BATHING SPARROW

before we get to the bathing sparrow, i caught this pair of male house finches drinking this morning. i'd never seen one before (thanks for the correction, MR.) i thought my eyes were deceiving me! the bird action was so fast that i was not able to get the correct camera settings before shooting this...i think i'll take a bath...
what a warm, beautiful day, the water temperature is perfect!



i think i'm clean now...
hey, wait...
are you spying on me?
(that sparrow was spinning so fast that my camera only stopped the water droplets! that's fast!)

FIRST FROST

it finally happened, jack frost visited. not a killing frost, though... echinacea 'coconut lime' is just opening...the small marigolds were hardly affected...
alpine strawberries seemed carefree...
the broccoli soldiered on (when should i harvest it?)
the japanese blood grass survived - this time...
echinacea 'sundown' deformed by cold...
the kale looks salted like a pretzel, but it is frost...
small marigold fringed with white...
tithonia 'torch' was higher and more protected...
brussels sprout leaves...
tagetes tenufolia, is so sturdy...
tulip tree seeds and leaf frozen in the bird bath... i you enlarge you can see the bubbles in the ice...

HALLOWEEN COLORS

happy day after halloween! while getting the paper this morning, i spied this maple leaf clinging to the white pumpkin like a starfish... or maybe my canadian friends and relatives will recognize this serendipitous national symbol...hubs and i decided to make patterns in the pumpkins this year, rather than faces. we used a drill on the white pumpkin. it was all very last minute... maybe next year we'll try harder. btw, the seeds from the white pumpkin are great eating. i'm going to make a soup from the sugar pumpkin tonight.
the fall colors in our area are intense this year. i've been getting up early to an orange-y light showing off the leaves, which i've tried to capture, below, in the entrance to the potager... (from l to r, big-leaved magnolia, amsonia, grasses, liriope and volunteer crape myrtle.)
part of the uncontrollable north garden. (l to r, willow, enkianthus, dwarf oak-leaf hydrangea, japanese maple sangu kaku, amsonia, buddeleia 'ellen's blue')
looking east in the south garden, with the asian square garden in the background (l to r, crepe myrtle, southern magnolia, witch hazel 'diane', japanese blood grass, baptisia austrailas)
another look at witch hazel 'diane', with luna. the horrible green fencing protects a young camelia from the deer. the asian square garden is at left.
the potager, with the entrance garden glowing at left. yesterday we had herbs, lettuce and kale from the garden. though i have had to remove cabbage caterpillars by hand, the broccoli is getting there.

POTAGER BULBS PLANTED

time to continue the clean up, harvest and bulb planting! i'm planning the center bed a hot palette of yellow, orange and red, with a bit of purple here and there, based on dutch designer jasper van der zon's mixed design at keukenhof ("one to watch," march 2009, garden design, p18.)first, the harvest... here's all the fordhook acorn squash from 4 plants, except one with which i made a soup about a month ago. we're going to try another tonight to see if they have sweetened up. the clothespin gives scale.
here are the carrots i harvested last week. i've still got more out there, but i'm not sure if they'll mature.
putting my back into it. i excavated the top 2-3 inches of soil so that it would be easier to place and dig in the bulbs.
luna watched me (previous photo and this courtesy of hubs.)
i'm planting tulips, daffodils, crown imperial fritillaria, muscari macrocarpum (yellow!) and lachenalia aloides pearsonii. i was disappointed to see some of the bulbs (all of the fritillaria) had mold. i hope they come up. here you can see the daffs placed, and the dogs beginning to wonder where i went. get your gf butt down here and plant those bulbs!
and here it is all finished. i've also removed the beans and all the curcurbits. i swept, but i don't intend to do that too much more this year!

