Frost Warnings

Since the weatherman was calling for frost, I took some time to wander around the gardens and enjoy some things before they finished up for the season. Some were no big surprise-the end of season plants that always put on their best show now. Like red pineapple sage, which did not start blooming for me till October, making it quite a short growing season this year. And the fuzzy purple spikes on Mexican bush sage-beautiful in both color and texture. And the yellows and oranges of both marigolds and calendula, which always seem more appealing to me in the fall. But there were some surprises.

We have some pink David Austin roses and one, not a particularly large bush was covered with flowers this fall-I stopped counting at two dozen. Nearby were my rose bon-bon cosmos. I had cut them back sometime in the summer. So the plants were shorter but very full, and just loaded with blossoms. They’re a mixture of single and double pink flowers-very showy. All the nicotiana or flowering tobacco put on a good fall show. And the tall, upright verbena was gorgeous. It's upright, rather than trailing, but has the same flat-headed flowers with multiple florets. It was sparse during the extreme heat of July, but lovely through September and October. Although not winter hardy, it reseeds reliably every year. And of course, the fuzzy red chenille-like stems of love-lies-bleeding ~ it takes awhile for them to size up, but they are a real show»stopper when they do.

l made a mad rush around to cut the last of some herbs for drying and also some annual flowers to dry and bunch. I had an excellent fall rebloom on my lavender this year-almost as good as the spring bloom, l thought. Also picked globe amaranth, eucalyptus, cockscomb and a few others.

Lucy got to chase a squirrel the other day. They really fascinate her. lt didn't take her long to figure out there's no sense in chasing birds, since they just fly away. But squirrels run and then climb trees! This one did just that, but once he was up that tree, he didn't scamper to the top and jump from tree to tree, he just sat there. If she could have figured out a way to climb that tree, she would have. He ascended slowly, but she could still see him and she wasn't ready to give up. l finally had to put her on the leash and drag her away. The next day she went out looked up and smelled and smelled. -

Transitioning to Fall

After working outside all summer, and being hot, I am enjoying the transition to fall. Even back in August, on a few mornings you could feel the change beginning in the morning air. Then, one morning, l needed a long-sleeved shirt on Lucy's first walk. Then, a sweatshirt and finally blue jeans instead of shorts. I notice the transition in my work habits too. Work is shifting from the greenhouses to getting the shop ready and stocked for the holidays.

There's still a lot of outside work~ with all the rain, lots of weeding, some perennials to plant to fill in spots and replace some that didn't survive or thrive and trimming back that we didn't get to at the height of the summer. It's lovely working out on a sunny fall day.

Another sign of fall-toads returning to the greenhouse. We had a bumper toad crop this year-4 were living in the greenhouse this spring. Since then, they've dispersed and I've seen them outside at different times and in different locations. Even saw a baby once. There was one of the toads that I would see regularly in the greenhouse throughout the summer. He or she would go in and out but I'd see him in the back corner every few days. Sometimes, I'd see two together-perhaps they‘re a couple. And now, I see the two of them dug into the dirt most days. They must be preparing for Winter.

The hyacinth bean vine is developing beans, although it bloomed about a month late and should be loaded with beans by now. Also, the late Mexican bush sage, with fuzzy purple flowers is starting to bloom now. We had a casualty in the last big rainstorm. Our Mina, or firecracker vine, was on an obelisk in the garden at the top of the driveway. Being top-heavy, it got wrenched out of the ground roots and all so it couldn't be replanted. Too bad, because it was also starting to bloom, with pretty sprays of yellow, orange and red flowers.

The goldfinch pair feeding on the echinacea seeds have brought friends. They've gone through about 6o% of them now.

A Big Job!

A big job accomplished! It was time to replace the plastic covering our back greenhouse. The plastic degrades over time, due to the sun‘s rays. It's not a difficult job, but it requires two things.

