November

Today I dug up the voodoo bulbs - some of them are HUGE! And there are lots of babies, so our voodoo bulb stink fest next spring should be fantastic. :-)





I also pulled the canna from the big pots so they could come inside for the winter. They didn't bloom this year. I need to figure out why so I can try to avoid whatever it was that I did wrong for next year.



Things are looking very fall-like in our yard. Miscanthus:



Asparagus:



Hydrangea:



Last rose bloom:



Rudbeckia, still plugging along:

Sad news from the vegetable garden...

We had to pull out, cut down and bag two of the tomato plants showing signs of late blight. :-( This is scary stuff. If you have tomatoes and/or potatoes in your garden, beware.

So, on to other things. The zucchini are still coming in strong. (The yellow squash is from our CSA, Common Ground Farm)





I don't know why I didn't take an after photo!

Silver Dollar Plant, aka money plant, is drying okay. Some other ones are moldy. Too much rain!



I told you the sunflowers were bigger now! These are ALL volunteers, planted themselves from seeds that fell from last year's sunflowers.



This one planted itself right next to the front steps. And amazingly, I was able to overwinter the canna!



These pretty "red" ones are on the west side of the front beds.



Voodoo bulbs, still going strong!



Lots of phlox. I really don't want this much phlox here. It's crowding out the echinacea.



Rose of sharon:



Russian sage, yeah, I need more of this, too:



Normal size cucumber and crazy big cucumber we obviously didn't see and pick till it was HUGE! And some zucchini and eggplant in there, too.



Just for fun, because I love them so. Finn:



Wally. Naughtiest cat in the whole world. I would prefer he *not* hang out right there on the counter!

Lots Going On

Voodoo bulb #2 bloomed the other day. It had started to crack, so we moved it outside before the stench got too powerful!



We have lots of little sunflowers growing where the seeds fell from last year's crop.



The first of the tulips opened mid last week (I am a belated blogger...) and I was so excited to see them! Then the heat hit, and some of them are kind of wilty now. I'll admit, I'm glad the weather is back to normal today!



These are new grape hyacinths I planted along the east side of the house. I like the blue and white together!



Put this in the "what the heck is this?!" category. These little red flowers, which almost look like tulip blooms were blooming over the weekend. They are on the stems of this little shrub that I have been trying to rip out for the five years we have lived here. I have never seen it bloom before! I wonder if it was the insane heat. I don't think I'm usually out working in the beds this early, so maybe it's always bloomed, but I've never seen it. Weird!





Our beloved strawberry patch. Sigh. I weeded and composted, and now I will patiently wait for June. Sigh.



Mrs. Pampalone's Primrose are blooming, and looking great.



And, we have tons of wonderful blooms on the Bleeding Heart I planted last year! I was worried they might be in too sunny of a spot, but I guess not. :-)

Today was the day...

that we woke up to the "funk" of the voodoo bulb!





I moved it out to the patio, and we can still smell it out there!

Daffodils and hyacinths are blooming nicely now:







And...I found my vegetable peeler that disappeared last year! Right where Mom said it would be, in the composter. :-)

They are just getting more and more funky!

Voodoo bulbs are so much fun! They are just getting bigger and bigger. Very soon they will bloom!

Very soon....

we will have icky, stinky like garbage flowers on these! :-)

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!