Once Upon a Time in a Flower Garden in October

I sure got behind with my garden summaries. Now that I have a break from my night classes and have gotten through the holidays, I am working to get caught up. My flower garden never looks all that great in the fall. It is more of a spring and summer garden. But nevertheless, here it goes....

Some of the roses were trying very hard to show that despite appearing dainty and having a reputation for being difficult, they could withstand at least a bit of fall chill. It was a welcoming sight in a garden that doesn’t have much color in October. 

I have one mum that has proven itself to be a perennial and shows its lovely pink flowers every fall. The Black and Blue Salvia was also vying for attention.

This purple Aster was trying to outshine the mum.

I had planted this bright red Cockscomb in either September or October in an attempt to add a bit more color to my lackluster fall garden.

The purple Coneflowers were certainly past their peak, but that is when the Goldfinches are at their happiest. They sure do love the Coneflower seeds.

The bed on the other side of the main flower garden was looking lush with greens and deep reds. Nothing flowering, but still looking kinda lovely.

Shade plants like this variegated Solomon’s Seal really seem at home under the tree on this side of the yard. The painterly white stripes make this plant pop in the shade of the tree.

The dark leaves on the gracefully arching branches of the Ninebark make it one of my favorite shrubs. The clusters of tiny, white flowers are insignificant in the spring, but it is the leaves that make this a stand-out shrub. The coleus that is with it has become one of my favorite annuals. It was a darker red earlier in the season and then became more magenta as the cooler weather approached. It was full and beautiful all season long – and where it is at is a really sunny, hot spot. I think it was Stained Glassworks Copper, which is bred for full sun. Definitely a winner in my book. I want to plant more of these next year.

One the other side is a 3-foot spirea, which is another favorite shrub because it changes colors throughout the season, plus gets pretty, pink flowers in the spring. Now if I could only remember the name of it! I think it is either Goldflame or Magic Carpet. The leaves vary from lime green to red depending on the time of year.

The elephant ears in the two, tall, copper-looking pots were finally starting to seem more at home in the fall.

I enjoyed being able to see the back of these leaves while sitting on the screened-in back porch. They looked so pretty when the sun showed through them. Look at those dark purple stems and veins, plus the pattern of curved lines in the leaves – really cool.

My two pots of bog plants always appear happiest in the fall. The Pitcher plants look tall and healthy and the little traps of the Venus Flytraps seem to multiply like tiny bunnies. The White Tresses Orchids like to bloom in the early fall.

The bog pots are in the greenhouse now.

The fairy garden looks like a woodland setting in the fall with all of the leaves strewn about. 

And my poor pot of mosses and baby ferns was drowned by some rain storms. The sad gnome looks like he is going down with the ship. It’s as if he is saluting the end of the growing season.

It’s All in the Details

I love adding details to the garden that you might not notice at first glance. I started putting out my garden decorations, potted plants, and miniature worlds last weekend. Here is what I have going on so far.

This is a new idea I had this year: A little gnome garden. I used moss that I had in the secret garden area and growing on the cedar trashcan shed, added rocks, a small piece of driftwood, some small plants, and a cute little gnome and mushrooms. Isn’t it adorable?! This is on the wrought iron table that is in the secret garden area by the greenhouse. 

 This votive lantern is hanging from the wisteria that grows on the greenhouse.

Also new this year is a little Buddha garden I made using an old broken pot, little stones, more moss, a Buddha figurine that I had, and an incense burner that looks Indian-ish. I have this amongst the hostas that grow under the wisteria tree, hence the purple petals on the ground.

I have mentioned my fairy garden before. Still have it and my sister still thinks I’m a dork for having it.

And what’s a fairy garden without fairy sheep? Come on, humor me here. Everyone knows I love little lambies, so it makes sense to find some in my fairy garden.

Looks like some fairies were here, too.

How did a drunken gnome get in my garden? Oh, he is next to the shed where Brian does his homebrewing. I get it now. He must have found his way in there.

This gnome is much more civilized and guards these hostas quite well.

I built this impromptu miniature house out of stones and a shell in the Kitchen Garden as I was cleaning things up. Maybe a fairy or gnome will move in.

I tend to put shells here and there throughout the garden. Most of these came from a trip we took to Oregon a few years ago. There are few less shells than last year – the squirrels seem to like to steal them and bury them. I keep finding them here and there.

You may find things hanging from tree branches here and there, such as this windchime made of small, tin buckets and watering cans.

Mr. Wiggles has come out of hibernation in the greenhouse and now protects the entrance to the Kitchen Garden.