A calm day and lots of hands, since controlling a 50 foot long piece of plastic can be challenging.    John recruited several co-workers, a cousin or two and of course, John and I along with our helper, Jon. There are actually two pieces of plastic, with an air gap
between, to provide some insulation.  For the first piece, my job was to stand inside the greenhouse with a very long~handled broom and guide the plastic over the metal hoops. For the second piece, I just helped pull it over the other piece. Then, the guys inserted the wiggle wire (zigzag wire pieces) into channels at each end of the greenhouse to hold the plastic firmly in place. Repeat for the  second piece and most of the work is done. That part took about two hours-and just in time, because it began to get breezy then. Trying to control a flapping piece of lightweight plastic in even a gentle breeze is tough. John and our helper finished up the rest of the work in a couple more hours. It looks great and has held up well. A couple days later we had the all-day blowing rain and everything held up.

Lucy had a great time meeting all her new friends. Of course, we had to put her in during the actual operation. Imagine a wild dog running amok over 6 mil plastic.

One day, while walking Lucy, I noticed her with her nose moving along the ground. She wasn't sniffing, but rather walking with her nose directly on the ground. It looked strange and I couldn't imagine what she was doing. When I got close enough, I saw she was following a praying mantis which was walking along. She was just following along, with her nose against it, trying to figure out exactly what it was. It eventually moved off under some cover.
Since then, I've seen mantises frequently. This must be an active time of year for them. And they are all big. On foliage, they’re all green. One that was sitting in a pot, was brown on top green and underneath.

Butterfly report

I've been keeping an eye on the butterfly population. Although l still think it‘s down overall from previous years, l have seen an uptick. We continue to have loads of the little ones-lots of small fritillaries, white loopers and others and pretty many sulfers.

I've seen only a handful of monarchs, although l was happy to see some caterpillars on the swamp milkweed. We have tons of the wild milkweed out back, so hopefully there are caterpillars feasting there too. Not too many swallowtails, but I have seen more in the past two weeks. l've seen caterpillars on dill, fennel, rue and parsley and saw a black swallowtail laying eggs on the parsley this Week.

The one species I've noticed in abundance is the buckeye. It’s medium-sized, brown with some yellow and orange markings, but very noticeable for the round spots or eyes on the outer edges of its wings. Turns out the caterpillars feed on plantain, verbenas and snaps, all of which we have, so l guess it‘s just a buffet for them.

I noticed a butterfly sitting on zinnias one day (not the one above.) It had its wings folded up, so that l could only see the undersides and I couldn’t figure out what kind it was. Must have been happy, because it sat there awhile. When it finally flew off, I saw it was a painted lady~very pretty. also saw a brown little one that l had to look up. Turned out to he a Northern Cloudywing. Not very showy, but l like the name.

The painted lady was sitting in a patch of pink profusion zinnias and boy, are they spectacular this year. Plenty of rain made for lush growth and plenty of sun means loads of flowers. The colors~cherry pink, orange and deep apricot are all so rich and the white is bright and clear. They bloom constantly and require very little deadheading.  And never a lick of mildew on them since l've grown them. l always give them the most bang for your buck award. I love the tall old~fashioned zinnias with their wide color range, but no matter how I site them they always seem to develop mildew.

l‘m reducing large harvests on woody-stemmed perennials like thyme, sage and rosemary to allow plenty of foliage to remain for winter protection. Can still harvest and use-just don't cut back the whole plant or cut back really hard.

I've been watching a pair of goldfinches who are coming daily to feast on the seeds of purple coneflower. We have two big stands of purple coneflower, or echinacea, and a smaller patch of the white. l notice the birds most in the patch in front of the greenhouse, although they also visit the medicinal meandering garden.  I never cut coneflowers back in the fall, leaving the seedheads for the birds is the winter, but the way these two are going at it, there may not be any left this winter.

I was sitting outside one day and l noticed a beautiful combo in the four~square garden. The tall white garlic chive flowers were in full bloom and behind them, in the background, was the intensely purple foliage of ‘Red Rubin* basil. Also, in the picture were the bright yellow and orange blossoms of calendula.  Just a lovely combination!  Speaking of garlic chives, the bees are absolutely delirious over the flowers-they were loaded with bees yesterday. My practice is always to let the bees work the flowers till they're satisfied and then out them back. Because garlic chives reseed so prolifically, l cut them back when the seed heads are still green, hopefully eliminating reseeding. Although I just found another bit that popped up somewhere they didn't belong, so l must be even more ruthless.

