September morn

After a gentle rain this morning, the sun popped out, and for a few brief minutes we got a real taste of autumn. Oh, to capture such a golden moment and hold it forever! Click on the photo below for a cobbled together panoramic view.

September: Blue Mist Spirea

Blue Mist Spirea bloomed a little earlier than it did last year and it is so pretty! These two plants really suffered when we had snow in April. We weren't sure they would survive, but now, early-September, you can hardly tell they had a setback. They are wonderful for attracting bees and butterflies and add a new color to the garden this time of year - a stunning deep blue-purple.

Out of control. . .

These little cuties may look innocent enough, but that's only because they're tuckered out from wreaking havoc in our yard! They're almost nine weeks old, and all but one (we get to keep fluffball Sundae!) will go to new homes next week. I'm sad to see them go, but it's definitely time. Five kittens cavorting through the flowerpots, scampering up the arbor, skittering under the rosebushes and wrestling for hours on end wear me out! This morning while we worked in the yard, they found their way through the gate and into the front yard. We'd catch one and put her back and three more would be out before we turned around. Finally two of them had a run in with the garden hose spray and that toned things down a little. It's going to be awfully quiet around here with only three cats in the yard. I'll always remember 2007 as the summer of the kittens. Definitely one for the "happiest memories" file.

Front porch sittin'

Today has been a very productive day. After our traditional Saturday coffee and donuts we headed outside to find an absolutely perfect September morning awaiting us. Ken fertilized the trees and lawn, I did the same with the shrubs and flowers. We weeded every flower bed, watered trees and did a lot of pruning. The native grasses have practically hidden the stone border we worked so hard to put in. I did not haul those 100-plus rocks so they could hide under a stand of buffalo grass! So we trimmed and whacked and used Roundup where necessary. Oh my, everything looks so nice now! Makes me want to sit on the porch and just enjoy the fruits of our labors. Bet we'll sleep good tonight!

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. . .

Last night when we took a walk through the yard, we were surprised to find a new flush of blooms on the yellow floribunda rose. This is the bush (no more than a stick, really) that my husband got free from the garden center because they suspected it was dead! Every flower on this bush has been gorgeous from first bud, until it drops its petals. And now that August is coming to a close, I've decided to start bringing bouquets into the house so I can enjoy more than a passing glance of this beauty!

Seven cats in the yard

Mama Kitty and her second litter - five adorable kits this time - got to move out into the yard yesterday and oh, are they happy about that! All morning they've been exploring and scampering and tumbling and "rasslin'" and whatever else kittens do, while Mama and our old black cat stand watch.





















Kitties have taken over the yard, but apparently the birds didn't get the memo! (You may have to click on the photo to enlarge to see five fat robins lined up on the fence! There were six at one point, but I couldn't fit them all in the frame.)

Pretty in pink

The sedums are doing so well this summer. Creeping like crazy - to the point that we're even pulling some of it out because it's hiding the rocks on Rock Garden Hill! This variety pictured is Stonecrop 'Tricolor' (Sedum Spurium) and the colors are just beautiful. Variegated leaves tinged in pink, with reddish stems. They really stand out against the rocks, and a nice contrast to the other sedums we have growing on the hill. I'll be curious to see if this one keeps its color all winter like the yellow-green sedum (Sedum Angelina) growing beside it.
I added this photo so you can see our "pretty in pink" in context. The various sedums really complement each other (and the dark green on the right is our favorite Waterperry Blue Speedwell). Below, is the bowl garden we planted simply by pinching a few starts from several sedums and hen-and-chicks.

Mystery plants...can you identify?

We have some things growing in our garden that we can't identify, but they're very pretty and we'd like to keep them and add them to our collection. If anyone knows what these plants are, we'd love to hear from you. (Click on each photo for a closer look.)

Mystery Plant #1
This is a slow-growing viney type plant with a pretty sprawling shape.
We first discovered it early in the spring. It has a much bluer leaf
than surrounding plants and no blooms on it that we can detect.

Mystery Plant #2
Could this be Lupine? That's one of the plants that was supposed to
be in the wildflower mix we planted and we haven't seen it show up
yet. The blue flowers on this plant look like Lupine, but the leaves
don't quite look like the photos we've seen of Lupine. Anyone know?

Moss Rose

We planted MOSS ROSE (Portulaca Grandiflora) in a small flower bed by the curb in the front yard (trying to draw attention away from the streetlight pole there while making it easier to mow around). The Moss Rose is really taking off and so colorful and cheerful there. I wish it was a perennial, but it's so easy to take care of and it's done so well in that spot, that we'll probably plant it again next year. It makes a nice contrast to the mulch and the rocks.

Snow in August?

