Christmas Day, and the kids are starting to arrive one by one. Precious memories being made. Blessings being counted. Hope the same is true for your family. God bless, and a very merry Christmas to you all!
Merry Christmas!
Christmas in the air
Christmas has come to our neighborhood, especially now that we have snow on the ground and more in the forecast. This is the view from the kitchen window, and off our front porch tonight, December 16. If you listen closely, maybe you can even hear the Christmas music that's playing across the street. . .
A REAL snow!
December 16 and finally we get an honest-to-goodness snow. Beautiful and still gently falling! Isn't the red-twig dogwood gorgeous against the snow?
First snow
It was just a dusting, but we got our first snow the day after Thanksgiving. I guess it's time to admit summer - and autumn - are really over and bring in the pillows and rugs. Time to get out last year's garden catalogs and dream of spring.
Late November patchwork
It's almost Thanksgiving but we still have a few things in the garden adding some rich color. The Bald Cypress tree that thrives in a damp fence corner is gorgeous this morning with the sun shining on it. You can see the Red Twig Dogwood strutting its red, too. And on Rock Garden Hill, the sedums, yarrow and speedwell form a carpet of jewel-tones...so beautiful against the backdrop of the limestone and dried tallgrasses.
More bringing the outside in
A few weeks ago, we finally brought our favorite garden pot - a combination of lantana, coleus and ivy - inside for the duration. And it's not very happy inside. I've been cleaning leaves and flower petals off the hardwood floors multiple times each day. But I'm not ready to give up on it quite yet. The ivy will eventually be planted on the other side of the shed. And I'll take some cuttings of the coleus and try to keep them going until spring. It's hard to say good-bye to a favorite flowerpot!
More fall colors
The fall color is almost gone after a couple of frosts and several days of relentless wind, but I captured this last gasp of color from our front porch early in November as a rainstorm rolled in.
Gifts from the compost heap
We spent a few hours working to put the garden to bed this week, but a nice surprise from the compost heap has kept things looking spring-y for a while longer. When we raked Rock Garden Hill this spring, we filled the wheelbarrow with the debris and tossed it in our garden compost heap behind the garden shed. When we went to dump some of the pots the frost killed, we discovered a lush variety of sedum growing on the compost heap. I dug some of it up and popped it in the bare spots in our remaining pots. So now our deck doesn't look quite so naked. Who knows, maybe next spring, instead of a trip to our favorite nurseries, we'll go "shopping" at the compost heap.
Bringing the garden inside for the winter
The one nice thing about winter's arrival, and having to say goodbye to the garden, is that some of it can come indoors. This bowl of succulents thrived all summer and even survived the first night of frost (we forgot to cover it!) but now it's safely tucked inside near a sunny window. We're hoping it will survive a winter inside and be able to take its place on the bridge baluster once again in the spring.
Autumn's first frost
We made it to the end of October before our first frost. We covered quite a few of the pots so the porch and decks still have some color, but the leaves are falling and the garden is fast going to sleep for the winter.
Deeper into Autumn
Please click to enlarge. Stunningly beautiful! Nice to have neighbors with gorgeous trees!
Octoberfest
October 4, and the garden designer has declared that the entryway is perfect - just as he envisioned it. (We won't tell him that the assistant gardener took some clippers to the willow on the right, or no visitor would be able to pass...Hmmm...maybe that was his intention?)
Mum is the word...
September is quickly coming to an end, and today we "replanted" our scraggly petunias in the compost heap and replaced them with gorgeous fall mums. With the air crisp and our hands in the dirt, for a minute it almost felt like spring again. But autumn is my second favorite season, so we're savoring every minute.
September peaches...just for looks
We planted this Bonfire Dwarf Peach tree two years ago and I think it's been the best $25 we ever spent on the yard! Gorgeous pinkish blooms in spring, deep purple palm-like leaves, and late in the summer, hiding underneath, perfect little peaches (that don't taste very good, but look luscious!) These dwarf trees get about 10 feet tall, and this one is close to halfway there now.
Rearranging the garden...furniture
We rearranged some furniture in the house, which brought a garden bench from our bedroom out to the front porch, which brought this cafe set (an anniversary present from my husband a few years ago) out to a corner on the back deck. I love it here. It's the first thing I see when I look outside every morning, and it always seems to be inviting me to come out and enjoy the day.
September rains
A cool September morning and we're getting a gentle rain here in Kansas. My favorite thing about rain here is that the rainspout sets off the "fountain" Ken fashioned from a holey rock. A simple concept, but really neat to watch.
We'd just about given up on the Confetti Lantana in the pot and I'd started to fill in with ivy and coleus cuttings. Wouldn't you know it...when those took off, so did the lantana. It's a beautiful combination - one of my favorite pots of this summer.
Prairie grasses
The prairie grasses along the fence are headed out and so top heavy they keep falling over. Recent rains haven't helped. They look lovely and graceful swaying in the breeze, but they are a pain to mow around. We have several varieties including Big and Little Bluestem, Side Oats Gramma, Prairie Dropseed, Dallas Blues, Indian Grass (the tallest, most prominent grass you see in the photo above) and probably some other varieties I'm forgetting. The grasses really are the stars of the landscaping.
Coral Bells and Blue Mist Spirea
The Blue Mist Spirea is blooming much earlier than last year, which seems odd given our very late spring. We've really enjoyed the Coral Bells this year, too. We have two different varieties, one just planted this year, and the other a year or two older. They really add some nice contrast in the garden and remain attractive into the fall and winter.
Crouching kitten, hidden roses
A scene from our late-August garden. Things are so much greener and prettier than they usually are this time of year, thanks to an abundance of rain and unseasonably cool weather.
Overgrown entryway
The front entry is turning out just like the master of the house envisioned it: over-grown and just a little wild. When it gets to the point where a thin man can no longer get through without a machete, I think the mistress of the house might have to sneak out and take some pruning shears to the willow. In the meantime, it is rather pretty.
August, and it's cool!
What an amazing summer we've had. We finally got some triple-digit days the first week of August, but now, on the 8th and 9th, we've had clouds, rain, and temps barely reaching eighty. Today's high was 75! What a treat.
Foggy July morning
Today is the last day of July and I must say I have never seen a more unusual July than 2008's has been! Lots of rain, and a few evenings that were actually chilly. We've only had a couple of triple digit days this month, too.
Yesterday I actually sat out on the patio at a restaurant for a noon lunch with a friend!
And this morning we woke up to thick fog. These photos don't quite capture it, but it was so beautiful, lying over the garden like a veil, and making the colors of the flowers and grasses extra brilliant.
[As always, with any of the photos on this blog, you may click on the picture to get an enlarged view.]
Rare July rainbow
It's not often we get a rainbow in July...it's not often we get rain in July. But we got both, and this was a stunning, span-the-sky double rainbow.
Determined Dahlberg Daisies
The Dahlberg Daisies have seeded themselves into our yard for the second summer in a row, and I must say they are even more delightful popping up where they please than they were when we planted them in pots. Plucky little patches have popped up in half a dozen spots between the pavers on the back patio and they are in full, glorious bloom in mid-July.
A riot of color
July 9 and the garden is in its prime. The wildflowers along the fence are in full bloom. We have wild bergamot, cupflower, coneflowers in two colors, wild verbena, and a few things we can't identify. Whatever they are, they are lovely, and we are enjoying every minute of watching them bloom. Click on the photo for a larger view.
What (who) the garden was made for
At the end of June our two little grandsons (and their mommy and daddy) came for a week-long visit. The weather was perfect and we were thrilled to get to spend lots of time outside with them. This is the yard at its best, filled with the people we love.
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