more cleanup

I have been attempting, this week, to clean up the garden beds and get them in shape for coming winter. Mostly because the compost bin in the back is full up and has been sitting there for over two years, and I hate the richness to go to waste. So I am working on pulling weeds, digging up and transplanting some perennial flowers into other spots in the yard, and spreading loads of dirt that I hauled home from someone's yard project over a month ago. One bag per bed. It doesn't cover with much depth, but tops it off enough that when I add the compost and then a layer of dry leaves, the beds will be full and can break down more over the cold season. So then in spring if I actually have the mental energy to plan and start a garden again, it will be ready.

It has felt satisfying to see the beds clean and dark soil again. It's mostly clay with some lumps I have to bread up, but I did throw a handful of compost with a few worms into each bag when got it home, so it's already started loosening up some.

I left a few nicotiana and borage in the corners of beds 1 and 4.

And the lovage is looking better now that the weather has cooled down.

I've been lifting off, digging out soil that sifted and straightening more of the edging bricks too, though most of the rows are not completely straight and still have a few crooked. You can see gaps here and there between them. Working on that gradually, a few at a time.

first freeze

was last night. I spent the last two days raking leaves and picking up more pin oak acorns out of the grass. Put some leaf litter/grass clippings mulch around and over some of my plants just as it was getting dark yesterday- the new rosemary, sweetspire, hyssop (which also got cut back to two inches), wild geraniums, lemon balm and tarragon, etc. 

A few days earlier I had spread the compost on all the garden beds- it was just barely enough. I didn't have any left over to feed the ferns, hostas or other yard perennials. Now I'll have to spend this afternoon cutting down the plants killed by frost, that just look icky- the coleus and celosia, the black tatters of leaves on monarda and joe pye stems. Other things that just look dried up, I'll leave be until spring. 

Pictures from compost spreading day, just because it looked so rich. Momentarily- as soon as this was done, I put leaf/grass mulch over the copmost layer. I could tell the soil had been neglected past two seasons- removing some weeds before spreading the compost, found the soil was hard, dry and somewhat compacted. Maybe that's why I haven't seen squirrels digging in the garden so much this year. I thought it was because the hawks and owls passing through our yard more often had taken some of them- but maybe also because the soil just wasn't as soft and inviting, when I hadn't been mulching and feeding it. Well, now it got that treatment again.

another angle- still just as empty.

There are some things still here, though- rue looks great, as if re-flourishing since its little trim

Borage coming up in bed one also has lovely bluish hue, robust leaves

Nicotiana in a few scattered spots

This tall one next to the dill has been blooming like crazy

other side

The dill is over my head again! I would cut the umbrels for more dried seed, but they're still green yet

Here's a smaller dill alone in bed three. 

A few small leeks in bed ten. I'd like to eat them, but want them to grow bigger first.

I cut some bug-riddled leaves out of the lovage, and that looks better now 

My new rosemary looks rather pale. I trimmed it a bit more (using for tea), the leaves look all faintly speckled as if from aphid bites . . . 

The blue sage still has tons of color, though quite a few flower stems are gone to seed now

I found a few bees on them- I think affected by the cold, because they were moving very slowly

but that allowed me to get quite close

I also brought in a lot of potted plants against the cold, and put the young beautyberries in the mini greenhouse to overwinter (never got around to planting them). More pics soon.

Why do I tend to forget how much I love gardening, until I'm out there again? Tidying things up, seeing the richness of the turned compost, digging my fingers through the soil, leaning against the sun-warmed bricks of the bed edges, just feel so content and happy in what I'm doing. It's good work.

a few things

in the garden- not much, but there is stuff growing. One blue collard from last year, actually producing since I took all the catmint out of bed eight. (Ate most of this with salmon and quinoa for dinner). There were green caterpillars. I plucked them all off, and fed the two smallest to Tucker.

Big soft leaves of nicotiana. The borage has succumbed to something - heat a few weeks ago, or insect onslaught- but the nicotianas are fine. Self-seeded into several garden beds and since I wasn't planting, I just let them be.

Some herbs that weren't looking so great at the end of summer heat, are doing better now- sculpit, which I cut back to remove all the funny balloon flowers- 

and winter savory in particular- this one so hard to get a good picture of. I'm considering giving it a severe cutback, trying to plant the main stem as a cutting, and restart the original plant branching out further down. Not sure if I will loose it, though. In spring, maybe.

I do miss having sage and rosemary. Will have to try again with those . . . 

Look at this surprise. Even though the plants are scrawny, got their leaves eaten continually by deer and/or rabbits, and look stricken from aphids or some other pest, there's quite a few skinny little beans forming.

And these two pods look like they actually might give me the beans. It's the kidney beans I planted on a whim one day, at the wrong time of year too. Ha!

july flowers

Some just beginning, others are near their end. My purple clematis bloomed a third round- though the flowers are very few. I had to prop up this last one for a picture, as the rain beat it down last night.

A yellow counterpart- at least, its shape seems similar to me: zucchini flower. If my zucchinis continue to rot (cucumbers right next to them are prefectly fine!) maybe I'll start eating the flowers instead.

Rue, yellow floating above the blue, also a bit crinkled from the rain.

Small yellow on the ground: cucumber flower.

Even smaller: tiny white flowers on my winter savory.

Also quite small- tiny purple trumpet-shaped flowers on the dark glossy plant I bought on a whim. Never found the tag again and I can't remember its name!

Up on the deck, a volunteer nicotiana. It grew out of the drain hole in a pot, that had trellis for my sweet peas. So I left the pot there, because it was so amusing (and pretty).

Pink trio of geraniums are flowering again, though they keep loosing leaves. Turn yellow, then brown, then drop. Am I watering too much? or not enough- are they drying out between rain spells.

Cardinal climber has crawled all over the planter boxes on that end of the deck railing. Swarming my parsley!

Most of the flowers are up top, here. I've trimmed some of the trailing vine ends- they are still looking for height- hoping the plant will branch more further down and fill in the trellis. I love how it's grown all through the balusters:

Tithonias are all flowering on the second sunny slope. Doing much better in this new spot!

Beautiful from the sideyard: gladiolas. The one salmon pink spray is from the new group.

Arranged in the house.

other plants

This is a pretty surprise- my hollyhock mallow is flowering!

Well, one of the two left alive. And can't really see the flower unless I get close and move a leaf. But maybe it will grow more.

More flowers- gladiolas are blooming!

And cardinal climber- although there aren't any in this picture- the plants grew more sparsely on the trellis than I expected. Maybe if I pinch out some of the vines up top which are winding all over the deck, they'll branch out more below. 

A hummingbird came to its flowers yesterday! It was a brief moment, but felt so magical, to watch it for a few seconds as it sipped from the red flowers, then zoomed away.

I think I missed the flowering of my milkweed on the sideyard. 

The plants have fat pods already, but they look unhealthy to me- black as if moldy. Haven't seen any caterpillars yet, but I did see a monarch in the echinacea patch the other day. I always expect them too soon!

Trimmed some stuff here recently. There's still way too much clover around the path, but I don't mind. Ajuga on either side is filling in quickly enough, and meanwhile I cut the clover periodically to use as garden mulch. 

I had to cut back the salvia from one side of the path. I like how the sedums look now.

In the bed around the pannicle hydrangeas, this plant I didn't recognize (these pics from two weeks ago)

has bloomed, and proven itself a stranger. It's gone skinny and tall, with small sky-blue flowers.

Hard to see among the salvia and nicotiana, except for their brightness.

There's also blue in my kid's part of the garden- blue sage flowering

And up on the deck, the pales of my geraniums, has bold red petals