Around The Garden

I don't think I ever realized I still had a garden at this time of year, but I do!  It is not the riot of color that I have in the spring and summer, but it is a relaxing blend of fall hues with a pop of color here and there.  I think it actually helps us transition without a shock to the lack of growth many of us experience during the winter.

This is Geranium Magnificum.  Many of the perennial geraniums turn red in the fall.

Italian Parsley is one of the few things left in the veggie garden.  It will live through everything but a very deep frost.  Some people cover them with bushel baskets and say they live all through the winter.  I might try this because I love fresh parsley.

I do prefer Curly Parsley on Parslied Potatoes.

I have chives still left and some small onion sets from the seed that are alive and will live through the winter to become strong first onions in the spring.

Henryi, goodbye already, I can't believe you are still putting out blooms on the back arbor!

Pansies in the shed hayracks

Great color, never have seen this sold separately, just in mixed containers

I did a little Terry Evans experiment, holding the camera at my waist for this shot of my daylilies.  I think it works, I have a new perspective of dying leaves.

This is Panicum Northwind, don't think I have ever noticed the little seed heads, but I got so close with the camera I couldn't help but notice.

I will definitely use some of the Limelight Hydrangeas in my holiday decorating.

Sweet Woodruff, extra thick and green this year

Miscanthus Udine, Oh how I hate to cut this down, but it will flop in the snow and be very difficult to handle in the spring.

Halcyon Hosta and PJM Rhododendron, another Terry Evans technique photo from the waist looking down.

A last look at the fully opened cabbages and the totally blooming pansies and kale.  I will be pulling them out while it is still somewhat warm so that the soil doesn't freeze and make it impossible to put in my holiday greens.

I have never had Lobelia last this long into the fall but it is still blooming in with the cabbages.

I don't know what we would do without all of the colorful fall plants.  I have appreciated the cabbages more than ever this year with their slow opening as the weather changes, only sorry I can't keep them longer, because they must make room for the greens of winter.

Okay Rainbow, goodbye already!

Have a wonderful fall weekend everyone!

Uptown Girl

I love that song by Billy Joel, and he could have written it about me, or maybe my theme song should have been Downtown by Petula Clark.  Anyway, I went to Chicago on Thursday with my Art Institute Group to hear a presentation by Terry Evans, My Expeditions:  Prairie and Other Landscapes.  Terry is a world class photographer who moved from Kansas in the 90's to Chicago and transferred her skills to many other types of prairies, city, inhabited, aerial, etc.

I am going to show you a sampling of her work at the beginning of the post because there was none available to photograph at the Art Institute.  Her photos were shown to us on a powerpoint presentation so I downloaded some of the available photos from the Internet.

On with our adventure . . .

Standing with her camera waist high Terry took pictures of the prairie.

The prairie skyline

Bison on the Kansas Prairie

Prairie Specimens from past centuries

Downtown Chicago by Terry Evans

Oak Street Beach in Chicago

We took an early morning train into the loop (another name for Chicago downtown), long ride because it made every stop, certainly not the business express.

This structure above the city is call the El.  This is an elevated train system that runs above the city in the downtown area.  I came in from the suburbs on the Metra system train, not the El.

As we walked to the Art Institute, we couldn't help admire all the beautiful planters that line the city streets.  Our current Mayor Daley is a huge proponent of beautification.  He is retiring so I hope his successor continues his work on the greening of Chicago.

The flowers do not seem to have been nipped by frost yet.  However, the downtown temperature tends to stay warmer in the fall because of Lake Michigan.

I grew up in Chicago but far south of the downtown area.  As a child and young adult we came into the city often for shopping and after high school dances and proms.  I remember seeing Johnny Mathis at the Chez Paree after a school dance before he was ultra famous, going to the Empire Room after a prom and later on going to just about every college dance at some big hotel, even saw a very young Bob Newhart perform at his alma mater Loyola University.

Plantings at Millennium Park

The band shell at Millennium Park

The shorter building in the middle is the Prudential Building which used to be the tallest building in Chicago!