I've been fighting to keep a little snow in our garden - Snow-on-the-mountain, that is, otherwise known as Euphorbia Marginata. Much as he loves prairie wildflowers, my husband refers to this one as a weed...or a pest...or worse. Last summer we had three huge plants that went to seed, so Ken has been yanking the sprouts as fast as they pop up. But a few managed to sneak by and I think I've persuaded him to let them stay for a few weeks as long as I promise we can eradicate them before they self-seed. I know they can take over a whole pasture in short time, but they sure are pretty. And with the hot spell we've been having, I'll take any kind of snow I can get!

Baby, it's hot outside

Mid-August and we've had a week of 100-plus degree temperatures and we're very thankful for our sprinkler system. It has kept things looking nice and green, but we're aware that it's also kept our plants dependent on that every-other-day douse of artificial rain. We planted several good-size trees this past winter. We've already lost one (and maybe two) pear trees to fire blight and we're really working hard to make sure the others survive the heat. Fortunately there's a "cool" front coming through...temps only in the low 90s next week! ; )

Song of Solomon 2:1

Song of Solomon 2:1-2

Beloved
I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily of the valleys.
Lover
Like a lily among thorns

is my darling among the maidens.

We planted several Rose of Sharon bushes (Hibiscus) last year and ended up moving several of them, eventually losing all but two. But those we planted in the flowerbed underneath our bedroom windows are thriving and beginning to bloom. It's so nice to have something new in bloom now that these stifling hot days of August have hit. We enjoy counting blooms on our morning walks through the yard, but I probably enjoy them even more while I'm making the bed each morning. The smaller bush (above), just outside the west-facing window popped its first blossom this morning - the palest shade of pink. But the bush is loaded with bright pink buds waiting their turn. It's a good thing, since each flower only lasts for a day.

The Blue Dune monster

This Blue Dune Lyme Grass was an innocent looking specimen in a six-inch pot when we brought it home from the garden center last fall. Now, less than a year later, it threatens to take over the entire flowerbed behind the house! It really is a beautiful plant, and its blue color is a nice contrast with the green grass and the Rose of Sharon bushes that flank it. I just hope we can keep it from nudging those bushes right out of the garden!

What a difference a month - or two - makes

Above, the Arbor Garden mid-June. Below, this evening, August 7. We've had to move the birdbath twice because the dogwood keeps hiding it. The roses are climbing the arbor trellis and the pots have filled out nicely (we just love the purple fountain grass in the pots on the right...wish it was a perennial in our part of the country.)

Yesterday's chamber pot today's garden pail

I found this red-rimmed enamelware "pail" at an antique shop in Missouri and thought it would make a perfect place to put the blooms and leaves from pruning and deadheading. My mom informs me that my pail is actually an old chamber pot, but I don't care. I just love the way it looks hanging on this hook on the side of the deck.

The "leaning" pot was a freebie from Hobby Lobby. It didn't have a price marked, so the clerk gave it to me for free. I guess I got what I paid for, since the bottom broke out shortly after I set it out on the deck. But I kind of like the way it looks as a cache pot for a sprig of purple verbena.

It's August 5 and finally we're getting the hot weather we expected in July. We'll be watering trees this week unless we get more rain in the next day or two.

Lessons From the Garden

Last spring we bought half a dozen little pots of a low, creeping ground cover we hoped would fill in in front of the stone wall. The plants, called Stepables®, sat there for an entire spring and summer, odd round circles in front of the wall that did nothing but stay alive. We got tired of waiting for them to spread and dug them up in the fall, moving them to spots between the pavers in the Arbor Garden. Now, in their second summer, they are suddenly taking off and providing pretty yellow-green spots of color along the stone pathways. I'm so glad we didn't give up on them! So many lessons the garden has reminded us of: everything in its own season, and what doesn't work well one place will be perfect another.

Rain, rain. . .keep coming

We've been enjoying several days of rain - unusual for late July in Kansas, and much appreciated since it's kept us from having to water the trees we planted this winter. Yesterday, we sat out on the front porch for half an hour watching a gentle rain fall and listening to the natural "fountain" Ken made.

He found this great "holey" rock in his Grandpa's pasture in the Smoky Hills near Salina. He brought it home and sunk it in the ground just outside the front door under the downspout. (It's a HUGE rock - a sort of iceberg, since it's mostly underground.) Now, every time it rains, the water splashes from the downspout onto the rock, dances in and out of the holes and provides a great water show for free.

Coleus in a Strawberry Pot

I have loved Coleus ever since I saw it growing on a window sill in a friend's New York apartment three decades ago. This strawberry pot full of several varieties of Coleus started out looking pretty sparse, but now, at the end of July, the colorful leaves have almost buried the pot. Best of all, every so often I'll snap off a nice size cutting, let it root in water in the kitchen window, and I have the start of a whole new pot. I planted some little flowerpots with coleus starts last fall and brought them inside when the nights started getting cool. They provided nice spots of color in a sunny window all winter long. I should have taken them outside this spring though because they finally withered and faded. But not before I saved cuttings from those plants for my summer pots. It's a nice "vicious" circle. I did learn the hard way, though, that Coleus doesn't like the cold. Also, even though the plant does develop spikes of tiny lavender flowers, if I pinch the spikes off as soon as they appear, the plant gets bushier and does better.