I’m noticing an effect of the extremely high temperatures in July.  Many plants will not set buds when temps get high (usually above 85 or 90 degrees). So late-bloomers are definitely being delayed.  Hyacinth bean vine is just blooming now, so the bean crop will be down. I‘ve seen only one flower on nina or firecracker vine, also an annual vine with sprays of yellow, orange and red flowers.  Then I went looking at the late sages. 1've seen only a few small buds forming on both the mexican bush sage with fuzzy purple flowers and pineapple sage with red tubular blooms, Hopefully,  we'll have a late frost season and still get to enjoy these late season beauties.

The greenhouse and herb shop remain open 5 days a week~Tuesday-Saturday 9-5. Many people think we shut down after the plant sale.
Not so!

Birds in a Greenhouse!

Birds in the greenhouse! Sounds kind of like "Snakes on a Plane" although not as problematic. 

Nearly every year, we get a few wayward birds that fly into the greenhouse, more often the back greenhouse. Usually, I just duck down, walk behind the birds and shoo them towards the door and they fly out. This works unless the birds are young or dumb. This year, a young mockingbird got in greenhouse #3 and couldn't get out. I tried shooing, but although he'd fly toward the front, he'd veer off to the side instead of flying out the door. Mockingbirds can be nasty, but this one was just dazed and tired. He was flapping against the front wall, so I scooped him in a bucket, threw a box over the top end get him outside. He flew away unscathed.

Mourning doves are also difficult, because they're too dumb to fly out on their own. Usually have to throw a towel over them and rescue and release.

Recently, we had a tougher challenge. Walked into the greenhouse, heard a strange noise, looked up and saw a hummingbird hovering near the top of the greenhouse. Once, when I worked in the garden center, we had a hummingbird inside~we got it out eventually, but it took a while and wasn't easy. Luckily, John was home when this happened.

The poor thing was tired from hovering constantly. It perched on the frame around the fan on the back wall. John got up on the bench with a bucket, figuring he‘d scoop her (it was e female) into the bucket.  The little thing hopped on the edge of the bucket end sat there. John handed me the bucket and I slowly walked out of the greenhouse with it perched there the whole time. It sat on the bucket a few minutes to recover then flew off and rested in a tree.

Then I go into greenhouse #2 and see a small wren hopping around on the floor. By the time I got John and we came back in, we couldn't see it. It was way in the back though, and we hadn‘t seen it fly out. Looked on the back wall and saw it stuck in the web of one of the large, writing spiders that live there, John released it and we scooted it out, only to be met by Lucy! She didn‘t hurt it~it hopped under a tree and eventually flew away. I'd much rather have toads in the greenhouse!

I'm enjoying summer (except for the hot weather) as the days and weeks tick by. Summer always has a vacation feel to me, even though I'm long, long removed from school and the idea of summer vacation.
And even though we continue to be open full~time, and I have plenty of work to do, it’s not super busy like spring, which I guess leads to the lazy, summertime feel.

There are things that represent summer to me as I look arcane-big clumps of blooming coneflower, bushes of tomato and pepper plants and butterfly bushes fragrant basil, cheerful calendula flowers, purple blooms atop white Russian sage stems loaded with blooms.
I do think the butterfly population is down this year, both in number and variety. The only type I've seen in profusion are the cabbage whites and their related cousins. l've seen a handful of larger species - monarchs and swallowtails (more black than yellow and black) and also buckeyes, a few commas, fritillaries, red admirals and skippers. I think numbers have declined steadily since we moved in fifteen years ago. And it’s not for lack of nectar sources.
I've been admiring a new flower I planted ~ amberboa. Haven't found a common name for it, but it'e in the aster family, so l'll call it an annual aster. Very fine texture ~ narrow, linear leaves with a pretty, mauve flower with thin, spidery petals. I found it in a catalog and the picture and description were quite accurate. I planted five in a clump ~ with the fine texture, 1 think you need 3, 5, or more for show. l‘ll have to wait till next year to see if they reseed.
l've been cutting back perennials after they bloom to neaten them up and encourage rebloom. Ditto for deadheading annuals. I had the super dark-almost black~cornflowere that never died over the mild winter. They actually got almost as tall as me end bloomed for months.  I finally cut them down and now have a new crop of seedlings emerging from dropped seed.
The plant sale continues~don't have a huge selection left~but prices are dirt cheap!