Garden Happenings

A few notes from my garden to keep in mind for next year:

• The basil from the Maplewood Garden Club plant sale has been great in the front. Oregano and rosemary also did fine there, but I used them farrrrr less frequently.
• The back plot needs more plants with height. The foxglove is good but short when not blooming.
• Begonias did great in the back plot and the lungwort has been a terrific performer.
• The front needs larger plants. I love the brachyscome and portulaca, but they're very small. 
• The verbena, of which I think I planted 5-7, did a great job filling in and bloomed all summer, so that's a winner if you can do enough of them to get a mass effect. But again, very short plants.

Anenome has still not bloomed, though buds have long been present

Basil, portulaca

Brachyscome, portulaca

The crepe myrtle is blooming

Lavender, artemesia, brachyscome

The mini-lilac is blooming again! Did not see that coming.

This is not from my garden - it is a fungus in the reservation. But isn't it pretty?

Nameless inspirations

This flower, at my mom's care home in England on Aug. 6, might be a cheery addition to my garden.

And while this is a wildflower in upstate New York on Aug. 20, I think it is the same one that blooms prolifically around the marshes to the west of NYC, which I looked admiringly at from a train in late July and early August.

Garden happenings

This unnecessarily large katydid was perched on the sun umbrella on our back patio a few days ago. By morning it was gone, much to my relief. Bugs....I don't love them.

Emma and I did some weeding, pruning, and deadheading today.

The salvia is having some secondary flowers so I deadheaded them to see whether that helps encourage more blooms. The dead heads had a ton of seeds - note for next year in case I want to save them.

This is the house on the east side of Wyoming Ave., just south of South Orange Ave., that has a lovely overflowing garden in front. I thought the pink flowers in the back were pretty and would look great in my garden. They're quite tall.

They had some echinacea leaning up against these unobtrusive little fences, which I thought was a good solution to the plants falling down as mine are.

This moth was on the outside of our solarium window a week or so ago, and I photographed its underside from inside the house. Pretty! Now go away, you creepy insect.

Finally, I spotted a purple finch outside the solarium this past week. No photo.

It's not safe to be a squirrel

A couple weeks ago there was a dead squirrel in our yard with one of its front limbs ripped off. Grisly. We called the town's animal control office and the very nice Melanie came and bagged it and carted it off. She suspected a fox killed it.

Today, a red-tailed hawk swooped onto the ground outside the solarium, and flew into a tree a few seconds later, then off northwards a few seconds after that. No time for a photo, but in going out to investigate, I found another dead squirrel. So either the hawk killed it and left it there, or the dead squirrel attracted the hawk. Melanie again came by and removed it. She was surprised to see no marks on it.

I think we all know how I feel about the squirrels so I'm just hoping that whatever is killing them likes it here. Welcome, squirrel assassin(s).

Gaps in the front landscaping

This pic just shows some of the spots where I could plant next year (and bulbs!) where there currently isn't anything.

Garden happenings

Despite earlier attack by what might have been a deer, the echinacea is now blooming beautifully.

And this is a balloon flower, which also got chomped on a while back but has likewise recovered. It is pretty but it looks way too much like the perennial geraniums that cover a lot of the bottom of the hill. Side note: this is one of the many species that did not appear on the list of things Birch Hill was going to plant, but here they are! 

Below some views of the front yard.

Verbena in front.

Again verbena. Portulaca on left. Lavendar and peony as you move back.

Artemesia, brachyscome, basil. The basil has been great. Lots of pesto!

Brachyscome and portulaca.

Portulaca.

Remember the late-blooming rhododendrons? Well hold onto your hat when you look at THIS: the magnolia tree is now blooming. IN JULY. It's the end of the world as we know it.

Forgive the photo taken through the window screen.

Wildlife

First, I must lament that I found an abominable squirrel munching this week on my portulaca. All non-chalant, he was. It was infuriating.

But this was nice - just before I took this picture, the dove was all huddled down and looked exactly like a rock in the wall. It was sort of amazing.

And then these two splendid deer were undeterred by heavy rain this morning and ate their way across our back wall.