The Coneflowers Show Up...Finally

It's July 15 - our two-year anniversary of moving into this house and beginning to plan the gardens. We've been waiting for the coneflowers that were in our wildflower mix to show up, since we've been seeing them in profusion in other gardens for several weeks now. We don't have many, but we're encouraged they are finally showing up. Hopefully there will be more next summer.

I Promised You a Rose Garden

A reader commented a few days ago that we were missing roses in our garden and I promised to share. Well, we don't have a lot, but we do have an arbor we're trying to train two rose bushes to climb. The rose on one side is a gorgeous peachy yellow color with a multi-layered bloom. I think it's some sort of floribunda variety. The rose on the other side of the arbor is a beautiful deep pink, but it sort of gets lost among the prairie rose bushes along the back of the garage.
We've been delighted with the Carefree Delight Roses, a prairie native we bought at a plant sale last spring at our local arboretum. These prairie roses bloom constantly spring through fall, never have to be deadheaded, and grow so fast we can almost watch them spread. So, there you have our offering of roses.

July Transitions. . .

I've been out of state for almost a week and came home to a changed garden! Before I left, we pulled out most of the Bachelor Buttons since they were pretty much spent. We also cut back quite a few of the Black-eyed Susans that were looking a little ratty. That left some empty spots, but now other things are springing up in their place - especially the prairie grasses.

Ken got some great photos of the grasses in bloom. Above is Sideoats Grama and at right is Switchgrass. As much as I like these grasses in the summer, they are even more beautiful in the autumn.

Our Favorite "Firecracker" this Fourth

Fameflower Rock Rose has become a favorite as it spreads and blooms in profusion in front of the boulder. The blossoms look so delicate waving above the frilly foliage on wiry stems, but they've proven to be hardy little flowers and we can enjoy the bright splashes of their magenta blooms even from as far away as the living room window. Prettier than any fireworks this 4th of July!

The Magical Light of the Sun

The gardens look completely different depending on light and shadows. Usually an overcast day captures the colors more vividly for the camera's lens, but the sun does magical things to the blossoms, too. This photo is looking down the fence just north of the Rock Wall Garden (hidden by the profusion of flowers).

An Evening of Surprises!

We make a circle around the gardens almost every evening, and often in the morning, too. We almost always discover a new bloom or a butterfly or something new - it's one of the joys of a garden. But tonight we hit the jackpot! Three all new kinds of plants in bloom. The yellow coneflowers, and the elegant Wild Bergamot above were in the original wildflower mix we planted from Prairie Frontier, but this is the first year they've come up.

The plant pictured below is a mystery plant to us. It has fern-like leaves and a pale greenish yellow pod-like bloom. If anyone knows what it is, please post a comment and let us know. We won't even be disappointed if you tell us it is a weed...a lot of the flowers in prairie gardens are "traditionally" thought of as weeds. ; ) Oh, and the Crepe Myrtle is blooming at the side of the garage. A banner evening!

UPDATE: The plant below is Canada Milk Vetch. Those "pods" will bloom into creamy yellow flowers. This, too, is one of the plants in the mix we planted last year from Prairie Frontier. (There's a link to their site at right.)

It's June and the cacti are in bloom!

The buds on these barrel cacti remind me of baby birds in a nest. The flowers are absolutely gorgeous when they open in the afternoon sun.

The Garden Looks Best . . .

. . . freshly mowed and with the sprinklers running. Or like this morning, with a gentle rain falling on leaves and petals. We joke that we must really be getting old to get our thrills sitting around watching the sprinklers run. : )Late June, 2007

A Pretty Corner of Boulder Hill

With Fameflower Rock Rose in full bloom, Prairie Dropseed filling out, and Columbine fighting its way through the tallgrasses, Boulder Hill is dressed for summer - maybe overdressed. Last summer we had to fight to keep the boulder peeking out from the tangle of plants - mostly weeds. This year the grasses and wildflowers are winning and we're pulling far fewer weeds. It helps that we're getting some low-growing plants established in front of the boulder.

Moss Garden

We took a corner that was constantly soggy and turned it into a pretty little moss garden. We started by "depositing" a potted plant there last summer, figuring it wouldn't survive, but might as well try. The combination of Creeping Jenny, Gaura, Creeping Wirevine and a couple other plants, came back like gangbusters. So we added some rocks from Grandpa's pastures, some moss we got from our daughter in Missouri and the Japanese Honeysuckle, which has snuck through the fence from a side flowerbed. It's become a favorite spot in the garden for us.