OCTOBER & STILL BLOOMING

undulating southern magnolia leaf edge...
colchicum 'water lily' sparkling with raindrops friday morning...finally the night blooming cereus bloomed! the last few years, this plant's buds withered without opening. this flower was the 3rd try for this plant! i was rushing out the door to work on friday at 7:30 am and noticed this flower. i dropped my briefcase, grabbed my camera, and took the shots above and below.

echinacea 'coconut lime' is going to flower! i had despaired, but if the frost holds off, i should see one this year!
delicate detail of hydrangea 'limelight.' yes, that's an ill-fated japanese beetle hiding!
dwarf (?) oakleaf hydrangea has started to turn on the north side, except for this younger leaf.
the square garden looks a bit messy, but the mums and asters help.
i've been letting wild asters populate the new south border, because it's so pretty and carefree. the tree in the middle is a japanese stewartia, and the foreground plants are alpine strawberries.
rose 'heritage' taking its final bow, with a fiery marigold background near the potager.
'heritage' is on the fence in front of the potager fence (right above the lens i amateurishly left in the shot.)
another view of the potager through the garden gate... you can see i cleaned out all the blighty tomatoes this weekend. on the left is the big-leaved magnolia, then the amsonia, then the grasses, then the herbs.
the typical view of the potager, in the late afternoon.

POTAGER UPDATE, FALL

heavy lifting in the potager this weekend! i swapped the larger dwarf alberta spruces for smaller ones in the center. it's been my plan to have the potager accented by smaller conical plants that echo the trellis shape. you can see that i put the larger spruces in brick-colored square (unfortunately plastic) planters at the end of the paths. it will look really cool in the snow, i promise! i also cleaned up a bit. The potager is still producing carrots, beets, kale, beans and herbs. i hope to have sugar snap peas by the end of this month.for miss m, here are the pumpkins and squash i bought at the local fancy nursery. i like the cinderella pumpkin at the bottom and the pink one hiding in the back. i really like them all!
and, after 2 years of searching, i finally found a dwarf picea orientalis that was small enough to be affordable. hey, it may not look like much now, but check back in 10 years!

BEES KNEES

on a cool morning, a bee lays its drowsy head on a passiflora lady margaret pillow...

SNOOPY RIP

our beautiful snoopy departed this earthly coil yesterday... he developed a mouth cancer and rapidly declined. he was a "kick ass and take names later" kind of soul, whose love was hard earned, so all the more highly valued. he is missed.

DOWNY WOODPECKER

i've been visited daily by this cute little guy, who can't resist the sunflowers....here he is right-side-up on top of the potager gate...
here he enjoys the new cedar trellis, which we must have put there just for him...

SKIPPERS VISIT; LESPEDEZA BLOOMS

folded wing skipper blends in with sunflower head...gf blends in with marigolds reflected in potager gazing ball...
felt black-eyed susan petals clutch velvety center...
clematis 'roguchi' seed head...
the whippet oversees the late summer proceedings from the deck...
the bees are very excited about the lespedeza blooming...
here is the south side of the house with the lespedeza and crape myrtle blooming...

LICHEN & BUNNY

can't think of a unifying theme today... various things... here's a leaf for sohpie munns...rain beads on a lichen i saw in the woods today very magnified...
bun we spotted trying to break into the potager, i was 10 feet away when i took this...
buh-bye, bunnie...
the potager, which is still producing nicely...
saturday's harvest... the squash is 'fordhook' acorn, a rare variety. i made a soup yesterday, and found the flavor unremarkable, but the texture is pretty good. maybe it will develop better flavor if i let the fruits age more...
gotta have another spider web photo...
bat-winged begonia blooming in the rain... notice how tiny the pot is...
finches enjoy the sunflower seeds...

TRELLIS OF MY DREAMS REALIZED

hubs finally built the trellis of my dreams! miss m was right, a gazing ball was the way to go...here's another detail of the trellis, taken from the deck with the zoom... look ma, no nail holes!
the trellis cost about $200 in materials: 1.5" x1.5"cedar, $150, 0.5" copper pipe, $25, gazing ball, $25 and maybe a little more for the silicone rtv adhesive we used to attach the ball. let's see if the ball stays attached... we did rough it up a bit with sandpaper before glueing.
next spring i'll prune the dwarf spruces to better match the angle of the trellis... does anyone have any ideas of what to grow up it? i'm thinking of an orange peel clematis... your ideas?
meanwhile, the goldfinches are feasting on the sunflowers, but too shy for a close up. sorry this pictures just do not meet up to kerri's.
male on lower left, female on upper right...
female adjusting her position...

and, i harvested the 'shining light' watermelon... which was disappointing (not sweet at all.) i'm going to wait to harvest the others.