Wordless Wednesday…
Fall bloomers and a few surprises…
As temperatures drop and it begins to look a little like fall here in Central Texas, new things are blooming in the garden.
There are the traditional plants, like these beautiful mums.
They disappear during the scorching hot summer, but puff up and explode with flowers when it starts to get chilly outside.
And there are the Mexican Mint Marigolds with their beautiful yellow blooms and the Fall Asters that I wrote about two posts ago, all reliable fall bloomers.
There was beautiful light when I went out with the camera this morning.
The oak in the front yard was aglow like a flaming tree with its golden leaves in the rising sunlight. We have so little fall color here because it’s just not cold enough, so we really appreciate it when we see it!
But I was surprised to find these Shasta Daisies in the cutting garden — blooming for the second time this year.
And the roses are loving this cool weather — especially my Katy Road or Carefree Beauty rose.
Another sign of fall — dead things! I’d better get out there and remove all these seeds from this dead morning glory vine or I won’t have any cutting flowers at all in the spring as they will be choked out by vine-y groundcover!
And these precious little Marigolds came from seeds and volunteers in the vegetable garden, where I plant them to keep bad bugs off the tomatoes. I simply moved them to the cutting garden where they are very happy.
Any fall surprises in your garden today?
Halloween
I’m testing a new version of iPhoto — and this lovely photo of my daughter on Halloween is my test item!
Signs of fall in my garden…plants and projects…
There are several signs of fall in my Central Texas garden. The Mexican Mint Marigold is in full bloom after a summer of green. I can always count on their bright and cheerful flowers after the temperatures begin to cool.
The fall asters are look like lavender firecracker bursts with the fine little petals.
The end of summer also brings out these sunflowers – Helianthus Maxmilliani. They are rather leggy this year from getting too much shade under the oak trees, but I still love their statuesque 6 feet tall form.
Blooms are the only thing that comes with the fall garden. As the temperatures drop, I get the itch to start a garden project…or two!
This little bed on the edge of our woods was pure happenstance. After laying out the bed below, I had quite a bit of leftover recycled glass and decided to make use of it, clearing out little understory scrub oaks and cedars and making a proper place for the birdbath that was tucked in the brush.
But this was the real project. This very large terra cotta pot (not my favorite) had been sitting at the edge of the woods gathering dead leaves, because I kept forgetting to water it and the deer kept eating my plants.
So I decided to move it to the crushed granite path entrance as a focal point and surround it with some recycled glass so it would look like a pond leading into the dry river rock dry creek.
Inside it, I planted a volunteer agave, from a passalong given to me by Phillip of East Side Patch . (One of many, I might add! He’s renown for sharing his agaves.)
And the small river rock outlining the tributary came as a donation from my neighbors — left over from a project they did and sitting by the side of the road with grass growing in it! I asked to buy some and they gave it to me.
With the free rock, $5 worth of recycled glass from the city, and old pot and a volunteer agave, this was designing on a budget! My only real cost was labor for the help I had hauling and spreading the rock.
I’m happy with the result, and now I have some more space in the accidental bed for planting! Imagine that!
While we’ve had temps down to 40, the days can still get up to 80 here, so we have about another month to garden here.
What’s on your fall project list? Or is fall already over for you?
Who knew?
Who knew?
Well, maybe you knew!
But I sure didn’t.
This is an Aralia that I planted two or three years ago. And this is apparently the beginning of a beautiful bloom stalk. I had no idea it would bloom.
I can’t wait to see what it looks like when each bud is open.
Do you have an aralia? Did you know?
