Once again it is time to share what is going on in our gardens with the rest of the garden blogging community. This is a lovely tradition begun and carried on by Carol over at May Dreams Gardens. Aside from the fact that this monthly meme allows me to realize just how fast time is passing, it also gives me a chance to visit other people’s gardens via the miracle of the internet.
It is a rainy day here, so our plans to work on the wall around the new strawberry bed are put on hold for the nonce. We are not going to complain about some much needed fall rain. It will make the apples and plums and grapes happy to put on fruit next spring to get well watered in the fall.
Fall is definitely arriving here, our tomatoes are winding down and I have harvested the winter squash. We have 29 butternut squashes curing in the back room. Soon I will be bringing in the sweet potatoes, which did quite well this year.
Below is a view of my container garden just outside the kitchen door. A while ago, Gardening Gone Wild had a photo contest about containers which I didn’t even bother to enter. My containers are plebian and pedestrian, not created for accessorizing the garden or to provide a patch of color, but to provide me with food and entertainment. The fact that they are nice looking is secondary to their function as vegetable garden adjuncts. These containers are sporting hot peppers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes. The marigolds are there more as companions to the tomatoes than as ornamentals, although they serve that function nicely. Okay, okay, there is a moonflower vine in there, so the whole thing isn’t completely utilitarian.
Observe the little red spot that is resting on the bar of the pergola to the right. Let’s just get a closer shot of that, okay?
Look? Isn’t that sweet? A little tomato resting next to a couple of purple hyacinth beans. What could be more delicious? “But, why is that tomato up there and not on the plant?” you might ask. Let’s just investigate the situation.
Suddenly, it doesn’t all look so innocent, does it? It is evidence of a crime, a stolen fruit eaten right in front of the kitchen window by some brazen squirrel. I tell you, their days are numbered here at The Havens. But why did the little tree rat not finish off the evidence? What could have disturbed this snack?
Maybe cats are good for something after all.
I claimed that fall has arrived; I suppose I should present some evidence of the fact. Back by the barn, the rugosa rose has begun the fall round of blossoms it always puts on after the weather cools and we start getting the fall rains. What I like about this time of year is the presence of the fruit ripening from the earlier spring bloom at the same time the plant is blooming anew.
My fall bulbs have started their display. There are colchicums blooming in front and back, if you want to see pictures of them blooming, follow the link, I’m trying to keep this post to a manageable size.
I’ll give you a couple of quick looks at the Stroll garden. You are getting a full vista of the whole garden first, followed by a close up of the Petite Prairie. Notice the exuberant hibiscus in the foreground. That area is the rain garden, and I have to say it is looking quite beautiful all dressed up in its asters and coreopsis.
The sweet autumn clematis on the arbor over the Hosta Dell is in full swing. There are hundreds of bees and wasps and butterflies enjoying it right now. Notice the hardy hibiscus making a play for attention on the left. It is absolutely amazing right now, largely due to the fact that when Jim emptied the swimming pool he ran the drain hose into the rain garden basin and the hibiscus liked all that steady moisture delivered right to its roots.
The sedum garden next to the Thyme Walk is really looking good. The plants are starting to fill in and colonize the gravel mulch. It is very busy with pollinators too.
I’ve been busy cleaning up the vegetable garden. I planted the first wave of winter salad greens, and you can just see them coming up in the foreground of this view of the whole shebang.
Back in the rear of the garden are the salad greens that were left over from the early summer planting. We’ll be able to eat off these until frost while the babies in the front are growing and getting ready for the cold frames to go over them.
The chard row is a work of art right now.
I recently mentioned that we harvested our four basil plants and got two pounds of leaves off them, which we made into pesto. This is the part of one plant that we did not harvest because the bees were so happy with the flowers we couldn’t bear to deprive them of all the blossoms, despite the fact that there were grapes and sedums and zinnias and marigolds for them to eat.
That is six inch welded wire mesh making the tomato cages, just in case you are looking for scale. If you turn around and check out the torch tithonia, you’ll see why I always have at least one “pet” tithonia on the place. Aside from the amazing color, the pollinators love this flower and the monarch butterflies also utilize them while they are migrating through.
Step outside the vegetable garden gate, and you have a view of the pond. It looks very shaggy and wild, largely due to the jerusalem artichokes, tall prairie coneflower and goldenrod that are blooming on the left side. Heck, the asters on the right don’t look very preposessing either.
Well, the reason I have this area is for the wildlife, and they are enjoying this fall nectar source to the fullest.
Back behind the pond, the bittersweet is making its fruit. Behind you can see the heart shaped leaves of the pipe vine, which I have planted in hopes that the beautiful Pipe vine butterfly will come and colonize The Havens. If you build it, they will come.
Another thing that is going on back there is moon flowers. Some days there are just one or two blossoms. Other times, more. Whatever the number, it is a spot worth checking out every evening at sundown.
Another thing that is happening behind the pond is the raccoon grapes (Ampelopsis cordata Michaux), which are ripening. These are such interesting fruits because they change colors several times while they ripen, and the berries often sport several colors in a bunch. While the grapes are not edible for humans, the birds love them. They make a great green wall and I love looking at the berries. Additionally, they do not support the fungi that attack the wine grapes, so we can let them grow without harboring a disease vector.
