Some successes

Coleus on front porch.

This coleus was so great that I am attempting to root a cutting so that next spring I can root eight cuttings and thereby bypass actually having to purchase it again. It's not that I want to short change the local nurseries, but with my kind of luck, they won't have it.

(I just looked at its tag. The name is Coleus Velvet and it is supposed to be a DWARF plant, growing only 12" tall. As my great uncle Ditlev used to say, HA!)

Strawberries, although they are NOT everbearing. Jung Seeds, I'm talking to you!

As recommended by Square Foot Gardening, I ordered everbearing plants and crammed them into one 4'x4' bed. The first hint that these were not everbearing was the shear abundance of runners. The second hint was the total lack of a second crop. It will be interesting to see what happens next spring: a humongous crop or, due to the crowding, nothing.

(There is a third option. I grew fennel in the bed next door and not knowing any better, let it go to seed. Too late, it leaned over the strawberry bed, dropping seeds that, as I understand it NOW, will grow willy nilly everywhere. So next year my strawberry bed may become a fennel bed.)

Asparagus. I think I'll be able to harvest some next year.

Also per Square Foot Gardening, I stuffed this bed with asparagus roots, which grew and spread and grew some more. (You can barely make out the pink flamingo in the near right corner.) I tried to corral the plants with an old rickety stretch of mini-picket fencing. Next year I will have to replace that with something more sturdy. And rabbit-proof.

Manure.

I'm a slow compost kind of person: I pile all my yard waste into these tired old bins, then dig out the compost the following spring. This year I layered some extra manure into the piles, and the piles cooked down to half their size in a few weeks. Lesson learned.

Other successes: first year for raspberries (also from Jung - wonder what variety they will turn out to be), grown-from-my-own-slips sweet potatoes, garlic (except for the one soft neck). The three redbud trees survived that heavy spring frost and no longer look like sticks. The herbs I planted grew like gangbusters, then went to waste as I was too tired from watering to make use of the chives and basil and dill.

I planted sunflowers here and there around the yard (note to self: do NOT plant them by the patio where they block the view). While listening to The Spendid Table the other day, I heard the interviewees describe being served sunflower seeds (in Japan? China?) - the whole sunflower head was laid on the table and the guests picked out the seeds themselves. Today I found a couple of heads seemingly unscathed by bird or chipmunk and brought them in, for my own dining pleasure.

Bon appetit!

It's autumn

There is a single male cardinal who hangs around the patio, complaining bitterly because he cannot get to the sunflower seeds when the heads are hanging low. I've seen my "pet" chipmunk climb the stalks, but I'm not sure he can get at the seeds, either. Once the seeds ripen up a bit more, I will pull up the plants and lay the heads on the patio table.

Now for the newbies: under the bird feeders, one New England aster 'Purple Dome' and two clumps of Little Bluestem 'Blue Heaven', plus a transplanted leggy pink aster whose identity will remain forever a mystery, 'Wild Romance'.

Arbor Farms sends me a gift card each year for my birthday, entitling me to a free perennial. This year I chose the New England aster.

And because the unwritten rule of freebies requires that I check out the rest of the plants, I also selected the Little Blue Stem. And because there were only two left, I had to take them both or they would have been lonely.

I had considered moving the bird feeders over the rhubarb patch, but decided birds pooping on something I eat did not sound very appetizing. I let some pokeweed grow behind the rhubarb, and those plants are loaded with ripening berries. Too bad the robins abandoned my yard months ago.

Too bad I did not get a photo of the 'Clara Curtis' painted daisy in their prime, as every fall they take over this bed on the south side of the house. I have plans for the bed next year: remove the mildewed peonies, the erratic climbing rose, the iris that won't bloom; move the lilies and day lilies; and plant a drought-resistant prairie plant collection. I'm sure some of the 'Clara Curtis' will survive.

I don't have much luck with chrysanthemum, but the ones I planted last year are just incredible.

Well, two of them are. The third one did not make it through the winter.

The 'Autumn Joy' sedum started in this bed, got moved around a bit, found their way back last year, and look very thankful to be home again. Keeping them watered during droughts makes a difference, I guess. That is 'Dragon's Blood' sedum growing below it.

This was my first year growing pineapple sage. The plants did great, but by the time they bloomed, the hummingbirds were long gone.

I also did not realize pineapple sage was an annual when I purchased it. If I grow it next year, I will locate it in a sunnier spot, in hopes of earlier bloom.

Crocosmia is not supposed to bloom in the fall, but weird weather sometimes causes weird plant behavior.

Although we have had a couple of frosts already, they have not been severe enough to kill much. Yet. I harvested the sweet potatoes this weekend (good crop!) and am putting the rest of the vegetable garden to bed for the season. I just need to remember to plant the garlic in November.