"Nothing" is what's been going on in my garden. Or is it what I've done as far as winterizing goes? Or does it refer to this blog, and what's happening here?
I haven't been out in the garden too much lately, but as I walked by this bamboo patch I realized something wasn't quite right.
I always let some "weeds" grow in my yard and garden, and one of the best -- especially for late-season blooms -- is, well, I've forgotten what it is. I think it's Late Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) but it could be White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima).
The deck gets a few planters each year, but most of the beauty that is visible late in the season is courtesy of the plants that grow up around the deck.
The other morning was a wet one, and the Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' really caught my eye.
Annual flowering vines are one of the key components of my garden, even though they really only get going late in the season. Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea sloteri) may be the slowest of the annual vines I grow, flowering not before mid-September for me...
This Green stinkbug nymph is trying to blend in with the red foliage of Hibiscus 'Mahogony Splendor'.
You know I like big plants, right? Castor bean, bamboo, Colocasia and Alocasia -- those big ones fit the size of my yard quite nicely. This year I've discovered a new big one, and it was a surprise for two reasons. First, it got much bigger than the tag indicated.
In the previous post I mentioned how I rely on big annuals and tropicals for impact in my garden, and it's only in late summer/early autumn when those plants really start shining. For me castor bean (Ricinus communis) is one of these late-season stars, and this year I tried a new cultivar.
It's here, my favorite time of year! Temperatures drop (a little), every day brings breezes (usually), it's sunny and dry almost every day, and most importantly all of the plants in my garden have reached full size. Sure, spring gardens are nice, but when you rely on big annuals or tropicals for impact it's the end of the season where things really shine.
I've been so busy lately, it's been difficult to even get out into the garden, let alone post about it. Once in a while though something appears to me, visible from the office window, and I need to react.
A few weekends back we were having some decent temperatures, cooler than normal and breezy, so we decided to take a hike. Technically a drive followed by a hike. One of the regular customers at the pie shop had told us earlier in the week about this place, and after seeing her photos we just had to visit!
You know I didn't get around to deadheading the hibiscus yet, but guess what? Mother Nature decided to help me out a little...
I don't know about you, but with me most gardening tasks don't happen on a schedule. Instead, they rely on me noticing something: "the grass is so long", "there are a lot of weeds in that bed", "that plant is dead", "there's a bamboo shoot coming up in my neighbor's yard", etc.
Maypop, Passiflora incarnata, is a native Missouri vine that is lush, vigorous, and looks oh so tropical.
I have grown Verbena bonariensis for at least 10 years, if not more. Mind you, I only planted it once -- grown from seed -- but it has been a regular volunteer in my garden ever since. A welcome one at that!
The stream rebuild project is coming along slowly. Lots of days where it was either way too hot, raining, or I was just too busy meant that I didn't do much on it until this past weekend.
Missouri is home to many caves (and there will be a map at the end of this post to prove it), and there are several that are open to the public. A few summers back my wife and I visited Meramec Caverns, and last month we went to another that's just an hour or so from home: Onondaga.
This is the deer that wanders around our neighborhood during the day, almost fearlessly.
My totem pole cactus (Lophocereus schottii) is doing great! Well, fine at least. It didn't put on much growth last year...
The walkway garden has been quite nice this year with a couple of summer additions. There are a few plants that are spent though, and it's time for a refresh.
Remember how the stream rebuild unexpectedly turned into a tadpole rescue? Well, it's time for an update on these metamorphosing amphibians.
I've given the milkweed patch in my garden a few years to start attracting swarms of monarch butterflies, and because this is common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) which spreads from its roots...
I think "ootheca" is the perfect word for... well, I'll tell you in a minute if you don't already know.
This is one of my Fargesia sp. 'Rufa' (possibly no longer the correct name as it seems to change every couple of years):
The other day I noticed this downy woodpecker on the yucca flower stalk:
That's something we don't say too often in St. Louis, where we usually have hot and humid summers that end up being quite dry much of the time. For the last four or five days it's been unusually cool though, with highs in the 70-80ºF (21-27ºC) range, and we've had quite a bit of rain.
