Got Rocks? Make a Garden!

On the first of September Sandy and I returned from our morning walk to find my dear husband (DH) tackling the rock garden project that he'd begun in the spring.

(Sandy and her husband live in our tennant house that you can see on the left of this photo).

I think it was last summer that DH and I began mulling over the idea of making a small rock garden down near the road, just to the left of the Lily garden on our front lawn. Now, the last thing I need is another garden to take care of, but with so many lovely rocks available the temptation was just too great!

I tell him that he's an enabler...he's always offering to dig a new garden or make an existing one bigger....and I end up with more gardens than I can comfortably look after. Crazy pair we are!
So during rock picking time, while preparing the fields for planting, DH gathered together several large rocks and deposited them near that light pole in the picture below. After killing an area of grass, he brought several tractor loader scoops of nice dirt.....and that's as far as we got, until September 1st.

My agenda for that day was to tackle all the weeds that had grown in that lovely soil during the summer. I had asked earlier what DH's plans were for the day, hoping to enlist his aid, but he had a long list of jobs scheduled, so I figured I'd be weeding alone.

What a very pleasant surprise it was to return from our walk and find him pulling out all those weeds!

If you look closely (or click to make the picture larger) you can see Cleo laying in the dirt behind him. We're rarely without a kitty 'helper' when working in the garden. Notice how pretty the goldenrod looks in the field. There are wild asters and Joe Pye weed in there too, but they're hard to see unless you enlarge the photo.

The mosquitoes were hungry that morning! They've been awful lately, driving us crazy when we're working outside, especially in the early morning and late afternoon. It's unusual for them to be such a problem around here.

Jasmine was supervising the job.

She likes to think she's in charge :)

(she looks bossy, doesn't she?)

After the rocks were placed, and a tractor loader scoop full of compost was dumped on the bed, it was my turn to do some work! I shoveled the compost around and worked it into the soil, and then came the fun part...planting!

Is there anything nicer than a new garden just waiting to be filled with plants? It's like starting with a clean palette.

I'd been given several perennials and they were needing a home, so in they went. Then I added a few I'd started myself, plus a gloriosa daisy dug from another garden, and filled in mostly with transplanted annuals that had self-seeded in the nearby Lily Garden. It's so late that the annuals won't amount to much, but the portulacas, nicotiana, nasturtiums and alyssum added some instant color.

Three of the perennials came from Kim - 'Blackswamp Girl' - of 'A Study in Contrasts'. She very kindly sent 2 small Russian Sage plants and a tiny Baptisia that she found while digging up the sage. Kim, they're looking happy and healthy so far!

I also planted a small Caryopteris (Bluebeard), given to me by my DIL....a seedling from their 2 shrubs, which make lots of 'babies'. I'll probably move that next summer because they grow rather large (about 4'x4'), and it may be too big for this little garden. I may move the sages too, but this was a good place to start them growing.

I planted some yellow 'Basket of Gold' perennial alyssum and a few sedums, among other things. Next year I'll add a few more plants that are suitable for rock gardens. It was a bit too late in the year for proper planning. Now we just need to weed whack around the edges to neaten things up.

I had plenty of supervision from the kitty helpers :) There's Tink sitting on the Lily Garden fence.

Dear Phoebe (the cuddliest cat) and Murphy (the king cat).

Phoebe has extra toes....

......and so does sweet little Peige. We have several cats with big feet (polydactyl).

Here's a view looking over the Driveway Garden toward the Lily and Rock gardens. DH made that little teepee structure for me to grow morning glories on, but I didn't get around to making a space for them, so I placed it here to temporarily support the new climbing rose we planted last fall (Social Climber), which has been growing very nicely.

The Butterfly Bush (buddleia davidii) has been gorgeous, producing lots of blooms and attracting butterflies, bees and hummingbirds. We're only seeing a few juvenile hummingbirds lately. Most of the adults have already begun their long journey south. We'll miss them until they return next May. Seems like a long time to wait.

This orange lily was a little surprise. I didn't intentionally put these two colors together. The butterfly bush was planted last year, and the lily grew from seeds I'd gathered and planted the year before. Our DIL told me her mother had grown orientals from seed, so I thought I'd experiment and see what happened.

This is the happy result!

Last year there were just stalks and leaves and I wasn't sure if they were offshoots from a nearby asiatic lily or if, indeed, the seeds had grown. Well, yes they did!

If you enlarge the photo you can see that the seeds are at the base of the leaf where it joins the stem.

I'm not a big fan of orange, but I really like this lily.

Cherry Cheeks has just finished flowering. It produced blooms over a long period.

White Temptation, next to the butterfly bush was another long bloomer.

She's a beauty!

Here's another little surprise that showed up at the beginning of this past week. We think someone probably dropped this kitten off here at the farm.

It's very timid and runs away from us, but I've managed to capture it a couple of times when it was eating. Hopefully it'll calm down soon and enjoy some cuddles. Meanwhile the barn kitties seem to have accepted it and are keeping it company.

The golden glow is just about finished, especially after a day of very strong winds last Friday which knocked some of the plants down.

The end of a long day.....time to feed the kitties!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!