The Bean at Millennium Park

Beautiful fall colors in Millennium Park against the skyline

I worked downtown for several years on Michigan Avenue, frequented the local hotel restaurants like the Blackstone, Conrad Hilton, Palmer House and The Pick Congress Hotel for lunches and after work get-togethers.  There weren't many great places to go once you got out of the city proper, so we socialized in Chicago.  I guess that's why so many young people now want to live in the city - I lived at home!

Art Institute of Chicago

Chagall's Stained Glass Windows

(They have been replaced in their home after five years of rejuvenation)

I finally got a clear shot of three of them without people standing in front!

We had some time to stop at the Museum store across from the Art Institute (Arts & Artisians) http://www.artsartisans.com/  - loved these glass flower sculptures.  I wonder if they would hold up outside?

Lots of sightseeing buses as we traveled along to lunch

A little pigeon looking for his lunch!

Lunch at Heaven On Seven (Cajun food on the seventh floor of the vintage Garfield Building) No Credit - good thing we brought cash!

I think they had lots of this in everything!

They even had hot spice pouches hanging from the chandeliers.

We had to really hustle to get back to the train station or we would have had to wait an hour for the next train.  I don't recommend this after eating Cajun crab cakes for lunch!

Around The Garden

I didn't think I would be doing this in November, but as I moved around the garden, there were quite a few plants that were either still blooming or had put on their fall colors.  Before blogging,, I don't think I appreciated these subtle changes in nature.

The alley garden looks really good this fall, filling out and developing fall color enhanced by the leaves that pile up against it.

Eupatorium Chocolate is at it's peak.  It really likes the cooler weather!

Sedum Autumn Fire is in the alley garden.  It is not quite as showy as Autumn Joy but it remains erect all winter.

Miscanthus Udine has already begun to flop.  I have learned the hard way to cut this down before the snow hits.  It is almost impossible to cut it down after it is smashed into the raised bed.  I know, it looks so good!

Panicum Northwind will stand through the winter, usually ready to cut down by March.  I love the tan color against the snow.

It is difficult to believe that Pink Beauty is still putting out a rose every so often and an almost perfect rose.

Can you believe this Rainbow Knockout?  It is a difficult rose to find, and all of the ones I have growing are from http://www.gardenvalley.com/  Their roses are bare root and have never had a problem rooting and taking off the first year.  In fact, I have just placed an order with them to ship the first of April.  Home Depot had a small shipment of Rainbow this year but quickly sold out.  They are not promoted by the nurseries because they don't look eye-popping in their containers.  However, they are the only rose blooming profusely in my garden.

This is Ernest Markham blooming on the south side of my home.  I planted it this spring, didn't do much in the hot summer, and now decides to put on a show.  It is a Type 3, so I will cut it down in the spring and give it a bigger trellis.  It is supposed to be a very floriforous hardy clematis.

Henryi has put out one more huge bloom, can't believe it has any more.  This is the Type 2 clematis that I cut to the ground so that it would rejuvenate.  It certainly looks like it has.

White Swan is my only coneflower that is still blooming.  Why didn't I plant more White Swan?  This deserves to be interspersed throughout my garden.

If you can stand to look at your allysum all winter it will reward you over and over again.  In the spring, just pull it out and sprinkle it wherever you want allysum.   It reseeds very easily.

Wow, was this a lucky choice this year, Heuchera Southern Comfort, a real star in the fall garden.

Heuchera Southern Comfort in another location, love, those great fall colors!

 

Penstemon Hamlin (not to be cut down until spring)

Rose hips from Pink Meidiland, also difficult to find, but I have ordered one more from Garden Valley Ranch.

 

Little Henry's Garnet Sweetspire looks better than ever this fall.  It has never been as healthy and colorful.  I did use a systemic this spring, and it seems to have done the trick.  I was ready to replace it.

Limelight Hydrangea will have plenty to show off this winter.  I have never left so many flowers on the shrub, but I will use some for the holidays,, maybe even spray some for my indoor displays.

I hate to end this on a downer, but this is my yellowing yew.  It was a very large one that I have trimmed, turned off the water that sprays on it, worked in peat moss way down fed it and we'll just wait and see until spring.  It will look great when we get the Christmas lights on it!