Lily Garden Annuals

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.

Spring's Awakening

Now that spring has sprung in our half of the world, above the equator, I find myself vigilantly searching for signs of its "springing".

Last Friday marked the vernal equinox (day and night are the same length) - the official beginning of spring - and the sun shone brightly, but a very cold wind chilled our bones.

A week ago, on St. Patrick's Day, our temperature reached a glorious 59ºF/15ºC, and on the Sunday and Monday before that I was able to spend a few hours doing clean-up work in the garden. What a joy to feel the sun on my back and breathe the fresh air!

This past Sunday brought a few snow showers, and the arctic north wind has persisted since then, keeping me indoors. I'm deceived by the bright sunshine, and go out to snap a few photos, but am chilled through within seconds and hurry back into the warmth of the house. Such is March.

But there are signs of spring's awakening.....

The redwinged blackbirds are back!

They clean up the seed beneath the feeders, with help from a few grackles. The female redwings have brown stripes and look quite different from the males. (click photo to enlarge for a better view).

They spook easily and fly to the old elm in the hedgerow across the road.

These photos were taken on March 11th and most of the snow has melted since then,

........but there are still patches here and there.

We had a treat on St. Patty's Day when our oldest daughter came up from NY City to spend a couple of days with us. On Wednesday she and I walked down to the river to explore, and found a couple of Canada geese. We've been hearing them honk and seeing them fly over the river for a few weeks now. They obligingly stayed long enough for me to snap a few pictures.

Usually they fly away immediately, but these two let us get a little closer before they took off.

There's a nice view of the farm from over there.

We also took a nice long walk along our road which takes us past a couple of places that keep horses. The dairies are gone from the farms close to us and horses have taken the place of cows on two of those farms.

These two beauties were happy to say hello.

A little further along we found more horses enjoying the mild morning.

Back home on a different day I quickly grabbed the camera to catch a shot of another neighbor out for a jaunt with the horse and buggy.

It's almost time to take the winter covering off the roses. Some have already been removed. And there's still plenty of clean-up work to do.

On the first day of spring I went exploring with my camera and found buds on the lilacs.

We won't see blooms until May.

The cutleaf maple is budding. This photo was taken on a cloudy day....

....and this one on a sunny day. What a difference in the color of the sky!

These clusters of buds will open into flowers around mid April.

The brave little snowdrops bloom alone still.....

....but yesterday I finally spotted crocus shoots emerging beside the daffodil spears.

And the tulips are growing!

In the veggie garden this morning I found garlic pushing up out of the ground. I tried to push it back in but the ground was frozen. Even the surface dirt was too frozen to rake some around the bulbs. There'll be no planting peas here for a few weeks yet, Carol!

We've been seeing the wild turkeys most mornings in the field next to the house.

The toms are displaying but I haven't caught a picture of them strutting their stuff yet.

Cowbirds are visiting the feeders. This one is a male.

And starlings are always after an easy meal. Although they sometimes feed in flocks in the yard, luckily we don't get too many at the feeders.

I sighted our first two robins on March 18th.

A sure sign that spring has sprung!

Just before I took this photo, Jasmine, in full "spring fever" mode, had made a flying dash across the yard and raced up the maple tree. I ran for my camera, but by the time I got back outside she was sitting on the ground. She did pose nicely though. :)

The barn kitties are spending more time outside...another definite sign of spring. They found sheltered warmth in the sunshine by the back door this afternoon.

We witnessed this spectacular sunset two weeks ago, and I'm watching another one as I type this. I doubt it will give us quite the impressive display of this one though. Normally they're more subdued at this time of year, but the softer colors are beautiful too.

Spring is springing gradually so far, but a couple of weeks into April will bring green grass and more!

We have much to look forward to!

Happy spring everyone!

(and happy fall/autumn to those of you who are under the equator) :)