Wordless Wednesdays: The Weirdness of Gilgal Gardens

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, click here!

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day ~ October, 2010

Bring out yer dead: Dead Hollyhocks, that is.

Whenever I was use my goofy hand cart to harvest tall, scraggly monsters, like Mom's Heirloom Hollyhocks, my neighbor calls out over the fence: "Bring out yer dead!" To him, my hand cart looks like a throwback to the middle ages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here it is... another Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. For a reality check, that picture above is a full, sad view of what's not blooming. As in pretty much everything. Though I have enough hollyhock seeds to populate the entire planet so this is your lucky day!!! If you'd like me to send you a bucket of seeds, just say the word.

Zebrina French (Miniature) Hollyhock

Little bits of color, here and there, thanks mostly to Zebrina. She's under the delusion that it's still summertime. Her sistahs kicked the bucket about a month ago. This gal is a volunteer, seeding herself in the most inhospitable place. Now, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer... but I am picking up what she's putting down: Pahleez! Less frequent watering, thank you very much. This extra dry spot is heaven to me!

Pincushion Flowers (Scabiosa) in pink, blue and purple are still hard at work.

A few happy Blanket Flowers (Gaillardia aristata) adorn the brown mess that has become my autumn garden.

And, thus ends another glorious summer of sweet, lazy days, bright blossoms, muddy jeans, and happily ruined manicures in the ongoing battle with those pesky weeds.

* Pop over and say hello to Carol of May Dreams Gardens ~ the brainchild behind Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day held on the 15th of each month.

A Not To Be Harvest Festival and the 10-10-10.

Arose early this morning, with a full day planned! Heading up to the High Star Ranch Harvest Festival! Fully intended to spend the whole afternoon goofing off at what promised to be an exceptionally good time. Big fun, fabulous food, demos, entertainment...

Only one real problem with this grand plan. It happened yesterday. Whaaa? (Clearly I need to buy a day planner.)

So, here I sit, in front of the Mac... perhaps I should visit a blog, or two. Carol had a wonderful post. From there, I popped over to say hi to Dee and saw how she adapted Carol's clever idea, adding her own creative spin.

Can I be a Copy Kat and play this game, too? For October 10th, 2010, [10-10-10] here's a salute to the 10 hardest working perennials in my waterwise gardens. These gals bloom for at least 8 weeks, some 12 or 16 weeks. All are drought-tolerant, much-loved by hummingbirds, butterflies, and most everyone who bikes past the Street Garden.

May Night Salvia

Salvia x superba

Flowers: June - August, with deadheading

Full sun
USDA zones 5-9

Tickseed Coreopsis

Coreopsis lanceolata

Flowers: June - September, with deadheading

Full sun

USDA zones 5-9

Munstead Lavender

Lavandula angustifolia

Flowers: July - October

Full sun

USDA zones 4-10 

Bellflower Deep Blue Pearls

Campanula carpatica

Flowers: June - September

Full sun

USDA zones 3-8 

John Cabot Roses

Flowers: June - October

Full sun

USDA zones 3-7

Johnson's Blue Geranium
Geranium himalayense x pratense
Flowers: May - September
Full sun
USDA zones 4-8




Redbirds in a Tree
Scrophularia macrantha
Flowers: June - September
Happiest at 6,000 feet or higher
Full sun
USDA zones 5-10





Cat Mint
Nepeta x faaseenii 'Select Blue'
Flowers: June - August
Full sun
USDA zones 4-9




Jupiter's Beard
Centranthus Ruber
Flowers: June - August, with deadheading
Full sun
USDA zones 4-9





Corkscrew Ornamental Onion
Allium senescens 'Blue Twister'
Flowers: June - September
Full sun/Loves clay soil
USDA zones 3-8

 

Do you have a love affair with 10 special flowers? Do tell!

Asters and the Butterfly Effect

With pretty much everything else winding down, purple Asters are suddenly the name of my game.

