Yesterday, I did some real gardening (as opposed to watering pots to keep them from dying) for the first time since I came back from Gathering. Everything has gotten very tall, and rather sprawly, so I used the political sign wires I'd rescued the day before to prop things up. However, though the beds are a bit weedy, the deep mulch made the weeds and excess plants mostly easy to pull up. Considering the neglect, things survived pretty well, though I lost a few seedlings and one cool double black eyed susan that had mysteriously landed in the middle round bed, and which was ailing by the time I'd discovered it, rats.
Coneflowers and daisy fleabane, with a few cosmos to the left, and mustards & black eyed susans to the right.
Except, of course that I have no decent pix of any of them. But here's the list, for the record:
- Silago canadensis
- Silago rigida (?)
- ironweed
- Eupatorium maculatum (spotted joe-pye weed)
- woodland sunflower
- Japanese anemone
The black eyed susans are at their peak, as is the echinacea. The following are mostly tailing off, though still in bloom (mostly because I've cut them back, in some cases aggressively):
- daisy fleabane
- monarda
- marsh mallow?
- phlox
- bachelor's buttons
- veronica
- spiderwort
- knautia
Daisies and daylilies are done, as is the astilbe (though the chinese astilbe is still going). The hydrangea blooms are turning brownish-pinkish white, how pretty and autumnish. Cranesbill has put out a second flush of very nice growth but of course no flowers. The evening primrose puts out a bloom now and then, but mostly serves as a magnet for Japanese rose beetles. In fact, I think they like the primroses better than roses, which means these imported pests have adapted nicely to our ecology, thank you very much. Now if only the birdies would get with the program of eating them (which I gather they're slowly learning to do—another reason to avoid pesticides.)
File originally created 15aug. Updates 16aug.
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
