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Some of the last flowers of Autumn

by Tricia

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It was a beautiful weekend! I think we might have had a very late Indian Summer here in Toronto! The temps got up to 17 C or 63 F and tomorrow’s going to be warm for this time of year too.

Of course, the warmer weather probably isn’t doing my garden much good as it has been cool here for a few weeks and in a few days it will be cool again. Yep, the garden is pretty much shutting down for the winter.

I still have some roses that seem stuck in bloom and some rose buds that haven’t opened and that probably won’t, but most of my flowers are dying down.

About two weeks ago my New York Asters were in full bloom – now they are fading although there’s still some pale purple/ blue color on the plant.

Here’s what the flowers looked like when they are at the height of their bloom-

First new york aster blooms 2

The pink salvia was also putting out new blooms – but they too are pretty much gone now as well.

Pink Salvia bloom

My Liatris plants stopped blooming by late August or so, but they developed seed heads in September and October.

faded liatris bloom 4

I collected the seeds off of some of the Liatris stocks and planted them in a few sparse areas of the garden. Perhaps in a year or two I’ll have more Liatris coming up in areas that desperately need some permanent plants.

Has your garden begun to shut down for winter?






Filed Under: Garden Buzz, Green Thumb Sunday, Photography Tagged With: autumn, garden, gayfeather, Green Thumb Sunday, GTS, Indian Summer, Liatris, liatris seeds, new york asters, pink, rose buds, roses, salvia, seeds, sparse areas, warm

Want a peek at my garden?

by Tricia

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In the middle of July (July 14th to be exact) I decide to take a couple of shots of the backyard, front yard and my planted boulevard garden. Would you like to see what my garden looks like this year?

Here’s a shot of the backyard:

My backyard garden

It’s not the best shot. We had our patio table umbrella down due to all the rain storms we’ve been having. Our table gets tipsy in the high winds and I don’t feel like going through the pain and expense of having to replace the table glass if it falls, so no umbrella in bad weather! The green tube on the table chairs is for collecting rain run off from the rain spout so that the area closest to the house doesn’t get flooded in a heavy downpour.

The tall tree on the left – well the tallest in our garden – is the Rose of Sharon tree. It’s in full bloom at this very moment, but two weeks ago when I took the picture it was only just starting to develop buds. It’s blooming a little early this year. I’ll get some pictures of it soon!

My box turtles are enjoying a daily snack on the flowers. They are edible. If you have a Rose of Sharon or a Hibiscus bush you might even want to try using the flowers in a salad or as a garnish.

There are a large number of plants in those flower beds! The main plants are of course roses, lavender, salvia, hostas, clematis, balloon flowers and annuals such as petunias and portulaca’s. If you’d like to see a not quite up to date list of all the plants we’re growing in our back, front and boulevard gardens have a peek at my What’s Growing page.

Just click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

I’m pleased with how my front yard is looking so far this year. Our Lab puppy, Midnight, did a lot of damage to the grass in the early spring so we’ve tried to keep her off our tiny front long over the last two months and the grass has been growing back nicely. We helped it out my reseeding of course.

my front yard and garden

Our puppy still tries to bite at the roses, grasses and some of the other plants in the front flower beds as she walks by, but mostly she just sniffs at the plants. It’s quite funny to see her smelling a rose. I think she likes them! At least if she ever tries to eat a rose I know they are non toxic!

IMG_4122

The front boulevard is coming along nicely. I don’t know if you remember my earlier posts about cleaning up the boulevard garden in the spring. We had to remove thick sunflower stalks and lots of weeds before I could plant some new plants this year. It was a mess! It’s nice and tidy now!

planted boulevard

The sunflowers are beginning to bloom as are the pink Dahlia, daylilies, malva and gayfeather. Cosmos have come up this year as well. I haven’t planted cosmos there for at least three years and they were absent the last two, but I guess there were still some viable seeds in the ground and they decided to grow this year so there are cosmo plants scattered among the main plants and they are beginning to bloom now as well.

I have Marigolds and Alyssum planted along the edge of the boulevard and we’ve trained a few Morning Glory vines to grow around the No Parking sign that mars my boulevard garden.  Our neighbors seems to enjoy our planted boulevard quite a bit.

Overall I’m quite pleased with how well my garden is doing this year. It’s been fairly hot this month, yet we’ve had a record amount of rain (and storms!), so the plants are getting lots of water, free nitrogen in the air from all the lightening storms and some good heat to get growing. I actually think I’ve only watered the garden twice this month. Yay! I’m saving money on water too!

I think I’ll make up some of my famous Alfalfa tea later today and let it brew for a week or so. The garden has been doing so well I haven’t thought of using my secret sauce (great organic fertilizer that alfalfa tea is!) on it yet this year, but at least one dose won’t hurt it at all.

How is your garden doing so far this summer? Has the weather been good for it? Have you been getting a lot of rain and like us haven’t had to water much?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Filed Under: Blooming today, Garden Buzz, Green Thumb Sunday, Organic, Photography, Summer in the Garden, Toronto Tagged With: Alfalfa tea, Annuals, backyard, Balloon flower, bloom, blooming, boulevard, Box Turtles, buds, Clematis, Cosmo, dahlia, daylilies, fertilize, flower, flower bed, flower beds, flower stalks, flowers, free nitrogen, front yard, full bloom, garden, gayfeather, grass, grasses, green, Green Thumb Sunday, grow, growing, GTS, hibiscus, high winds, Hosta, hostas, House, July, Lab, lavender, lightening, lilies, malva, marigold, midnight, morning glory, my garden, new plants, nitrogen, Organic, patio, patio table, petunia, petunias, plant, plants, puppy, rain, reseed, rose, Rose of Sharon, roses, salvia, saving money, spring, stalks, summer, Sunflower, sunflowers, tidy, Toronto, turtles, Vine, vines, water, weather

The Color Purple

by Tricia

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My garden is made up of many different colored flowers, but when I look at the photos I’ve taken it seems that there are much more of some color than others. I thought I’d show you a few of my lovely purple flowers today.This flower is grown from a bulb. It’s formally called Liatris and more commonly known as Gay Feather.

Liatris

In my front flower bed I grow a small woody plant called Pervoskia Little Spire. I believe it’s a form of Russian Sage. I think it was a little windy when I took this photo and the flower stalks in the center moved closer to the lense as I shot the photo so the center is slightly out of focus.

If you can’t grow lavender you might try growing Russian Sage or even a nice Salvia as they are similar in appearance (tidier I believe), but they don’t have any scent.

Pervoskia Little Spire

Finally, here’s the common but ever so lovely purple petunia. Need I say more?

Purple petunia

How many purple flowers do you grow?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Filed Under: Blooming today, Green Thumb Sunday, Home and Lifestyle, Photography, Recreation, Summer in the Garden Tagged With: Bulb, flower, flower bed, flowers, garden, gardener, gayfeather, Green Thumb, Green Thumb Sunday, grow, growing, Liatris, my garden, nature, Pervoskia Little Spire, petunia, petunias, photo, plant, purple, purple flowers, Russian sage, salvia, scent, stalk, stalks

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