wait for it.....

    If it has rained at all this month then I don’t remember it. But I have been finding rain sounds in my head. The flip-flops from college students make soft and steady drips throughout the Perkins-Bostock Library Plaza. Several mornings back I heard my chocolate chow mix scratching at the den rug. Her restless pawing sounded like miniaturized thunder. Am I going crazy? Well it isn’t 2007, so I can’t complain tooo much. 

Besides, there are plenty of things to enjoy in the yards and roadsides around town. Goldenrod is finally letting go of those tiny buds. Late September means that we can count on interesting seedpods, tall grasses (sorry turf grass), and some members of the Helianthus family to get us by until the next rain or mid-October.....whichever comes first. 

Goldenrod just before blooming. Behind is a clump of Red Switchgrass

podcast: from left to right- mimosa, Southern catalpa, trumpetvine

september's sedum

I don't think I would have suggested a mass planting of 'Autumn Joy' Sedum in this spot at Sarah Duke Gardens.I would be too afraid that someone would walk through the fleshy stalks and succulent stems on a shortcut to the duck pond. But that hasn't happened in the two or three summers since this bed was planted. And it looks killer.

 It also helps that the staff and/or interns made an attractive edging from spliced bamboo. Sometimes just a  suggested barrier is good enough to keep people on the right paths.

I've noticed that this variety of sedum (although easy to break with a shoe or a frisbee) is a strong spreader in most gardens. It also blooms in some shade. I've planted mine under a limbed-up wax myrtle tree that sits close to where my 70lb dog  likes to stick her nose through the perennial border. But even with canine curiousity nudging around its edges, my clump of 'Autumn Joy' sedum has grown large enough that I think I can rest easy.

other people's wwws: N&O Sunday op-eds

If you read the editorial page every Sunday in the News and Observer, you are probably familiar with the bit of seasonal musing-cum-nature writing that lands somewhere on the left hand side of the fishwrap. I am almost 100% certain that Bob Simpson writes these unattributed gems. Simpson is an old-school outdoorsman and journalist who has been writing for the N&O for a long time. I tried to find a really good bio. of him online but ran out of time on today’s lunch break. Here is the link to last Sunday’s piece. I have come close to writing him a fan letter now and again; I don't think a blog post counts. These weekly reflections on topics such as waterfowl migration, constellations, plant life, and Native American lore, help me keep track of how our seasons shift. 

Wright's viburnum = bird feeder

White oak acorn. I pulled it off and put it on the sidewalk. 

I was thinking on fall when  I took several picutures this morning. Even though there is plenty of summer heat and foliage to obscure my commute through Sarah P. Duke Gardens, the signs of autumn are in the making.

purple is not my favorite color BUT

It is hard not to like the Ironweeds. They really do look like "weeds" if your definition of a weed is something tall and not quick to flower. Veronia noveboracensis is one of those 6-8 foot tall stalks that sometimes falls over and sometimes dies back after a couple of years.  So it might not make a bestseller list. But if something looks good in September; naturalizes in dry and wet soil; attracts birds, bugs and butterflies; and has a super cool villainous name.....then, sign me up for a start. It is one of two wildflowers that Charles Frazier mentions more than once in Cold Mountain. I am not sure why I remember that.... (the other is Joe Pye weed).

from my yard

From the Golden Nature Guide "Flowers: A Guide to Familiar American Wildflowers" Golden Press, 1964.

back from a break...

okay, it's been three years since I started this blog and I have had to struggle sometimes to pay attention to it. This last month has been one of those times. But I realized that taking pictures, posing questions, and studying gardens and gardening are really enjoyable activities for me. So... I am back from a self-imposed break to have fun again and see where that takes me.

Pictured above are two things that are representative of what I call late-late summer. Humidity and the sun's lowering trajectory can result in some very dramatic cloudscapes in August and September. I have taken more pictures of clouds in the past week than I have all year. I expect that trend to continue. The other photograph is from a tuberose growing at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill. It smells incredible. Along with crinums and ginger lillies, tuberoses are some of the most fragrant things that a flower gardener can produce. And all three of these can be blooming in September around here. What a nice thought.

August Recess

Well, I've had quite a break from the garden blogger routine. Vacation ranks as reason one. And of course, coming back from vacation is the other reason. Not only are we busy but my gardens are a mess. Sunflowers are broken. Pumpkins are covered in bugs. The fig tree does not have near enough figs on it. And Bermuda grass has a running start in several mulched beds.  But I can't complain- the Helianthus angustifolius  flowers are due to begin in about a month.

Callicarpa americana- American beautyberry

Bottlebrush buckeyes

yard and garden pics: August 3

Rudbeckia, like grass or shade..you've got to have some

Asiatic hybrid lilies on the verge of blooming

cleome, aka spider flower, aka cat's whiskers...

one of two small ripening pumpkins; the vines take up 2/3 of my kitchen garden

above average joe..

"...the average gardener pays too little attention to August and September, and it may be safely said that the average garden goes to pot on July 16 as regular as clockwork." 
- from The Essential Earthman by Henry Mitchell (1981, Indiana U.Press)

I would agree with Mr. Mitchell. Even though I would like to think that I am an above average gardener, there have been too many pests, too little time, and a bit too much hot/dry weather to put this summer down as an allstar year. This is a picture of Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum). I snapped the photo of the colony on Tuesday; it stands just inside a western entrance to Sarah Duke Gardens. Joe-Pye is on the short list of  'highly recommended plants' for late summer around here. If you have a tidy or small yard, you can find a neater version called Coastal Plain Joe-Pye Weed. I bought mine from Niche Gardens three summers ago...and right now I am very glad I have it.

the official start to late summer?

above:

cuttings from this morning

I am not sure when late summer officially starts. Yesterday’s thunderstorms knocked over a loaded tomato plant, but that could have happened in June.. 5:30 am is not as light as it used to be and the night-time “lows” are pushing the sultry mid 70s. Large swaths of creeping Bermuda grass have had an ugly haze of seed heads since Wednesday…and of course, I couldn’t’ mow them down until Sunday. Despite the long dog days-stretch of summer ahead of us, I am not looking to cooler weather just yet. I am still enjoying the summer flowers in my perennial border and my promising crop of tomatoes, baby watermelons, and squash.  But maybe I will change my mind this weekend.  Word has it that the triple digits are due.