The Flower Garden in September
I really wish I knew the name of that one pink rose bush that blooms non-stop all year long. I inherited it from the previous owner. It is the best rose I have – hardly ever shows any signs of disease or insects, and blooms off and on from spring through fall. The yellow annual Melampodium always looks its best around this time of the year.
The Morning Glory vine on the trellis attracts the bees and the hummingbird.
The Black and Blue Salvia is one of my favorite colors. I just love the flowers with the dark stems. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get shown off very well where I have it. I planted it two years ago and am contemplating seeing if it will survive a move to a better spot.
I find it very ironic that the name of this flower is Obedient Plant. It is definitely not very obedient. It likes to try to take over the garden. Some people refer to it as the Turtlehead flower. It does add a lot of much needed color in the late spring and fall, though, and the hummingbird seems to like it.
Well, there’s one of the neighbors orange and white cats again...this time in the back of the flower garden sunning him or herself.
The Kitchen Garden in September
After being very neglected in August, I spent a great deal of time Labor Day weekend and the following weekend trying to get the Kitchen Garden in better order. It looked much better managed in September than it did in August.
In September, I planted more arugula seeds so I would have a fall harvest and I was enjoying string beans, lima beans, and hot peppers from the Kitchen Garden. The tomatoes were finally starting to ripen, after a very rainy summer. Unfortunately, the tomatoes sometimes split on the bottom. These were Brandy Boy Hybrid.
I had lots of parsley and used it often. The orange cosmos were still blooming.
I was also eating lots of sweet basil and sorrel in September. The garlic chives were blooming. I love how they look, but I hate how they re-seed everywhere. I need to get in the habit of cutting off the flowers before they drop too much seed. They like to re-seed not only in the raised bed, but also on the gravel path. Try weeding tons of tiny garlic chives from a gravel path and see how much fun it is.
This hyacinth bean vine popped up in the bed with the basil. Must have blown there from last year, since I hadn’t planted any this year and had never planted any in that u-shaped bed before. I’m not complaining, though. I absolutely love the pinkish flowers and the bright purplish/magenta beans of the hyacinth bean vine.
I was happy to see that this Crape Myrtle was surviving in the back corner of the Kitchen Garden. I believe it is the Pink Velour variety. I had planted this in memory of my old cat, Monty, a few years ago. It seems to always be just out of reach of the sprinkler, but yet it has grown. I’ll be glad when it’s big enough to cover the gap in the neighbor’s fence so I don’t have to see his abandoned boat peaking out at me.
This Euonymus Green Spire and Panicum Shenandoah grass are along the border of the Kitchen Garden up against the neighbor’s fence and to the left of the garden bench. I also have one each to the right of the garden bench. When I planted the two Panicum, they were tiny little things that I had ordered from Bluestone Perennials. It has taken a couple of years, but they are finally a decent size.
And my last picture of my Kitchen Garden is of this really creepy-looking spider that I almost walked face-first into. He had a huge web that went from the butterfly bush in the flower garden to the tripod trellis my green beans were on in the Kitchen Garden. I’m sure glad I saw him before he ended up in my eye or my hair. Ew.
My Carnivorous and Bog Plants in September
My two containers of carnivorous and bog plants seemed to be at their happiest in September. Somehow I missed getting a picture of the White Tresses in bloom. They had looked so pretty.
The venus flytraps were smiling bright and showing their sharp “teeth” on this sunny September day.
I had picked up this Sundew at Longwood Gardens’ gift shop earlier in the year and it was quite happy hanging out in my bog container. It was busy trapping tiny bugs with those sticky little hairs.
The Rose Gentian (a bog plant, but not carnivorous) bloomed like crazy this year, but I somehow missed taking pictures of it at its best. You can see all of the buds, though.
Here’s a Purple Pitcher plant just waiting for an unsuspecting fly to buzz into its water-filled cup.
Dana’s Delight Pitcher, poised for action.
White Pitchers, with some succulents in the pots in the background.
I sure do love my Pitcher plants. Their just so cool.
So, there you have it. That was September in a nutshell. Better late than never, I guess.
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