Ruminastions

How did I get here?
This is not my beautiful garden.
These are not my beautiful nasturtiums.
Letting the days go by, into silent autumn
(with apologies to the Talking Heads)

This is ostensibly a Seed GROW post, but it's also a Sundries Sunday post so be ready for random ramblin' ruminastions!

Well, my 'Spitfire' nasturtiums definitely look the worse for wear, especially after last night's low near 40! There isn't enough sun in this location; I've been needing to move a huge arborvitae. The hops is more or less gone, too, but look at the eeny beeny morning glory that popped up!

There are one or two more growing higher on the trellis.

The nasturtiums I planted to grow up my corn are doing somewhat better. To all the hatas who tried to tell me I wouldn't get corn with only one plant, neener neener! I got two corn cobs, but neener neener on me, they were both covered with corn smut, which was so gross I tossed them before even taking a photo. I suspect it self-pollinated (with the seeds above falling on the tassels below). Everything in my garden has to fend for itself, lol.

Pretty turtlehead I received in spring from my friend Joey.

There's something about the forming seedhead of the cup plant I really like.

On July 4 I direct-sowed some zinnia and sunflower seeds. Two months later things are blooming.

I didn't used to like zinnias, but holla!

Ready to bloom any minute now...

...There we go! I can't help but smile when I look at sunflowers.

My tomato crop was suboptimal this year, but I did discover an awesome plant tie: hair clips! Just make sure the ends don't pinch the stem. (These 'Great White' are high enough up to have (knock wood, toi toi toi) escaped the rascally raccoons so far.)

The obedient plant is kickin' ass and takin' names. Most of all mine for not dividing or staking it!

That's my girl!

This corner of my huge front bed is the first thing I planted when I moved into the house. It is now one hot mess, with weeds encroaching the bed. The other side is even worse but I couldn't bear to show it!

When the foliage of the goldenrod (I believe Solidago canadensis) came up, I thought it was native asters. It's not that I don't like goldenrod, it's just that there used to by be native asters in that space as well. The queen of the prairie is about to bloom, way later than the one in a sunny location out front.

I couldn't get the contrast of Big Bluestem grass against the buckthorn in the background to work, so I did an inverse and messed with hue saturation. HA!

Poison ivy growing up a stem of echinacea that the groundhog broke the top off of. Ah, nature. I have tons of small patches of PI like this and huge spreads. I've been hesitant to use Roundup because I often see American toads in this area and their skin is particularly sensitive to absorbing chemicals. Later in fall I'll paint it on.

We were talking on my facebook page about how some gardeners (volunteer at recent workday, left) seem to have a magic anti-dirt shield and others (me, right) very decidedly do not. Lisa pointed out in the comments that the woman to the left is holding pruners and so was likely standing while working. Which is a great observation and interpretation except that there happens to be very little to prune in that garden; mostly everyone was weeding and spreading mulch that day... and everyone finished clean, except me (though I was doing some more rigorous weed removal, lol!).

I got this sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora) from my mom two years ago and this is the first time it's bloomed for me. I winter-sowed two native versions of this plant, virgin's bower (Clematis virginia), and will be interested how long it takes them to bloom. (Where to plant them is a whole 'nother kettle o' fish.)

Large milkweed bugs on (surprisingly enough) my milkweed seedpods.

A while ago I won some cool stuff, including a $20 gift certificate to Lowe's, from Lisa. Even though I had every intention of spending the money on bird seed, I couldn't resist these $3.33 gallon shrubs: two false cypress, two different cultivars of chokeberry, a spirea, and a red-flowered potentilla. No, I have no clue where they'll go.

My elephant's ears 'Illustris' really came into their own this year; they about quadrupled in size. They're gonna need a new pot before they come back in for the winter. Eep.

I've shown Pinky a few times. These are Siegfried (left) and Gertrude. G is named partly after Ms. Jekyll (I chuckle to myself as she hated fuchsia) and partly after my grandmother.

I wonder if I can get Siegi and Gerti to balance on a tight rope like these two? I adore everything about this photo of the Flamingo Trailer Court on Middlebelt Rd. in Farmington Hills, MI.


I'm growing Nasturtium 'Spitfire' for the GROW project. Thanks to Renee's Garden for the seeds.