Hard Frost

It was 29 degrees this morning and frost had nipped everything pretty hard last night.

The nasturtiums are all wilted and coated in frost.  The funny thing is that the gravel garden smells like strong pepper!  Normally you only taste the sharp tang of nasturtium leaves when you eat a few.  But the whole area has a pungent strong smell after the frost.

I could smell the basil on the deck too, just walking by.  It is wilted now.  And the beautiful pink zinnias by the birdbath are all brown.

The canna doesn't look too bad yet, but it got zapped I am sure.

Time for some clean up, some cutting back and some moving of pots.

Morning Light

Finally, some sun. Today dawned sunny and cold.

I love to lie in bed, barely awake, and watch the sweetbay magnolia outside the bedroom window light up as the sun rises over the treeline and suddenly bathes it in gold.  At this time in October, it starts about 7:10 and within five minutes, the glossy leaves are shining in yellow sunlight.

On the back hill, the persimmon is lit up too. There it is, finally looking tree-like, rising up out of the weeds and shining.

This is the tiny sapling I brought home on the plane from Kentucky, and planted in 2007. Now, in its 5th year, it looks like a real tree.

The Alba Luxurians clematis is in just the right spot to be lit by a slanted ray of morning light each day (well, each sunny day, and there have been so few.) It just looks like a big wedding bouquet!

A Very Wet October

After such a hot dry June and July, we got rain in August, and some in September.  Now in October it has been nothing but rainy and foggy and damp.  So wet.

All of a sudden the trees that were set back by last October's snow, then held back by a hot dry midsummer, have put on amazing growth. The lawn is impossible to mow, so thick and overgrown. Everything is filling out everywhere.

I really notice the paperbark maple all of a sudden.

The black gum out by the meadow startled me with its sudden doubling of size, and the river birches are shooting up, and the sourwood has even grown.  But this paperbark maple, seen as you come up the driveway, is the one that is startling me now.

For so long it was an awkward shape, not much to look at.  I did some pruning, the storm did some pruning, but still it just blended into the other small bushes and shrubs around. Now it suddenly has a nice form and a presence.

The Sheffield Pink mums want to bloom, they really do.  But we need some sun!

This is unrelated to anything, but I like this detail of the Hakone grass, the 'Aurea' Japanese Forest Grass. Nice, huh?

Sunshine, where are you?

A Cold One

It was 39 degrees this morning when I woke up.

The heat is on for the first time this season.

Minor Changes

Warm and humid today, in the upper 70s. A brief interlude between showers and fog from the last several days, with more coming tomorrow.

I finished edging the garden in front of Meadow's Edge and I planted the blueberry that had been in a container on the patio all summer.  I love the low, tidy shape and beautiful fall color of this vaccinium. It is 'Northcountry' (the others are 'Northblue').

In the container it produced almost no fruit this year. Maybe in the ground, nearer the others it will produce next year.

I do like the way it now anchors the front curve of this strip, in front and below the rosemary.

I moved the Jackmanii clematis out of its pot on the patio as well, and planted it inside the iron tower.  There are no live stems or buds.  Hmmm.  But the root ball was huge and quite heavy.  We'll see if it comes back in spring, but I have doubts.  Both of the other clematis vines are reblooming now, full and lush after being cut all the way back in summer.

I dug out (ripped up is more like it) a couple little trailers of the amsonia Blue Ice that were growing under the doublefile viburnum, and put them in the bare mulch in front of the four blueberries.  Now that I have edged the garden wider, there was empty space, and since there is a nice low amsonia on one side, I hope these additions will fill out and balance the other side under the blueberries.

Amsonia is the worst to dig up, even little tiny pieces like these.

Rabbits ate all the turtlehead seedlings that I had added in front of the larger stand in Meadow's Edge, and the ones I added to the east side of the deck. All gone, although they have not touched the mature large stand.

Drippy, Drippy

More rain.

In this gloom, Jim finally got a good picture of the crystalline white iris 'Immortality', dripping wet.  You need really low light to get any detail in this bloom.

This is pretty cool -- the spicebush is turning clear yellow, hiding at the back of the spruce berm.  Even in the drippy dark light, it glows.

The ground is squishy wet, and droplets cling to all the plants.

The Autumn Joy sedum is a rich rosy red now.

Albury Purple St. Johnswort always holds even the merest drops of water, and glistens when there is heavy rain.

