Happy Birthday, Debbie! :)

It's a cool, rainy afternoon here, and we need rain so it's a good thing! I don't think this will be quite enough rain, but it should help a bit.

Things are going well in the gardens, but i've really slacked off since the tour - getting lazy! LOL I did buy myself a new daylily. It was on sale, and it was pretty, so i shouldn't need any other excuse, eh? :)

Other than that, i've been doing some deadheading and seed collecting, and watering, watering, watering. The containers dry out so fast! I've also been picking vegetables. It's great to be able to enjoy fresh veggies! I've canned beets and made pickles, and made some zucchini things. Hmmm, i should make a zucchini cake this afternoon seeing as my mother-in-law is coming for supper. There's a thought. We've also had new potatoes and green beans - yum, yum!

Debbie, glad you liked the garden pictures. Here are a few more of what's blooming this week:

Hosta June

Danish Flag Poppy:

I think these 4 O'clocks are opening at 4 a.m. instead of 4 p.m.!

Echinacea:

A daylily that might be 'Pirate Patch':

Sedum 'Strawberries and Cream':

And a pretty morning glory from seeds sent by a friend in Georgia:

Off to build a zucchini chocolate cake! :) Take care!

Marcia

Thanks Marcia, I had a nice birthday day. *S*

We have been getting a lot of thunderstorms, had some more yesterday and suppose to get more today. So I haven't been out in the garden much lately.

U deserve a rest after getting ready for the garden tour. I can just imagine all the work u had to do. I'm always leaving the hoses laying around so my garden doesn't look picture perfect enough for a tour to come thru. I find horticultural garden shows stressful enough, that is why I don't put any flowers in them anymore or my gardens. Never mind having people coming thru my gardens, I would be a wreck. LOL

I love that pink/red daylily it has a beautiful colour. Your June hosta is lovely. Mine is a little dinky thing, it is blooming but isn't nearly as big as yours. They say the frist year they sleep, 2nd year they creep, 3rd year they leap! So I'm hoping next year it will be leaping! LOL

I have never seen a poppy that colour before, it is pretty! Where do u find these kewl looking flowers?
I had thought I lost my purple coneflowers in the front bed, but they are there. They were just hiding behind some flower I don't like as much so I ripped those flowers out so the coneflowers can get more sun now. That Pirate Patch is nice too. I like yellow flowers, they are so cheerful looking. And that morning glory is great! I didn't know they came in colours like that. Like I said u have very kewlllll plants!

Well I guess I should try to get some sleep.

Take care
Debbie :-)

Oh my goodness!! It's only 2C outside and the temp is still falling!! Where the heck did summer go? I have been wearing a sweater in the house for two days now as I refuse to turn the furnace on in August! I sure hope it won't freeze tonight as I'm not running out and covering the plants up. Plus it's dark out there and I don't want to fall into the pond. *L*

Hope u all are still having summer weather!

Debbie

Hello Northern Gardeners:
Yup, it happened! The F word. We had frost this morning just outside of Hymers Ontario. My windshield had to be scraped. There appears to be little damage - luckily we had watered the night before - but very worrisome none the less. I believe we were one of the coldest spots in the provinces last night. Could possible be a new record for our area - at least since we started to be serious gardeners - about 25 years at least.
Geo

That's scary! Debbie, let us know if you actually got it or if things survived. Fingers crossed!

Geo, we're a couple hundred miles west of you and had a warm, windy night last night. Thank goodness you had little dammage. For the past couple of years, we've had "it" the morning i first go back to work in August, which means a week from Monday. Then nothing for another month. Weird.

The good thing is that it's actually raining outside now! I'm hoping it rains all night! I'm so sick and tired of this drought, of watering and the ground is still like powder, of watering my containers one day only to have them the next day look like they haven't been watered for a week. We need a week of rain, but we'll take a night of it!

Debbie, 'June' is actually not very big. Maybe she just looks big in the picture, but she's only about a foot across. I think i'm going to have to move her again because the elder shrub next to her has really taken off and if it keeps growing like that, she'll be entirely under the branches next year!

Someone from BC sent me the seeds for the Danish Flag poppy. I admired them in a picture she posted and she sent the seeds! Same with the morning glory. Nice to have friends like that, eh? :)

Here are some more pictures. White Oriental lilies - i love them!

Hosta 'Summer Music':

Lily 'Centrefold':

Another Oriental - can't remember its name:

'Red Dutch':

'American Journey':

I'm not addicted to lilies. Uh uh. Not me. :)

Marcia

Geo u had frost? Yikes! I'm glad nothing got damaged though. You were lucky! What kinds of things do u grow?

Marcia, no we didn't get it. Everything is still green and I see more tomatoes are starting to ripen so I hope it warms up a bit too. I think it got up to 20C today.

Your June is a foot across? Wow! Mine is only about six inches..LOL

Your flowers are gorgeous!! Love those oriental lilies too. I can't grow them here it is too cold. *sigh* There is nothing wrong with an addiction or two ya know. *L*

My summer music is doing better this year. It seems to like more light and is growing a bit more leaves since I moved it last year.

