Wordless Wednesday - September 18, 2019

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2019

 Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - September 2019!

Thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens, who hosts gardeners around the world every month!

https://www.maydreamsgardens.com/2019/09/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-september-2019.html

There are still LOTS of blooms in the September garden!

I'll try not to repeat the post before last, where I shared the Dollar Store seed successes. 
Still flowering are the

calendulas, corn poppies, rocket larkspur, Chinese forget-me-nots, cosmos (many, many cosmos!), black-eyed Susans, alyssum, and lance-leaf coreopsis.

Other September blooms include:

autumn crocus - not a crocus, Colchicum autumnale, which is in the lily family. 

 "Angel" Shasta daisies in their second flush of blooms - bachelor buttons are Dollar Tree seeds

 blanketflower - wintersown milk jug seeds

 good ol' dependable borage is in it's fourth generation this year

 Dittany of Crete oregano

The bracts of Dittany of Crete are prettier than the actual flowers!

 "Ellegance Snow" lavender - second bloom after cutting back

 four o'clocks and a few short type black-eyed Susans in the Toss Garden

 garlic chives - I've very proud of these, they were grown from seed last year, 

and this bunch was only two tiny plants!

 Mexican red sunflowers will last until the first hard freeze.

 morning glories had really slowed down

 nasturtiums

 oxeye sunflower (false sunflower) - I was thrilled when I saw this

 perennial had come up from a tossed seed!  They didn't germinate in the wintersown jugs.  

Another is crowded in the tomato plant, it will

be relocated.

 sulfur cosmos in the Butterfly Garden - unsure where this came from, 

I'm saving seed, but it's a very leggy plant, full of stems!

 Galeux D'Eysines squash - the "warty French" pumpkin.  

These seeds were planted in August, hoping for a late crop.

 wild basil - Clinopodium vulgare, formerly Satureja vulgaris - another "oh, boy, it grew!" 

In the Pollinator Garden I can only figure it grew from ungerminated seeds I gave up on in a wintersown milk jug.  I mistook it for beebalm until the actual beebalm bloomed near it!

 "Moonshine" yarrow - second bloom

feverfew in it's second bloom

 gaura - these are the small transplants, already big and blooming!

 "Gay Butterflies"  butterfly weed - the large parent plant is done, but the new ones
grown from last year's seeds are flowering now

 Up Tick coreopsis and lance-leaf coreopsis - the flowers on Up Tick are getting smaller
and smaller as the season progresses

 the last sunflower 😭

 a rose - unknown kind, it came with the house.  The flower makes it look
better than it is, I pruned the plant waaaay back last year, and it's not doing well.  It wasn't
doing well before, so that's no change though.

 "Mini Blue" lavender's second bloom

 "Red Riding Hood" penstemon - second bloom

 zinnia - last and least.  I know many, many gardeners love zinnias, but I don't.  

I find them dry.  They may as well be strawflowers for all the softness they have.  This is the last remaining one in my garden, I pulled the others out.  It survived by virtue of hiding in the tomato foliage!

Late Summer (or Early Autumn to Some!) Garden 2019

For me the first day of Autumn is the 23rd of this month.  That's according to the astronomical method.  The solstices and equinoxes are the turning points of the seasons.

But, with the meteorological calendar it started on September 1st.  Each season has exactly three months, so Autumn is September, October, and November. 

It does feel more like Autumn, although the days are still getting into the upper 80s, the nights are cooler.  The temperature is currently 86, but it feels much cooler, and we don't turn the AC on anymore.  

The garden is showing the season change.  

The squash vines are dying back.  The sunflowers are nearly dead.

I've pulled out the beans to make room for peas.

I got sick of seeing marigolds and four o'clocks, so they're gone too!

Carrots are coming in nicely.  The chard isn't.  

 

Peas are up, no sure how they'll do, they are hit or miss in my area.  There is one lemon cucumber plant left, putting out cucumbers like mad!

Mulch is going down.  

 

 Compost is being laid on the empty beds.  Here it's a steer manure blend compost.

 As the fence in the back is up, I've been planning how to position the many blocks and bricks still sitting on the carport.  I'm having to rethink the plan of growing against the chain link, using it as a trellis.  I'm not sure the new tall fence isn't shading that area too much.  It will be different at other times of year, so definite plans need to wait.  The materials can be moved back there though.

Bulbs are appearing in the stores, tempting me!  These were just from Winco, $2.98 a box.

Seed saving continues.  Here are sulfur cosmos.

  

Garden Gnomes are coming out into the open as the days cool down.

This little guy showed up a few days ago (courtesy of my son)!

And rats are getting cheeky in the shed, hunkering down for winter!

I got a new houseplant!  

Pilea peperomioides from Trader Joe's.  I am not a Trader Joe's shopper, but had some time to spare in the shopping area, so took a look around.  As soon as I went in, there this was, just sitting on the floor waiting for me!  The price signs were put up wrong, so I got it for half the going price!

Autumn is my favorite season, especially early Autumn, which it will be on the 23rd!

It may usher in Winter, which isn't so fun, but it's such a pretty season.  The colors, yes, but I also love the sunlight, the way it's at an angle or tilted, or how the Earth is I guess it should be.  Not straight overhead (which is why I can't tell right now where the sun will be at the fence in Spring and Summer!).