Summer in the Gardens

There's a nip in the air tonight and the day has been overcast and rainy. The temperatures didn't climb much above 70º (21ºC) all day. It seems much too soon to feel this much like Fall. Our outdoor wood furnace is running and keeping the chill out of the house. We have plenty of slab wood to burn because Ross and some helpers have been sawing out a log cabin that his brother is going to build for a client. Normally we'd let the furnace go out during the summer months, but not this year. Tonight I'm thankful for that.

Like many of you, I'm feeling rather blue with thoughts of summer's ending. It always makes me sad to know the flowers will soon be finished and the long winter will be upon us once more.

With that in mind, I've been working outside as much as possible because there's still plenty to do in the gardens...always! It's a never-ending job.....but I love every moment of it.

The phlox continue to bloom profusely.....

and the Gloriosa Daisies are still going strong, with some petunias tucked in here and there. Here's Jasmine and Pepper enjoying a game. The kitties love those fences!

The hostas are blooming in front of the porch and that ferny plant is tansy, which spreads like crazy and must be yanked out ruthlessly to keep it in check. It has a pleasant scent and a little yellow flower. That's a potentilla in the foreground.

This sunflower was sown by the birds. It's one of two that I left there. The vast number of other seedlings were pulled and composted. Sunny and bright, isn't it?

All the plants in this dish garden are various types of sedum, except the purple flower, which is related to Portulacas. It's called fameflower (Talinum Calycinum), and the tiny flowers are held high on delicate stems. I love this little garden in a dish!

That's one of the new lilies, Strutter's Ball, in the middle of this garden. The lilies have almost finished blooming now, sad to say. There are just 3 or 4 plants putting out a few final blooms.

The coneflowers in the nearest garden always put on a wonderful show and last for ages. They sow themselves with wild abandon. The other pink is phlox, which spreads like crazy, and the yellow is more Gloriosas, which also sow themselves all over the place.

Here are a couple of other phlox. The light pink has a dark eye. The Cerise Queen Yarrow (another pretty reddish pink) is a nice filler, and there's monarda (bee balm) in there too.

The coneflowers and phlox again

I just love the color of these beauties. The birds enjoy the seeds when the cold weather comes.

Here's the other side of that garden before the coneflowers were blooming. The blue is Larkspur and there were still a couple of blooms on the asiatics. This was taken in late July.

I've seen a few hummingbird moths around the gardens. They love the Monarda (Bee Balm) and so do the bees and butterflies.

Ross planted some of the gladiolus bulbs saved from last year in his vegetable garden. The colors are glorious!

They've been making some beautiful bouquets for church.

Aren't those pinks wonderful?

This is just a small section of the windowbox outside the bathroom window. There's a lovely ivy geranium in there blooming it's head off. I'll have to show you a picture of the whole windowbox next time.

And here's little Max who is a very accident-prone kitten. He's adorable, but he's used up 3 of his 9 lives already. Just the other day my brother-in-law ran over his leg...which was just healing from 2 previous accidents, the cause of which is a mystery to us. Both back legs looked like they'd been caught in something. We can only wonder at what the cause might've been. Miraculously, he escaped relatively unscathed from the car. Perhaps the tire just grazed him. I hope he's learned a lesson, poor little fellow.

Max has a twin brother named Riley (he's in the back), who so far, unlike Max, has remained out of harm's way. I think he needs to be his brother's keeper!

Jasmine has a house guest! Remember Bailey (click his name to see more pictures of him) who stayed with us about this time last year? Our young neighbors, Wes and Sandy, have gone away for a few days so we're cat-sitting for them. Jasmine stays at their house when we go away to see the kids, so these 2 are good friends. They really enjoy each other's company and play well together. I'll have more photos of them next post, and of Bailey enjoying the company of the outdoor kitties too. They think it's a real novelty when he comes to stay :)

My sweet friend Horizon has passed along the "Nice Matters Award" to me, for which I'm very grateful. Thank you dear friend. I hope you're feeling better today :)

Have a wonderful week everyone!

P.S. Mouse Update:
Score: Us - 1/Mouse - 0
Let's hope the game is over!
And no, Jasmine didn't score any more points. The mouse decided to feast on the corn cobs, left in a dish in the laundry, after the evening meal, to be dumped on the compost heap the next morning. We set the trap beside the dish. Apparently even mice love sweet corn, with peanut butter as an appetizer :)