New this year are my hanging terra cotta pots with ferns. This corner fence is on the front and side of the yard and you enter through the gate to get to the garden. The top part of one panel of the fence fell apart a few years ago. I finally came up with an idea to dress up our dilapidated fence. I slipped the pots into plate hangers, then wrapped wire around the hooks and up over the beam. I had actually seen something similar on Pinterest, which is where I got the basic idea. Originally I wanted to build simple, wood frames to hang with each one to make the pots look like pictures, but I’m not sure I left enough room at the top to make that idea work.

Speaking of pots, I have two little pots in this little crate thing in the Kitchen Garden. Need to get a plant for the second pot.

All of these potted plants are ones from last year that overwintered in my greenhouse. Some are a few years old. The wire container with the faucet and bird is new.

This is a type of agave that I have on the screened-in back porch. I had a larger one last year that isn’t looking too healthy. Couldn’t resist another one. Dangerous looking, but oh so cool. Helpful tip: Definitely wear gloves when potting these babies.

Also on the screened-in back porch is this pretty little Maidenhair fern I planted in a Ball jar. I love the really dark stems and the shapes of the leaves.

Another fern on the back porch, along with my Nepenthes (monkey cups / hanging pitcher plant – no pitchers on it right now). The Pitcher is a carnivorous bog plant. I re-potted this recently, so I hope it likes its new home. It was overwintering in the greenhouse.

Why such a big clock, you might ask. So I can peak in through the door when outside gardening to see what time it is, of course.

I have ideas for other little projects, but of course little projects require little time, or sometimes more than a little time. Just never seems to be enough free time. Such is life.

Details in the Garden

I like adding little details to the garden that you might not see at first. I have many more ideas that I haven’t implemented yet, but here’s a few that are in place now.

I have this old wrought iron café-style table and chairs that were a dirty brownish green from years of neglect. I spray-painted them a bright cobalt blue this summer and put them under a tree by the Kitchen Garden. I found this plant saucer I had spray-painted gold for a Christmas project years ago and put some shells in it from my trip to the Oregon coast. I happened to have tiny garden tools that resemble a fork and spoon when put with the plate. I love how the blue table brings out the bluish tint in the seashells. 

Here’s some more shells from the Oregon coast. I must admit that I like collecting shells when I go to the beach, which isn’t very often. This collection of shells are in a secluded little spot in the front yard.

My mom gave me this cute mobile that looks like mini watering cans and pails. It’s hanging on a tree next to the blue café table. 

We get lots of pine cones in the area between our house and the left-side neighbor’s house. They have a pine tree on the other side of their yard and when some of the pine cones fall they slide down the roof into our yard. I like it because I use the pine cones in fresh-green Christmas wreaths that I make for our front door each year. I also put pine cones in containers in the house and in the yard. Here’s some that I keep in an old rusted colander on the steps of my back porch.

This is one of my favorite pots. It’s really heavy, but I love the ornate medieval style of the carvings on it. I’ve had this Sedum in it for several years now.

This is another favorite pot, even though it’s just made of some sort of plastic. It has different faces on four sides. I keep it on a pedestal in the area in front of the shed. If you were going from the front yard through the gate to the back yard you would see it.

I can’t show special garden details without showing Mr. Wiggles! Mr. Wiggles is my pet pig. Ok, as much as a real piggie would be AWESOME, he’s just a cute statue. He hangs out in the Kitchen Garden. Good thing he’s not real or he probably would eat all my veggies.

I love cool tiles. This is one I got from a Celtic store many years ago. I move it around each year. Right now it’s in front of my pot of water plants. Pretend you don’t see the weeds next to it.

This is another cool tile. I got this handmade tile at the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown, PA. An extremely cool place right next to Fonthill, which is even more awesome. Fonthill was the home of tile maker Henry Mercer. He made it out of concrete specifically so he could showcase his handmade tiles and his collection of tiles he had collected from around the world. It’s this maze of rooms with tiles on the walls in every room. Truly amazing and definitely worth a visit. He had built the Moravian Tile Works next door to produce his beautiful decorative tiles using old traditional methods. This was during the Arts and Crafts movement, of course. But I digress. Here is a sweet little tile of a bee that I got at the Tile Works.

A candle lantern hanging from the wisteria by the greenhouse and shed.

And here’s my fairy garden. Yep. My younger sister thinks I’m a complete dork for having a fairy garden, but I think it’s WHIMSICAL, not dorky. There’s my little fairy with her blue and white “reflecting pool,” a mirror behind her, a toadstool, a turtle coming out of a small pot, and a bunny sitting on a small rock.

Here’s another fairy on a tire swing nearby. Sorry it’s a bit blurry.

And here’s a fairy door!

Hey, at least I know the fairies aren’t real.