It's been a few years coming, but I finally started the stream rebuild project a couple of weeks ago. It's been silent and dry (except for rain of course) since the winter, and I miss it!
One of the best things about gardening in the heat of the summer is plant sales. Unlike the spring (and early fall to a lesser extent) the nurseries and garden centers around here become almost empty in the middle of summer. Much fewer visitors, smaller staff, some empty tables. Only those who really love plants (or do plants for a living) are shopping -- which I love.
Today we'll look at the part of my garden that I see most: the front walkway. There are some good things going on here...
It's summer in St. Louis, which means hot, humid (usually), and overall just lazy.
What might be the worst photo you see from me this summer...
If there's one thing we have in Missouri, it's rivers. Recently my wife and I have been visiting some of them. Well, a couple at least -- it's not always easy to motivate yourself on your one day off a week to brave the 95ºF (35ºC) temperatures (plus humidity!) and get out into "the country".
You already know that I'm back to buying new plants this year, and that I'm not adverse to paying for annuals or tropicals -- things that are not cold hardy in my climate. It seems like that's where all of the "best" plants are...
Saw a cool little spider on the rose the other day...
We're not doing any extended road trip like we did last summer and a few years earlier, but that doesn't mean that we're not getting out and seeing cool things. Just this past Sunday we drove down to Washington State Park (in Missouri), about an hour from home. What's there of interest? That's actually what we wanted to find out, knowing only that it's a heavily forested and hilly region that we've driven past several times on the way to our favorite winery.
Yesterday we looked at the non-pond water features in my garden. Today we'll look at some deer -- no, of course we'll look at the pond. Well, sort of.
I have two non-pond water features in my garden. The most prominent is the water barrel in the front garden, found at the intersection between the two front walkways.
In general I'd say that I've been making decent progress on the garden projects this year. I've been out there at least a few times a week getting things done, and it feels good to make some progress! These projects are not always great stories though, so trying to craft a post out of them individually is not productive. As a series of before and after shots though, that might work!
A couple of years ago (or three) I got a clearance NOID fig for $10. The little thing was alive but not very impressive.
It's been a couple of years since I've been able to do a "new plant" post since last year I made a point not to buy any plants. It probably goes without saying that a summer of no plant shopping is quite a bit less fun than a summer with!
The first happy surprise I got this summer was actually discovered in the spring:
I've had some surprises this summer -- good ones for the most part so far -- and today I'll show you the second of them. (Wait, what about the first? Well, I'm numbering them in the order I discovered them, not in the order in which I'm sharing.)
Time for another catchup post of randomness from the past couple of months. Maybe I'll go in chronological order, at least roughly.
Ah, that wonderful, colorful foliage of japanese maples: browns and yellows and reds. Is there a better tree for autumn color?
We all love visitors to our gardens, right? We want them to be comfortable, feel at ease, enjoy their visits.
Late last fall I put the bananas (Musa basjoo) to bed for the winter, as I do every year. I did things differently that last time, doing as little as I could to protect them. Yes I mulched with leaves, but this time I didn't create a cage to fill, cover it with plastic, or anything else. I just put a minimal amount of leaves and hoped for the best.
One of the reasons that I've been posting so infrequently so far this summer (yesterday's post was my first in about two weeks!) is that there are a lot of projects left out there, and it's either do or write about it. (Time to catch up a bit!) One of those projects is bamboo maintenance. The dry fall and winter combined with a couple of extended spells of bitter cold took a heavy toll on many of the bamboos and there are many dead culms to remove.
There is a bit of a panic right now in Missouri, especially in parks and neighborhoods where ash trees were planted decades ago -- my own city and street included. The Emerald Ash Borer has arrived, and that means that our ash trees will soon be a memory only. I'm not too worried about our forests, as only about 7 percent of the trees in our about 15 million acres of forests will be affected, and I'm not even too concerned about my own garden.
Last Sunday my wife and I got a little surprise when we walked out onto the deck:
A couple of weeks ago my one remaining rose (Zephirine Drouhin) was just about perfect.
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