best photo I have ever taken of spiderwort. Usually they come out looking very flat. This one is perfect (if I do say so myself!). About a month ago, I cut most of the spiderwort back, and now they are blooming again.

This is the wild coneflower that's been blooming all summer. This is a workhorse!!

The mountain bluet is blooming again also. I love these spidery blue blooms.

I have a snakeroot plant that has been moved many, many times. For the last few years, it hasn't been very happy and hasn't bloomed. So last fall, I moved it to yet another home. When I dug up the plant, it split into 3 plants. They all look healthy, but they are just now sending up these little flower stalks. I think they're the same variety as the ones I showed blooming a couple months ago - big, beautiful flower spikes. I'll give these another year here - hopefully, they'll bloom earlier and better next year. (If not, I do have a couple more places to try :) !)

Here's one of my dark snakeroot - I believe this one is "Brunette." It's just starting to bloom. Again, not terribly impressive. This one may not be getting as much moisture as it wants - it's right next to the river birch clump. Gosh, I hate to move these things all the time.

The physostegia - or obedient plant. This is a fun little plant that should keep increasing in number every year.

Turtlehead. Not a great photo - but look at all those blooms! I love these plants.

I think this is the last veronica in the garden still blooming.

Brown-eyed Susans are still going strong.

A tuberous begonia. These finally started blooming last week - way too long to wait for container plants!! I had some red and some yellow that did quite well this year, but the rest were only so-so. I may decide to not do these next year...

The white "David" phlox is still looking very pretty. Some of the other phlox have blooms, but they're coming to the end.

The Japanese anemone are still looking good.

Another shot - I just love these airy little blooms.

I just took some under-performing begonias out of a hanging planter by the streetside door, and put in these pansies. (And then the temps jumped into the 80's for a couple days - of course!!) I absolutely love this color.

flowers too, of course

I have these tall lilies by the porch. I think I planted them 5 or 6 years ago, so I have a pretty good clump of them by now. They are pretty stunning when blooming.
These equally tall, but pink, lilies are in the same garden. Together, they put on quite a show.
These gorgeous red lilies are down by the gazebo. I adore this dark red.

Isn't this a great lily?

The coreopsis is starting to bloom. I think these little bright yellow flowers and fine foliage are very pretty. They brighten up the summer garden.

Had to show you this spiderwort. These white and purple blooms appear to be on the same plant. Many years ago, I put in what looked like one plant and it had both colors when it bloomed. Now I have at least 3 clumps that have both colors blooming side by side.

Most of the white blooms have this cool purple center. A few are totally white, but I like the purple centered ones best.

This coneflower is either a native Minnesota wildflower that volunteers in one of my lakeshore gardens - or it's from a packet of Colorado wildflower seeds that Mark brought back from the Denver airport many years ago. Whichever, it's very cool and seems to love lots of sun and fairly dry soil. The leaves are very similar to blue flax.

This is a volunteer bellflower. I love the little flower so much that I have a tat on my ankle that looks very similar to one of these blooms!

This I believe is a cluster bellflower that one of my gardening neighbors gave me. The blurry yellow behind it is the evening primrose. Kind of a nice combo. They are both spreaders, so in a few years, this may be what the entire garden looks like!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY,

DAD AND EVERETT AND MARK!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ANNI & TOM!

buds yesterday, blooms today

This has been the most fragrant year. The lilacs earlier were wonderful. And now the roses and bearded iris are fabulous. When the wind is right, the house is filled with a wonderful scent, and the yard and gardens even more so. It's great!

This is Carefree Beauty - yesterday I showed you a closed bud. This was one of the first roses I purchased - many years ago. It's been moved a few times, and just keeps on keepin' on. It has a slight fragrance - some days very fragrant, other days not. I love it.

This is the Japanese or anemone peony that I showed just opening yesterday. I don't think I ever really knew the name of it. It's one of my favorites - I love the single bloom - so loose and blowsy. It reminds me of a girl at a summer dance.

This isn't a great photo - I really do have to learn to use this camera more effectively!! But wanted to show you how much prettier the fountain is with blooming things at its base. Here you see Marie Bugnet rose and the Japanese peony. It would have been good if I'd cleaned the fountain and turned it on too, no doubt!

This is Marie Boisselot again - these blooms are the size of my hand - just huge. (Well, my hands aren't THAT big, but you get the idea - big blooms.)

One of the pretty little spiderwort plants I have scattered throughout my gardens. Such a sweet little bloom - and they have a really long bloom time. Some people don't like how wild or messy the leaves are, but they fit into my gardens perfectly.

This is Kansas again - this is really much redder in the garden - not a true red, but darker than it shows here, I think. I have it planted beside a false indigo, which is in bloom now too. The combo is very pretty. (of course every photo I've tried to get of the two together has not turned out)

This is what I did yesterday - the garden originally ended at the fairy's feet. I'm not real big on borders usually, but this shady area does have a border of variegated hosta. So I continued the border - making it deeper - and (maybe by next year!) fuller. I think I'll stick a few caladium corms (or whatever they are) in here this year just to fill it in a bit later this year.

This is Kobie's favorite chair in the yard - it's in a nice shady spot just for him. Sometimes he shares with me, but he always seems to hog most of the chair. However, if I have the super expensive cushions out on the other chairs, and he has dirty feet, those are his favorites. He's really a joy to have around.

I just finished this book - "The Divide" by Nicholas Evans. I enjoyed his previous three books, and this one was really good too. He tells a good story and really develops his characters well, I think.

Roses in May - imagine that!

When I did my garden walk-around this morning, I could hardly believe my eyes - 2 roses open today. I always think of roses and peonies as June bloomers - maybe Memorial Day if we're very, very lucky. May 20th - wow. This is "Nearly Wild" - I love the single blooms and that it blooms pretty much non-stop all summer and fall.

The other rose that was open was my species rose - 2 blooms, but I couldn't get a good photo of either, so I'll save it for another post. It should bloom off and on all summer long too.

This is a new clematis that I planted last year. It's at the base of my lady trellis, and is doing really well this year. It's called "Lemon Chiffon" - not a true white, but certainly not much yellow either. The blooms are pretty good sized, and there are a lot of buds, so may be a good choice.

The purple tall bearded iris opened today. The scent of these beauties is wonderful - kind of a cross between SweeTarts (which is definitely what the white iris smell like) and grape Kool-Aid. Sounds weird, I know, but I could just sit in the garden smelling these for hours.

A spiderwort is open. I have purple, white, and magenta. This one is actually more magenta colored than it looks in the photo. I love how long these one-day bloomers keep producing new blooms.

And this is my Johnson Blue geranium - in plant form!! I love the geraniums.

Happy Birthday to Cole and Kevin - belatedly, but love you both!