Chill in the air...

Yesterday it was 85 degrees, but now I can feel a chill in the air.

Here's what I picked in the garden this morning. Before:



After (in my new bowl!):



Sedum is blooming. Can you see the two little creatures in this shot? (Click through to Flickr if you want to see where/what they are)



I hope this little sedum survives this winter, I do love it so.



Late summer rose is stunning.



Hydrangea with fall colors.



And September strawberries!

Rainy, humid update

Blech. Humid and grey. Not the best day to be in the garden for me, but the bugs sure seem to be enjoying it. Some new things blooming:

Rudbeckia - I planted these a few years ago, the second year they were gone, I thought oh, well but no, now they come back each year, in different spots, so I guess they are reseeding themselves.



White Astilbe is looking good. The pink is hidden under the hydrangea and daylilies, I need to mark it somehow so I can move it come fall.



These pink lilies are doing their thing quite nicely:



And here's a colorful wide shot of hydrangea, daylilies, yarrow and rose campion:

It's August, where is the summer going?

Time is flying by... things in the garden are good, things are flowering, we are picking green beans, cukes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and onions from the veggie garden. Here's a shot of Steve with the other winners of the Beacon Garden Contest. I'm so proud of him. He works so hard on our vegetables, he started 99% of them from seed, and has devoted a lot of love and attention to them, and they are delicious!



I love this! The Green Teens had these signs in front of their salsa booth this past weekend (follow the link to Flickr to see the full size photo if you can't read these):





These two Rose of Sharon planted themselves here a couple of years ago, but I'm going to need to take them out, because they are shading the hydrangea which is not doing so well this year.





Our mums are blooming, oops, a little early!



The white phlox is hidden behind the pink! Maybe I'll have to thin out the pink and move some of it this fall. I like the white.



One of the voodoo bulbs has sent up a second shoot!



We had a full rainbow the other day!

What I saw on Vacation

Hi! We spent the past week in Old Saybrook, CT and I should have taken more pictures, but here are a few things I saw that I liked. We really liked the smoke bushes we saw, one darker and one lighter, but I didn't have the camera with me when we saw them, so we didn't get a picture, but - we've already ordered one for home, so we'll take a picture of our own smoke bush someday!

These are everywhere, and make a nice splash of color - I need to figure out what they are so I can plant some:

Gotta love the old fashioned, white hydrangea:

Thought this was neat, I love the way it looks like it's flowing over the edge. These people had no lawn, Steve thought that was a great idea!

Nice hydrangea and tiger grass combo, I covet this grass. It's tall, I would need to think hard about where to put it.

Clematis, right? Quite a few folks had these, they seem to do well there.

I love this bed, so much color timed just right:

Looking ahead

Soon we will have peonies, I can't wait! These were here when we bought the house. I really need to thin them out, maybe move a bunch out to the backyard where we can see them more easily.



This hydrangea is from Steve's Aunt Marilyn, who originally got it from Steves' Oma. I love that we have plants from family and friends. I'm not sure I could ever move, since we have so many meaningful things in our gardens now.