Beautiful Edibles Part I: Hello, Sunshine

In small gardens, and in gardens such as Squirrelhaven where full sunlight real estate is at a premium, vegetables have to do double duty as ornamental plants.  When I was buying seeds for this year's vegetables, the boy wasn't interested because he doesn't eat them.  However, he did ask me to plant one edible, sunflowers, as he loves sunflower seeds.  I duly procured a shorter variety and sowed them in the garden.  I weeded, watered and waited. And waited. And waited some more before I realized that nothing was going to come up.  Someone had stolen the seeds.  Lucky for the boy (he's a very lucky person), that someone dropped one of the seeds in the gravel on the south side of the house, where it sprouted and grew.

I deserve some credit here for recognizing the seedling and not weeding it out.
Now that it has matured, I'm endlessly fascinated by the beauty of the plant.




I've had some fun with it in Photoshop.






Even the leaves are interesting.




Do you see the Greenman?

Three for Thursday: Outstanding Hostas

Welcome to Three for Thursday, the anything goes as long as there's three meme created by Cindy of From My Corner of Katy.  This week, I'm looking at the best Hostas of Squirrelhaven.

This is the ideal time to evaluate Hostas, at the end of summer, when the shade garden is at its nadir, when the ravages of slugs, hail, deluge and drought have done their worst (note the fried Polyganatum in the background).  These photos are not retouched, and I did only a tiny bit of deadleafing on Hosta 'June' (above).  I haven't used any slug bait or in any way protected these plants.  June has sustained virtually no damage to the leaves except for that inflicted by the mower and my feet.

For bigger and variegated foliar beauty, there's Hosta 'Olive Bailey Langdon,'

an improved 'Francis Williams.'  I have not deadleafed this plant.  There is minimal discoloration to parts of some of the leaves.

Nor have I deadleafed a solid, large performer, 'Krossa Regal'.

The blue cast to the leaves has long since washed off, but it still has a quality presence in the garden.  Based on these Hostas performance this year, I conclude that slug-resistant Hostas are also more hail-resistant than other Hostas.  If you want good, easy to maintain Hostas, give any or all of these three a try.

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I'm guest posting today on Garden Rant about Independent Garden centers.

Harbingers of Autumn: End of the Month Views at the End of Summer

Tomorrow is the start of meteorological autumn. I've been thinking about autumn a lot lately, what with the temperatures 10 degrees above normal and virtually no rain for three weeks. I long for the cool, crisp days of autumn. One frequently encounters the phrase "harbinger of spring," but what about those plants that are the harbingers of the other transitional season?

The garden looks worn and tired....


Once again, let's start at the street.

view from the curb

Rose 'Carefree Beauty' and Dianthus 'Cranberry Ice'

The rose is finally starting to look good again without the constant onslaught of Japanese beetles.

Phlox and coneflowers keep the nanoprairie going until the ex-Asters explode

Caryopteris and Echinacea 

the saddest part of the late August garden

halfway along the path


and turning around at the other end of the path

the blue/purple back there is Lobelia syphilitica

Clematis 'Betty Corning' has never stopped blooming.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides plays nicely with Heuchera Citronelle, which is reblooming

Phlox 'Red Super' and Lobelia 'Sparkle DeVine'

I should have waited to take this shot, the tree on the left is gone now

Heptacodium miconiodes is in bloom

until you look closer, and see the harbingers of autumn:
the fall-blooming Anemones,

Anemone x hybrida 'Andrea Atkinson'

the toadlilies,

Tricyrtis 'Tojen'

the ex-Asters,

ex-aster Eurybia divaricata

the Colchicums,

Colchicum 'The Giant'

the Sedums,

Hylotelephium 'Becka'

Hylotelephium 'Matrona'

the Caryopterises,

Caryopteris 'Jason' (Sunshine Blue®)

and the goldenrods.

Solidago 'Fireworks'

Have you seen any harbingers of autumn in your garden?

Thanks again to Helen of The Patient Gardener's Weblog, for the suggestion of posting garden views at the end of each month.
 

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Want to see some beautiful spiderwebs? Check out my post at Wildlife Garden today.

Ladies & Gentlemen, We Have A Winner

I'm just tickled that my "On the Road Again" entry in Gardening Gone Wild's Picture This photo contest won the gold.  Congratulations to all the winners, and thank you, judge Allan Mandell, for your kind words and appreciation of the idea behind the image.  The win completely compensates for the aching back and feet and the sweat I accrued as a result of my walk across the Loop that afternoon.   Because I went outside of my comfort zone and heeded some good advice (thank you Mary Ann!), I ended up with something extraordinary.


It's easy to stay in the same old rut, doing the same thing in the same way.  Making that detour, slowing down to absorb the experience, can yield great rewards for those willing to give it a try.  The same is true in the garden.  How do you know that a supposedly tender plant won't survive the winter until you try it?

Colchicum 'The Giant' growing next to an overwintered Oxalis regnellii 'Atropurpurea'

I was afraid to order a hundred Crocuses, until Gail, of Clay and Limestone, encouraged me (she's planting over a thousand this fall).

Crocus tommasinianus April 2010

I cut down an old Forsythia that was too big to be so close to the house.

It's a big change, and a risk, but whatever happens, I'm proud of myself for having the guts to do it, instead of continuing to try to tame it.

On a more personal note, my nephew Philip is going way out of his comfort zone. He's leaving tomorrow to begin his new job in Japan, teaching school to little Japanese kids.  It's a one-year gig.  He's fresh out of college, speaks no Japanese, and has never visited Asia.  He's going alone:  no family, no friends.

incognito Cut-out Phil

Good luck, Phil!  We'll miss you.  You're a big winner and an inspiration.