End of Summer in the Garden
With daylight savings, my time in the garden gets cut back drastically. It's fully dark by the time I get home. Growing slows down. I limit myself to light maintenance and watering.During the summer, it was a different story. This post covers the whole summer's garden activity, until about mid-October.
All in all a fairly high yield of plants bloomed despite the heat mid-summer.
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| black mondo |
The black mondo with its adorable lavender blooms is something I chose for my large, new redwood planter. I hope it spreads sideways.
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| sensitive plant |
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| sensitive plant |
When you touch the leaves, as I'm doing on the 2nd photograph, the leaves close up.
They don't last long so I'm trying to plant it into the ground, hoping it will spread and grow a bit.
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The asparagus fern thrives in sun or shade, little watering or through rain. This new, yellowish leaf sprouted and eventually turned green.
This one may also eventually live in the redwood planter since it can tolerate shade.
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| sea drift and verbena |
This cute sea drift didn't last long but looked cute while it lasted. I'll try this one again next time they return to the nurseries.
I use these marigolds to plant around my tomatoes and eggplants, as they serve as a natural, organic pest and animal repellant.
This hydrangea started growing from a branch cutting. Due to the shade in this spot, it grows slowly but surely.
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| dahlia |
I didn't expect the dahlia to bloom in late summer and fall, but it quickly sprouted up, rested on the adjacent lemon tree and bloomed.
My neighbor gave me cuttings of these succulents, which grow beautifully year round, it seems.
These shallow pots with mismatched, glazed saucers work well for starting off various succulents as well.
I combined several plants that grew in smaller pots. It will be fun to watch how they grow into each other as the plants get larger.
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| ice plant |
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| green, unripe guava |
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| rosa bianca eggplant, growing from seeds |
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| Japanese eggplant |
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| green, unripe tomatoes |
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| mint and shamrock |
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| lemon cucumber |
My curry plant grew a new floor or two! After a long period of shock, it's great to see the plant getting larger and healthier.
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| purslane |
Purslane appeared on its own in the yard and in some of the potted plants. With such graceful leaves, I let them grow wherever they'd like. It's always fun to have edibles to pick as well.
Ivy can never get accused of not being fertile. I've tried to eliminate the ivy from the front planter and side slope from day one, but it grows back in any little spot it can wedge itself into.
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| new trellis - at planting |
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| trellis after 3 months - with Black Eyed Susan vines |
The hefty trellis came up to serve as a makeshift screen against the neighbors' sewage pipes, storage area and den of coyotes!
Once again, in the shade, it's amazing how fast the sweet little Black Eyed Susans are filling in. The trick is to disentangle them from the neighboring bushes because they do tend to overtake everything in their way.
I'm grateful for all this activity as it gets colder, and plan to post another update for the next season or two.
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