Gardening Flowers & Foliage

That first food garden pic...thats 2 butternut squash plants. And, the entire garden had to come back from a frost a week after we planted, which was memorial day weekend. The plants that survived were 50-80% wilted and brown. Needless to say we got a later than normal start. Luckily the sunflowers weren't up yet during the frost.

 

Wow! Those are tall! do you harvest the seeds? If you can reach them.

 

Eggshooterist Is there a "green with envy" emoji? That looks spectacular. My thimbleberry, salmonberry and weeds are doing well. Hopefully I can get them all cut down before fall.

 

I believe a shallow face cut combined with the back cut, will fell the stalks, making access to seed heads easy.

 

We let the bees, birds and squirrels do their thing. We might harvest a couple heads to have seed for next year.

 

Something magic about cow poo and wood chips I guess. Lol

 

We had a giant decend one and stomped off into the forest.

 

Native wild hydrangeas in bloom. They may not have huge flowers but the pollinators love them.

 

Wild white wood asters:

 

Nice looking flowers.

IMO - wild = invasive. They're all over the place around here.

 

They’re certainly an aggressive self-seeder and can quickly encroach on a gardener’s kept garden. I let the ones that aren’t in my way grow, but I know where you’re coming from.

 

Good one! I wonder how long firewood made from the stalks would take to dry and would the BTUs be worth it.

 

As we head towards fall each year, I rediscover why I love the tree hydrangea that was ancient when I bought my house. First, it stayes in bloom for a very long time. This year it started 2-3 weeks ago. Once it has gotten going, it shows so many moods at once (all pictures, except very last one, were taken yesterday, 8/31/25):

The blooms start out greenish (a couple of weeks ago, I had actual green blooms but no pictures so this is as close as I have currently)



Then they turn white


Then they start blushing pink (but sometime the greenish flowers will start blushing pink)


Then the pink gets darker


The blooms will get darker and darker - found this picture from 10/20/23 (yes, that date is correct) and I don't believe that is at the darkest stage. Way over on the left, there is still a white bloom.

 

I didn't see anything about foliage needs to be alive and pretty, so....


That's a few hundred feet of vines, bittersweet. I so dislike that stuff.

It's yellow seed coverings were taunting me. They taunt no more!

I usually keep it in check, but being busy with my dad the past couple of years, it was allowed to flourish.

I'll also be cutting back forsythia growth in the same area, and other places around the yard.

 

It's easier than we like to let invasives go unchecked. I guess their only purpose is to give us lots of exercise when we do get around to taking care of them.

I have a bunch of Virginia creeper in the back treeline, once again starting to look like it is making ready for a strong incursion. I looked at it and thought, "it will make a good project for next summer . My excuse is by then I'll also have to take care of the raspberries, fledgling maples and other stuff that is trying to run rampant back there. additionally, most of that is in the area that some of the hill washed down into the yard during the flooding in early summer, so it is helping stabilize that area. I DID look pretty hard at it when I was taking care of a large patch of poison ivy in the southeast corner, but I didn't see any PI in those areas, so it can wait.

 

Oh yeah. There's Virginia creeper in the yard perimeter. It is what it is,

 

Winterberries in September.



I hope they last until it snows.

Its a plant that grows on the other side of the stone wall property line. I don't do anything for them except to look at them

 

Turtleheads are opening up. The pink ones are cultivated and in fairly heavy shade. Additionally, they probably get a little residual moisture from my watering the red rhodie that is a bit to the left (but I would think the burning bush between would soak up any moisture that travels down). The white turtleheads are of the wild variety and just showed up a few years ago along the drainage area. Those get more sun and are obviously crispified from the drought. When I noticed them on 9/3, I gave them a bit of a drink while watering the south garden that is 10' away.




Got a quick 3/8" of rain last night, but it came so fast nothing had time to soak in. I'll probably be out watering a few things today.