Autumn is upon us, and it feels that way today. We had gray, overcast skies this morning with a cool breeze, and rain is falling now. Thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon. No gardening will be done today, sad to say.
My dear husband finished the trellis for "Social Climber" Rose and we set it up to see how it looks. We like it very much (click for a closer look). I'll show you closer photos of it next time. That late sunflower is still blooming brightly, and the New Rock Garden still looks beautiful, but today I'm concentrating on the annuals in the Lily Garden, seen on the left down by the road.
Last Friday I caught the late afternoon sun shining on the red vines winding up the big old Elm and dead tree stumps in the hedgerow across the road. The leaves of the big Sugar Maple, seen in the foreground, are changing color and falling at an alarming rate, creating the look of autumn in the front yard.
Here's the Lily Garden in the morning sunshine. The Daylilies finished blooming in August, so it was up to the annuals to take over the job of providing color.
Hannah, always curious, was tagging along to see what I was up to.
Those snapdragons to the left of her are self-sown volunteers, moved down from the Pink Garden.
The original deep pinks and purples, planted last year as seedlings, became a nice mixture of shades this summer. I especially love this white with pale lilac tips and yellow centers. 
Cleome was planted for the first time and I've loved every moment of its spidery purple blooms. If you look closely you'll see the long, thin seed pods it makes, which I'll save for next year's plants.
Nicotiana is about the same height and looks good with the Cleome.
I started the seeds inside in mid-March,
...but it was July before I got them planted. Much weeding needed to be done first! With so many garden beds it takes me quite some time to get all the plants in the ground. Having lots of space has its disadvantages. One tends to bite off more than one can chew, thinking there'll be ample time to get everything done. The term overzealous comes to mind. (I try to avoid the word "obsessive") :)
It's a pretty mix of colors called "Sensation Daylite", bought for less than a dollar at a big box store. Pretty, aren't they?
Speaking of pretty, Jasmine was my "helper" on this day.
The Morning Glories planted on either side of the center posts have grown well, but have hardly bloomed.
This gorgeous magenta bloom appeared last Friday and the vines have produced a few more lovely blooms since then. It's called "Crimson Rambler". Clematis "Sprinkles" climbs up the center posts and is backlit by the morning sunshine.
I thought it had winter killed and was very disappointed, but much later than expected, tiny shoots appeared and hope was revived.
It wasn't until late August that buds were noticed, and the first bloom opened on the 30th of the month (click to enlarge and see the small bloom).
It has opened several lovely blooms since then.
Tucked in between the daylilies more annuals are providing late season color, and there's a nice clump of bright yellow self-sown Gloriosas (Black-eyed Susans).
I love the pastel colors of these annual Asters, called "Powderpuff ".
Helichrysum (Strawflower) buds are almost prettier than......
......the open flower.
I'll cut these to dry and use in an arrangement during the winter.
Here's a long shot from another angle. There's a little clump of Marigolds beside the Nicotiana, and around the Gloriosas more snapdragons are being crowded by the taller plants, but some of them are blooming.
Brightly colored Zinnias are always delightful.
The hot pink looks gorgeous next to this dark leaved Basil, called "Dark Opal".
I had an opportunity to try Basil lemonade the other day and it was delicious! I must make some.
Calendulars are a bright spot of sunshine colors.
Salvia Farinacea "Blue Bedder" is another plant that I'm enjoying immensely. Those violet blue spires add wonderful color to the late summer/fall garden.
As the cooler weather sets in and I reluctantly ease my mind into thoughts of the coming winter, these still blooming annuals give me a great deal of pleasure.
Jasmine and the other cats are making the most of these last warm days.
Here she found a stick to chew on.........
....and then gave herself a good wash.
Somewhere around 5PM the crew shows up to tell me it's dinner time :) During the month of August Carol of May Dreams Gardens had a Cobrahead weeder giveaway, and much to everyones' surprise, the wonderfully generous folks at Cobrahead decided to give one of their handy dandy tools to each entrant (If I remember correctly there were over 60)! A few were even shipped overseas. Now that's great public relations! I hope their generous gesture will bring lots of sales to the good folks at Cobrahead, which is a small family business. My hubby is using this one and loving it.
Thanks to the friendly folks at Garden Shoes Online, I already had one, and knew DH would like one of his own, since he was borrowing mine all the time ;)
This truly is an amazingly handy tool which makes weeding...well....a pleasure, and I highly recommend it.
We've just had a wild and wooly thunderstorm, and now the late afternoon sun is making a breakthrough to give us a last flash of glorious, golden light at the end of this drab, rainy day.
And thanks to the wonder of digital photography I can share it with you! I made it a little bigger than usual, so that you can see more detail if you click to enarge.
Happy autumn/fall everyone!
And happy spring gardening to our friends below the Equator.
