Still Blooming

     September is one of my favorite times of the year and while there are a lot less flowers blooming in my yard, I still found quite a few. The dahlias and zinnias are especially blooming well now. I decided to dig up my beloved Hansa roses, which makes me a little sad. The leaves have been plagued with a mysterious problem for three years in a row, and this year they had black-spot as well so they were looking less than lovely, to say the least. They had also outgrown their space. I am trying to save a small section of it that looked healthy and will see if that carries over the leaf problem or not.

     Last year I grew two tomato plants from seed that I had saved from store bought grape tomatoes, and they all grew and tasted like the original tomatoes. Since I still had a few seeds left, I grew them again this year. While one of the plants produced grape tomatoes, the other one produced larger tomatoes. They are pretty tasteless so I am saving them for recipes instead of fresh eating. I knew that I was taking a chance on that hybrid seed coming true but it is fun to experiment. 

Dahlia 'Blue Boy"

Dahlia Crazy Love

Figaro Dahlia grown from seed

Grape tomatoes

Balloon flower

Bleeding Heart 'luxuriant'

Chrysanthemum

Cosmos and Sedum

Feverfew

Hibiscus 

Hollyhock

Soraya Sunflower, the blooms are all small now

Morning Glory

Perennial Sunflower

Persicaria

Russian Sage, not sure what's in the back

Sedum

Spirea

Zinnia

Oliver with Chester in the background

Autumn Garden

Here it is, October is nearly done and I still haven't blogged! So here are a few quick photos from this month. The star of my October garden is my burning bush, and here you can see the leaves, strewn across the pathway. I had no idea this would look so nice when I planted this shrub here. My only regret is that I can never see this bush from inside my house. Next up is a little chrysanthemum plant that I bought for 99 cents, well worth the price I think. Then there is the chrysanthemum from last year. It really did well this year for some unknown reason. Next is a solitary bloom from a Malva. I think it is a seedling from the Malva I bought last fall, which never overwintered. I'm still picking the grape tomatoes that are growing under cover, and I have two peppers left on my pepper plant. I'll definitely be growing these prolific peppers again next year. Our cat Tiger celebrated her 16th birthday a few weeks ago. That is about 80 in human years, and for the most part, she acts 80 too, ha ha.

Pathway strewn with Burning Bush Leaves

Burning Bush

Chrysanthemums

Chrysanthemums overwintered from last year

Chrysanthemums

Malva Braveheart

Red Bull's Horn Peppers

Little tomatoes still producing

Tiger on her 16th Birthday

Dew on the grass

November Garden

     The dreaded first frost of autumn has yet to arrive, but it won't be long now so I took a few photos of my castor plants yesterday just to give you a chance to see how very tall they are now. The second photo was taken when I was standing beneath them looking up. The funny looking seed pods haven't turned brown yet, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to save any seed. I picked a few of the pods and placed them underneath our garden shed, in hopes that the rodents will find them tasty (insert evil laugh) since they are very poisonous. Don't try this if you have young children or pets that are likely to find them.  

     The Burning bush, or euonymus is a deciduous shrub with fiery red leaves in the fall and my only regret is that I didn't plant it in a location that I can see from the windows of my home. 

     A couple of years ago I decided to grow some plants in our unused fire pit, with Japanese blood grass in the middle for the fire. It's still a young plant but I am happy that it has survived with the shallow soil and nearly solid bottom of the fire pit. 

    My grape tomato plant is still producing tomatoes (photo from October) but I noticed a bit of blight on it yesterday so I have to say goodbye to garden tomatoes for another year. My bell pepper plant is still alive too, and I even found a red pepper on it in a couple of weeks ago, but I think that will be the last of them. 

    This past summer I had the pleasure of talking to Dave Ledoux from the BackToMyGarden podcast and you can find my interview here if you are interested in listening: BackToMyGarden 

Castor Bean Plant

Castor plant

Burning Bush

Burning Bush 

Burning Bush

Japanese Blood grass among hens and chicks

Chrysanthemums

Dahlias 

Tomato plant

Mini Bell Peppers

Maple Fairy Garden

The Wall

     Well, I can hardly believe it but our retaining wall is finally done! With our old wooden wall, we had a mini mud slide every time it rained, and that was even before it fell down. Keeping our driveway clean at the bottom of our front steps was next to impossible. Now that I've finally gotten the mud cleaned up, I hope it will keep the inside of our house a bit cleaner too. The heather plants weren't very happy about being moved mid-bloom, and I probably lost a lot of bulbs, but I still think it was well worth it.
     My roses are blooming earlier than usual, along with some other flowers that usually bloom in June. I'm also sharing a photo of the plant that I bought for my mom for mother's day. I found the colours quite unique and beautiful for a Chrysanthemum. I hope you all have a lovely long weekend whether you're celebrating this weekend or the next!

Rose Hansa

Rose Therese Bugnet

Chrysanthemums

Choisya

Chives

Tulips Blue Diamond

Tulips Antoinette

Tulips Dream Touch