Take care
Debbie :-)

Hello
Correct - no visible damage. However a frost still will get a reaction from the plants - since they don't like it one bit! They are "set back" - their reaction to the cold - so it will interfer with yields.
We have a large veggie garden - including tomatoes, peppers, cukes, all types of squash etc. My husband looks after this garden. I have perennial beds and lots of container gardens on the deck and about the yard.
Geo

Well it has been cold the past few days. Thursday morning it went down to 1C, Friday morning 0C. I had picked some of the green tomatoes but not all of them. But everything still is green, nothing looks like it got frosted. The tomatoes and zucs are all ok and the flowers are fine.

I took the a/c out of the window and turned on the furnace so it should get hot outside again. LOL I was just tired of freezing in the house at night time.

Geo, I'm glad none of your garden got damaged by the frost either. *S*

I have tons of buds on my clematis but I guess they haven't gotten enough warmth or sun to bring them out.

I have not been well this past summer so that is why I haven't been posting much. I seem to get tired so very easily. Am going for more tests on Monday so hopefully they can figure out what is wrong.
I'm tired like I was when I was pregnant,,,and if I'm pregnant I've got a lot of spaining to do! LOL

Take care everyone
Debbie :-)

Sorry you aren't feeling well Debbie, it's so nice to see you here again. My flowers are dwindling down, not much left that looks good. Nothing froze yet, I even have a cantaloupe plant struggling out there. Two of them are about the size of a grapefruit but I doubt that they'll have time to ripen. I didn't plant this, it must have been a seed from the compost. Any ideas on how to keep it warm for awhile yet ?
Claire

Hi Claire,,,,
Good to see u again too. *S*
About the cataloupes, I would try putting the fruit on a brick or rock, something that could get it off the cold ground and hold the heat in the fruit up a bit. Also if u have tomato cages, u could put them around the plants and lay clear plastic over top of the plants and on top of the cages to keep the plastic off the plants. Leave the plastic open a bit so the fruit won't cook though as clear plaastic heats up fast.
Hope that helps ya. Good luck.
Debbie :-)

Hi all! There's not much going on here right now, so i haven't posted a lot. Things are winding down - or should i say gearing up for some fall blooms? I'm hoping the asters and mums start blooming right quick! The annuals are what's bringing the most colour to the garden now as the perennials seem to be getting sparser. I was wondering what would happen now since everything was a few weeks early all summer. Things that would normally still be blooming are finished or just about done now but the fall things don't seem to be early.

I ordered three 'Peach Stella' daylilies from Dominion Seed House in the spring and one bloomed:

Pretty, eh? :)

I must say that i haven't been in the gardening mood for much of this month. I've piddled around, deadheading and collecting seeds, and i've also planted out some perennials that i'd put in containers because i didn't know what else to do with them at the time. I also dug up some marigolds and put them into containers for a fall look, and i rearranged a couple of containers to do this:

The lamium in it are three cuttings and i made sure i got the picture before they wilted! LOL

Oh, and look at this - i never got around to planting any glads this year, but this one must have survived in the ground!

It's not even up against the house or anything!

Here's a pretty annual aster:

It's called 'Ostrich Feather'. And here's a Ball's Aster plant:

They're pretty bright, eh?

I've been back at work for a week now. The kids go to school tomorrow. My son and his girlfriend were late making bussing arrangements for her kids, so they're dropping the older girl off here tomorrow on their way to work (6:30 a.m.). The little guy will go to the babysitter as he doesn't start school until the 11th. Both my son and his gf drive truck, and they have awkward shifts, so it seems the poor kids are spending their lives at the babysitter's. Guess that's the way of the world now, though.

Well, i'm off for now. Hope you're feeling okay now, Debbie.

Happy gardening, everyone!

Marcia

Hi

Marcia,

You always have such pretty flowers blooming in the fall. *S* My coneflowers, clematis are still blooming and a couple of my phlox, hostas of course, but most of my perennials are finished. The petunias are still blooming but starting to look tired. The calendula will bloom for a while yet as they can take the frost. The geraniums are blooming too, but I don't think I'll bother saving them this year. I still have a couple of the mother plants so will just take cuttings from them to start new plants. It seems that my geraniums take so long to start blooming, that marigolds and petunias seem to do the best in pots for annuals for our short season.

Those Peach Stella daylilies are really pretty. I love their colour! I had the yellow stella ones, but I pulled them out years ago because their blooms didn't do very well for me, but yours look very nice. Maybe I should try Dominion too.

That is really neat that glad survived the winter. Was it in the spot that your hubby dumped a lot of snow? I love your asters too! I don't seem to have much luck growing them,,, they seem to just start blooming before the frost hits them so I guess our season is just not long enough. Do yours bloom just in the fall or do they bloom all summer?

I'm glad your son is still working and it sounds like he is enjoying driving a truck too. That is great!! Have u heard from Gale this summer?

Take care and don't work too hard and keep those pics coming,,,, love them!
Debbie :-)

PS: I have started a September thread too, I forgot that this is now September,,,bummer