The New Jersey Tea shrubs are blooming again, with miniature white lilac-shaped flowers.  There are only three or four little cones on the shrub, so it's hardly noticeable, but up close, dripping wet, it's cute.

Muddy Garden Edging

After such glorious, sunny, cool days all through September, the month ended with several days of gloom and a downpour on Sunday that gave us half an inch of hard rain.

October has started gloomy as well, and rainy.

Both clematis vines are back in bloom -- Henryii out front, and Alba Luxurians by the patio wall.

Henryii

Alba Luxurians

In between rain drops I fussed with re-edging the garden in front of Meadow's Edge. I softened some of the sharp curves and tried to round the ends more.

It was muddy, hard work.  Surprisingly, a lot of sod must be removed just to round out the edges.  More to do.  It still isn't right yet.

The whole garden needs more width, a bigger footprint. Eventually the grass path between it and the front of Meadow's Edge will become a real path. That space will be a short woodland walk, hemmed on both sides by gardens and shaded by trees.

The curve looks okay from the patio straight on, but lengthwise it's still not right

Orange Eyed Swan

A lotta rain today.  Going on an inch of soaking gentle rain, and it hasn't quite stopped yet.

I love my orange eyed funny basket swan with these delightful pansies that match his eyes. Remind me to get more of this color next year too.

And there are more pops of orange from the nasturtiums climbing through the inkberry hollies and into the plumbagos.

Too much orange? Here's some rich purple in the meadow.

And the reds are starting to happen.  The sumacs are some of the first to color up on the hillside.

The zinnias get better looking as fall comes on.

The iteas in the Birch Garden are more mahogany than garnet red this season. Iris Immortality is a nice white pop against the deep red.

Still raining. Still coming down hard.

Puttering

The problem with this cool, sunny fall weather is that it gives me endless hours to go out there and putter.

And that means I am constantly moving things around, tinkering with designs, changing spaces for various plants.  On and on.  The air is comfortable, but I do get hot and sweaty.

Yesterday I wasted an hour planting out the amsonia tabernaemontana seedlings that I had dug up last spring.  They were free --- just three pots of seedlings from under the current shrubs.

I dithered all summer on where to put them -- I love them, but do I need three more very large blowzy small-leaved plants?  Then I planted them carefully at the back edge of the Drive By garden, behind the witch hazels.

Nope. Uh uh. Dug them up, put two at the back of Meadow's Edge where I had previously transplanted the Karl Foerster grasses --- after I took the grasses out.  Entirely.  I just don't have a place for them.

And on it goes. I took the Beni Kaze Japanese Forest grasses out of their pots on the front porch and planted them out.

Two have no roots, I think they are dead.  Really.  But we'll see.  The pots had some white grubs in them.  I think the roots were eaten.

I moved the Silver Mist juniper from under the farthest birch tree and put it in an empty spot near the star magnolia by the gravel garden. That was a bear to move, and I had to cut all the big roots.  Maybe it survives, maybe not.

I moved daylilies into the spot under the birch.  And moved a Sheffield mum into the spot where the daylily was in Meadow's Edge.

And on and on.

Puttering.

I also planted a blue juniper at the back of the Drive By garden. I am not sure what kind it is, or even how big it will get. It is upright, pyramidal and quite small now.

It came in a mixed container planting from Lowe's and I had been keeping it in a pot along the front walk. Not sure what I have, but it makes a nice dense little point at the back now.

You can see it here in its pot. How big will it get?

Then I got the edger out and made the left side of the garden in front of Meadow's Edge a little more circular, planted up the Russian sages to balance the others on the right side of that garden, then plunked the metal tower in there.

I will move the Jackmanii clematis out of its pot on the patio and let it climb the tower here in the garden. It makes a nice end point to this strip.

I am forever moving clematis which sets it back.

Now I need to figure out what to do with that corner of the patio where the pot of clematis was.

In that same garden strip, I decided a few days ago to limb up the twiggy blackhaw viburnum. It has twisted, overlapping stems, and won;t even be a small single stemmed tree.

But I want a more elegant look there, not a big old shrub.

What do you think of my efforts?

The weather will continue to be cool and I still have things to move, prune, shift around, redesign, and replant.

Most of the garden edges need to be expanded a little, and that is sod removal hard work that is best done in this weather.

I'll keep puttering.

Sun and Rain

A couple more nice sunny cool September days, and then late last night a downpour. We got half an inch of heavy rain.  This morning all is sparkling and bright and well watered.

A few days ago in the meadow: