Around The Garden

I haven't done Around The Garden in a while so I figured I had better do it this week or there will be nothing left!

This is the tree across the street from my home, pretty well into shutting down for the season.  But, I still have the last vestiges of summer going on at my place.

Comtesse De Bouchard is still blooming after deadheading about two months ago,

I clipped Fireworks here and there and this is what it is doing.  I should have clipped it more - next year.

This is a clematis that is blooming on the same trellis as Miss Bateman.  It looks a little like Bee's Jubilee, but I don't remember planting this back there.  I think I found it, John Paul II, remember planting it a few years ago and I thought it had died.

I have never seen Creeping Jenny turn this color before.  I know it winters over in zone 5, but in other areas of my garden it is just green.  This was growing in with my tuberous begonias - maybe a different variety.  I like it!

Nicotiana Alata did very well this year.  I think I will leave some standing this fall so it will reseed.

When I pulled this out it still looked pretty good.  I found the tag underneath the roots.  It is called Pineapple Splash - glad I was finally able to identify this lacy coleus.

Echinacea White Swan is still blooming.  This one has done much better this year than the pink ones.

When Eupatorium Chocolate blooms each fall I am glad to see it.  However, all summer long I look at this brown plant and it looks just boring next to all of the color.

Rudbeckia Denver is in my concrete containers still getting many new buds.  I am going to try to winter this over in the garden when I remove them in last part of November.  I think I will put them in the veggie garden with the very good soil.  They are a perennial, but I will be putting them in quite late.

I was really mad at the rabbits this year relentlessly eating Aster Purple Dome, but I think this is the best it has every looked.  This gives me the message that I should prune it down next spring if the rabbits don't do it for me.

The Orange Mango Hibiscus is still blooming on the patio.  I don't have room for them inside so it will not last much longer.

My Rainbow Knockout is the only rose I have left blooming.  My other Knockouts, pink, red, blush all have a disease called rose midge.  My Rainbows have not been affected, another reason to grow this rose!

Rainbow looks very nice when paired with Perilla.  The Perilla is an annual in zone 5 and related to the coleus family.

The Nasturtiums do not like intense heat but they love the weather we are having now, lush with many buds.  Too bad, they won't last through a frost.

Fall changes beginning on Little Henry's Garnet.  I have had many problems with this plant but this is the first year that I have seen the overall color changes and it looks healthy.

Echinacea Meadowbrite Mango still blooming amongst the mums, rudbeckia, cabbage, petunias and sedum

Look who's on my pansies, hope the dragonfly is okay.  There was no movement when I took the photo.

A Green Market Chef

Our second meeting of the fun garden group was yesterday!  As we all gathered in our host's beautiful home we were introduced to our talented chef who would not only prepare lunch for us but school us in the attributes of a green market restaurant.

Green Market cooking at home or operating a Green Market restaurant takes some planning.  It is difficult to do this for more than six months out of the year in our zone five.  I know you are thinking right now, I can get anything I want at the local grocery store or the organic supermaket.  Green Market means locally grown, no exposure to pestisides or pollutants such as gasoline or exhaust from the big shipping trucks.  I know this is difficult to attain but this is what our Green Market Restranteurs are trying to achieve.

Our chef studied in France and at the Culinary Institute in upstate New York.  He has his own restaurant called Socca in Chicago.

I know not everyone is into growing vegetables but just think about how much you can control when you are growing them in your own garden.

The lunch was prepared in our host's home and then transported to the Historical church a few door from this home.  Our appetizer was a sweet potato and apple soup with asparagus wrapped in proscuitto. 

On to lunch at a vintage church hall that was saved by the community a few years back.  Our garden club has been instrumental in helping with a redo on the landscaping.  This is an ongoing project and will continue next spring.

The church was built in 1900 by German immigrants for their congregation.  It is a carpenter - Gothic stlyle building. 

Through the years it has served as a church, office space and a preschool.  The Historical Society led a successful effort to save the church from demolition.

After two years and a one million dollar mostly privately funded renovation the church was granted historic status and put on the National Register of Historic Places.  It reopend in 2008 and is now used for multiple community functions.



The beautiful stained glass windows are throughout the church, on both sides and up in the balcony.

Spinach, greens and a brined seared chicken, with a pumpkin and yogurt mini quiche on top, yum, yum!  The dessert was to die for, a bread pudding made with croissants drizzled with chocolate and topped with whipped cream.

Our chef Roger and his assistant busily put the finishing touches on lunch in the church kitchen.

Gardening Can Bring You Back In Time

As my doorbell rang, you know the Reggie dog is racing for the door and I am calling my husband for help and trying to catch the dog before opening the door.  There is a nice lady standing there with two apples in a plastic bag asking about my big hydrangea out in front.  I told her it was Limelight and she stated she was having several put in that she bought at Home Depot.  Oh, she also asked for a cutting of Limelight and I told her to take one that didn't face the house because I am leaving quite a few on this year for winter interest.

Before she left I asked her name and when she told me I recognized it as one that I had met at least twenty-five years ago when shopping with my daughter.  I said we went to high school together didn't we, and after exchanging information we both stood there in shock!

In the past year I have met several people at the garden clubs that are out of my young adult past and we have thoroughly enjoyed going over old memories and catching up on what we do now.  Gardening is not only for a lifetime but it brings people together with a common bond.

She didn't see the Unique Hydrangea around the corner.

As she handed me the apples I said, let's get together and talk, she is a poet and I am a garden blogger what better combination could you have!

A Re-Do For The Front Garden

I usually write about what I have blooming around the garden for Fertilizer Friday but today I am going to show you what I bought on my trip to the nursery.  This nursery is the farthest from my home so I have not been there since the spring.

We're here and I am ready to buy because I have changes to make.

Our host was waiting for us!

Take a look at those spheres and obelisks and grasses.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for choosing some plantings for my front garden renovation.  As I looked over the shrubbery there was a person behind me with a name badge.  I asked her if she worked there, so I could ask her for a recommendation and she informed me that she owned a garden center in Milwaukee and was there for a group meeting.

The asters always look so good in the pots, but I have never had much luck growing them in the garden, except for my Purple Dome.

We talked about hydrangeas and all of the different varieties.  We both said we were not thrilled with Endless Summer and she said the growers are now suggesting that it not be cut down and mulched up to eight inches in the fall.  I was looking for Incrediball but she suggested I wait on that one because in her nursery they were very floppy in the pots, maybe they would be more upright when in the ground!

We both fell in love with a new hydrangea called Tickled Pink, beautiful color pink - bright, not faded.

I wanted a small shrub for in front of my evergreen plantings and she recommended Weigela Dark Horse, 2-3 feet tall and wide with dark bronze leaves and bright pink flowers.  I bought two of them, a little pricey but I think they will add some color out in front.

Foliage of Weigela Dark Horse from spring through fall.

I walked over to the the grasses with a real employee of the nursery looking for a small miscanthus that would stay about three feet high and I loaded two Miscanthus Little Kitten on to my cart.  I just love that name! 

Miscanthus Little Kitten

I couldn't pass up that new, most mildew resistant phlox called Candy Store Bubblegum.  Well, now I have to do all of the grunt work, pulling out and replanting.  Isn't this what gardening is all about?

Candy Store, Variety Bubblegum Phlox

This is a great time of year to purchase containers, fifty percent off at this nursery!

A sea of mums 

 I love those earth tone pots!

I hope you have enjoyed my trip to Planters Palette in Winfield, Illinois.  They are an upscale nursery that has a close relationship with the Morton Arboretum, located about thirty miles west of Chicago.

Decorating Your Home And Garden For Fall

Many years ago, when summer was over I yanked all of my drooping flowers out of their containers and put out some Indian corn, cornstalks and pumpkins on my front porch.  The pumpkins were always eaten and tipped over, the corn was chewed to the bone and it looked pretty sad by Halloween.

The Reggie dog was quite perplexed by this huge arachnid on the railing going upstairs.  I am surprised that he did not go after it!  This one has no eyes, but did you know that some spiders do not have any eyes?

Halloween used to be my favorite holiday because even though I was working full time with two children I had the neighborhood party.  We rented movies from the library and I made food ahead of time for the freezer so that everything would be ready for the big day.

These are great, I don't want to light them because then they will be gone.  I believe I got these at Target a few years ago.

Faux is becoming much more real.  These are faux gourds, achilliea, pears, pumpkins and little birds.  The pumpkins, gourds and pears are from Pottery Barn all arranged in an antique etched container.

Decorations now are over the top, lights, mummies, ghosts ringing the trees,talking vampires and witches the lawn ornaments and the celebration goes on for over a month.  I have given up on the real pumpkins, so I use the type you buy at a craft store, sprayed with marine varnish, and some are ceramic.  The pumpkins and gourds look so real now, there is no reason not to decorate containers and window boxes.  Long picks can also be purchased to stick through the decorations and anchor in the soil.

Indoors I can use real pumpkins and gourds mixed with faux flowers.

Reggie hasn't found these spiders yet!

I went to my daughter-in-law and son's home and found these people on their front porch, drinking Starbucks!

Believe it or not, I found this spooky person at the front door!

How would you like to find this in your garden?

Don't be concerned about using faux with real.  My situation is squirrels, so my quest each year is to find pumpkins that look either very decorative or real.  Each year it has become easier to find gourds and pumpkins that mimic the real thing.  Another faux acceptable is grasses because the real thing will collapse and wilt in your containers.



Halloween is still a favorite (not the Trick-Or-Treating as my dog goes crazy) with a family party and optional costumes.

Halloween is the second biggest decorating holiday in the United States next to Christmas!