Well, that’s about all I have time to share with you. The rain has let up and I think I’ll get out there and continue with the cleaning up of the day lily beds I began on Sunday.
Thanks for visiting, and hope you have time to check out some of the other participants in Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
Lovely pictures as always. Thanks for sharing, hmh.
My dad brought his dogs when he visited on the weekend, that is the only time that I have been free of squirrels in the garden. I need some “security guards” to patrol the boundry fence and keep our those critters. (A losing battle, obviously).
Just wondering how tall your tomato cages are, I am very bad at counting the squares. My tomatoes got to the top of their 6 foot stake and then fell down again, so I need taller.
The tomato cages are five feet tall.
Thanks for opening up your garden for us this month, what a lovely visit. I especially liked the shot of the yellow and red swiss chard and of course the sweet autumn clematis having it’s way with the pergola.
Happy Bloom Day!
Love your chard row
Aren’t they luscious? And so tasty and good for you, too.
Hiya,
I know my eyes are going funny, but what is up with your pix?
They are all fuzzy wuzzy. Have you changed anything, or is it really me?
Thanks for the magic words of commiseration.
After your ‘rococo’ accusation I have played around with the commenting function. (I take things oh so seriously
See if it suits you. On the grouch page.
Ah, the purple beans have come thru. Thank goodness it isn’t me.
Boy, that is some purple. Edible you say?
Never mind the containers for plants, what is that stacked up so nicely in the background, against the fence?
Sorry, I can’t take this: too many healthy leaves.
And everything so neat and tidy.
ah, good. I just spotted something that I can identify with: Moon flowers you call them? Not bindweed? Hmmm. Calystegia sylvatica/sepium? Always thought of as a pernicious weed, but really rather nice? Seeing that I never managed to eradicate it, I embraced it as a sort of semi-friendly plant. Afterall it holds up weaker neighbours if you twiddle it around them and a stake. My standards keep on dropping.
Your bittersweet (ours is called Solanum dulcamara) is very different from ours. The berries look much more compact and less orangey than yours. I would take a picture, but they have dropped off.
That Autumn clematis, does it support itself, or is it draped over a tree? I don’t know that one.
Enjoyed my visit.
Sounds like it takes a while for your computer to download the whole image, that’s why the pictures are fuzzy at first.
I did notice how much easier it was to comment on your blog this time, thanks for the changes.
The purple hyacinth beans are edible. The ripe beans make a very good soup, the young pods are tasty but not sweet like the string bean varieties. They don’t stay purple when they are cooked, they go green. I like to put the young pods into salads for a spark of color.
What you are seeing against the fence is an art installation of abalone shells that was part of Jim’s “inheritiance.” The family used to go rock picking for the protein source, and all the shells were saved. When Jim’s mother died, everybody took the few shells they wanted, and then he hauled the rest of them home. After a while, it became clear that we needed to do something with them other than stack the boxes in the garden shed. A better picture of the abalone wave is here: http://healingmagichands.wordpress.com/2006/11/15/me-also-saved-by-meme/
The only reason things look so tidy in this post is because I don’t put up pictures of the places that aren’t tidy. And believe me, I have plenty of holy hostas, all those sweet potato vines are full of holes too. Make sure you look hard at the picture of the eggplant blossom, the leaves are full of flea beetle holes.
These moon flowers are Ipomoea alba, a member of the genus that includes morning glories, sweet potatoes and the Hawaiian wood rose. They are annuals, and perhaps my picture does not indicate the scale of these flowers, which are six inches in diameter. Bindweed (which is a pernicious obnoxious perennial weed with horrible roots) is Convolvulus.
The sweet autumn clematis does not support it self. It is climbing the legs of the pergola and spread all over it. I have seen the same plant covering 15 feet of fence row, it is important to keep it in control. It is pretty easy to cut it off near the bottom and let it climb the next season from the root stock. It is a “nothing” plant, although it does provide shade in the summer, until it suddenly erupts into the mountain of bloom as frost nears. It reseeds itself viciously.
You have a lot going on in the garden now. It all looks lovely, but I’m most enamoured with the red and yellow Chard. It looks too good to eat.
Thank you for this tour of your garden, MagicHands! It is truly amazing! The photos of the bees are stunning; I know they’re not easy to capture–I’ve tried:) I am lucky not to have much of a problem with squirrels–the three outdoor cats here must keep them away. On the other hand, Sophie, the Golden Retriever, has found that tomatoes make a good substitute for her play balls:) Oh well, I have enough to share. I hope you’ll send some of that rain to the east of you!
I have a question on the last pic of the raccoon grapes. Is that plant also known as porcelain vine, and is it invasive in your area?
Ampelopsis cordata is the scientific name of this vine. It is not actually a grape. I do not know if it is called porcelain vine, the common names that my guide give to it are false grape and heartleaf ampelopsis. It is not classified as invasive here because it is a native, and I guess that even very aggressive plants are not labelled “invasive” when they are native to the area. However, the guide points out that this vine can pull down sall trees from its weight and competes with canopy trees for sunlight, and is not recommended for growing as an ornamental because of its aggressiveness.
I guess you call them aggressive rather than invasive when they are natives! Anyway, the one I have was planted for me by the birds and it has plenty of competition from the true grapes it shares the fence with, and so far has not tried to pull down any trees.