Late season blooms

Being in the "off" gardening season, I am sometimes at a loss for what to post about. All I need to do in that case is to go into my photo library and find one or several of the many photos I took during the season that I have not yet written about. Postings from now forward will probably have no rhyme or reason. It will just depend on what photo I stumble on in my travels.

Today there is glorious sunshine which is infusing me(well actually, my soul) with warmth, although it is just an illusion as it is very chilly outside. As the weather seems to be taking a turn right into winter, I am heartened by the knowledge that this mild autumn weather has kept us from having to use much of our oil for heating the house. I think God in His wisdom is helping out those of us who are trying to economize by keeping our thermostats lower this year than in the past. We are working on a daily temperature of 62 degrees. How are you working on keeping your expenses as low as possible? Any ideas that you have found helpful that may be of interest to others? I am adjusting to the lower temperatures here by wearing more layers of clothing, and keeping the house open to the full sunshine on these rare sunny days.

We had company in over the weekend and the temperature went up to 69 degrees with the house full of warm bodies!!!

So these photos are blooms that I found around the gardens in October, which is a month when you rarely see any color at all. The warmer temperatures this past season allowed lots of flowers to bloom again when usually they would have been long gone to rest. I think I had so many extra blooms this year due to the fact that I had let everything go to seed and did not cut back any of my plants until they were actually dead from the frost.
These beautiful Fringed Bleeding Heart flowers were hiding under their foliage, but the distinct color caught my eye amidst the faded hosta leaves next to them.




This wonderful mass of Asters surround the fading Hydrangeas providing a beautiful purple swath around the few blue blooms still in such striking color.




These are Mia's Dahlia's which are enjoying one last day in the warm sunshine before the hard frost is due. Hurray for us, I remembered to dig them before that heavy frost arrived to be able to enjoy them for next year. And I put them in a container in the cellar right near other items I will need in the spring so that I do not forget them!! (Well, hopefully, anyway!! LOL)




This was the greatest surprise of all this fall. This wonderful Clematis has been struggling for several years now. The tree it had been growing on fell in half years ago, and I have been working on keeping it growing ever since, with not much in the way of blooms, as compared to the Clematis by the garage.


So what else is new?? LOL - In trying to get this photo to show what the tree now looks like, it is stuck in this sideways position only in my blog!! I tried twice to get it to change and it won't, so this is what you get!!!



This Clematis has the most delicate purple color, that is does appear white from a distance. It is the same color as the Columbine which started coming up last year. How interesting!! This is one I got back in 1987 that is called a Double Blue color! How great that the season stayed so mild to give it a chance to finally bloom!!!

Living mulch continued

As you get a more established garden, you can experiment with many different plants to see how well they might be able to be used as a ground cover/living mulch.




In this area the European Wild Ginger, Asarum europaeum, in the forefront has filled in nicely. In a closer look you can see how it has grown right around the Fringed Bleeding Heart and it is moving beyond, right towards the Tiarella and Hosta. It will eventually fill in the area while allowing the other plants to keep coming up through the spreading Ginger.

Wild Ginger requires full to partial shade. It is an evergreen, which means that the leaves remain year round. I love the contrast of the glossy deep green leaves against the delicate leaves of the Fringed Bleeding Heart. Ginger does have a blossom, but it is very non distinct and can be found under the plant in the spring.




Another plant which you may not think of as a ground cover is our native Violets, Viola, which are plentiful in my whole yard! I brought a few plants in from my Auntie Joe's home, where she lived until she was 93 (and lived five more years at my cousin's). (See my epiphany for more on this tale)

We had violets and Lily of the Valley in the home I grew up in and I have such fond memories of picking them and making wonderful bouquets of the deep purple Violets and white tiny bell spikes of the Lily of the Valley. So it was a no brainer that I would have lots of Violets here in Wrentham. This is an area adjoining our drainage "pit" we had to construct due to the wetlands we are on. I planted six small Rosina Violets here over twenty years ago, and now they make a beautiful cover on this whole slope.



They are a beautiful deep rosy color blanketing the area with their reddish/purple blooms in the spring.




I also have planted several other colors, which have intermingled over the years and create such beautiful combination of hues of purples to whites and rose throughout the spring.




There are several spots where the violets have taken over prior grassy spots, which has worked out quite well as we have been working on shrinking our lawns for years now.




These Hosta, in a deeply shaded wooded nook, are being greeted by the violets running up from the lawn to join them in their nestled spot under an old Maple tree.


In the top of this photo you can see a great ground cover creeping across the front of the Daylily bed. This is Thyme, a great herb which doubles as a living mulch.




This is a closer look at Golden Thyme.


Here you can see regular and Golden Thyme coming together is a great profusion of herbal glory.



Here you can notice how this Cleome is enjoying how the Thyme is keeping her feet cool on a warm day.


And here is Thyme blooming in her purpled, spiked splendor, cascading all over the front walkway,


while here the Golden Thyme shares its blooms with all the Daylilies.




I have found Hosta to be quite generous in their growth habits, and easily forming living mulch around trees and shrubs,


as well as around other larger Hosta.


You can see from this picture that these hosta have tried gallantly to keep the Sundrops in check, while a few outgrew their ranks and are trying to infiltrate the Hosta!



Pulmonaria is another plant that has grown into a great living mulch,



as well as the Asters under this Butterfly Bush.


I so enjoy watching how my gardens develop. Over time they take on a life of their own and I am convinced that I am just their servant in this journey I called my life.