The latest of my autumn perennials, they're happily blooming in every nook and cranny. Though, I can't take a whole lotta credit for that. Seeing ash how they're weeds.

Well, they started out as weeds. But, I'm an equal opportunity flower employer. You don't need a fancy resume to get me all excited. Once I discovered how pretty the wild Asters were, I eagerly promoted them to flower status.

And, I help them along a bit. Me and my 250 foot hose. :) Which I schlep up the hill to the undeveloped portion of our backyard where I play favorites with the wildflowers. If I happen to like the looks of you, you'll get a drink. And, if I don't, then you're on your own. It's working. Little Asters are taking over and that fits neatly into my grand plan ~ of not actually having to pay for any of the flowers growing back there.

What's so great about Asters?

Well, if you're dreading the onslaught of winter, they're just about the latest 'Daisy' to bloom in the garden.

And, they're so easy. Even if you break down and actually buy the hybridized perennials, all you need is sun. They grow in dry, wet, clay, sandy soils, too cold to imagine Canada and too hot to handle New Mexico.

Plus, they're good eats for our favorite hobos... traveling bees, butterflies, and birds. The Migrating Monarch Magazine recently reviewed them as the 'perfect flower dinner for a long road trip.'

The Butterfly Effect:  
* I found this to be the most enjoyable story! Perhaps you will, too... 

"I asked the waiter standing outside the door of the steakhouse to find a corner table for me, my colleague and the butterfly."

"Right away, sir," responded the waiter, acting as if there was nothing extraordinary about a butterfly dropping in at a steakhouse... Read the rest of this marvelous story.

The Joy List

The Professor tagged me for this fun meme ~ simply shelling out 10 things I enjoy (aside from reading blogs. :) Here we go....

Numero Uno:

The scent of Lilacs after a spring rain.

This dorky dog.

The Perfect Horse

& The Problem Horse

My daughter's company.
She's in Paris, right now, enjoying the lovely flowers of Jardins des Tuileries. (We should all be this lucky!)

Winter ~ yep ~ as surprising as that may sound ~ this gardener enjoys winter as much, maybe more so, than summer.

~~~~~ Quiet Time ~~~~~

So I can hear myself think.

Radiolab! If you haven't discovered these free podcasts go grab one right now! Start with 'The Luckiest Lobster' and you'll be hooked. For life.

Opera. 

Turandot is my fave.

Traveling to pretty much anywhere.

And, there you have it! Easy Peasy. Passing this meme along to 10 more victims:

• Monica 
• Meredehuit
• Toni
• Marsha
• Happymouffetard
• Merlin
• Caite
• Max
• Jill
• Gail

Bouquet Day!

Here's my sorry little submission for Noelle's wonderful meme: Monthly Garden Bouquet. All my little pretties can fit in a cordial glass ~ note the penny in the picture. (Feel free to ignore the hose :)

Okay! Onward and upward. 

These next two submissions are NOT mine. But, they're so cool I wanted to share. I hope you enjoy them.

My non garden-blogging friend, Karen, is a newbie to the world of Dahlias, but that didn't stop her from winning pretty much every prize in the house at last weekend's flower show.

Best Use of a Dining Room Table.

[These are just her winners. There were many more categories at the flower show.]

Three cheers for Karen. And, for Noelle, too. Creator of Monthly Garden Bouquet.

Mish Mash and the Mums

I'm on a mission to keep my new Hardy Mums alive. If you have any tips, I'm all ears.

I had to work all weekend. ALL weekend. As in 12 solid hours on Sunday but only half that on Saturday. Because Sandy suggested I knock off early to do wine and appetizers. (I'm only human.)

This is me working:

Well, actually this is me, behind the camera, killing time instead of working. But, yes! That's a real Sunflower.

Sometimes, when I receive a bouquet of flowers, I pull out the most favorite one and let it shine all by it's lonesome next to my computer.

That Sunflower replaced the previous Pom Pom Dahlia. Gone but not forgotten. An astonishingly perfect white Dahlia that kept getting more and more interesting as it slowly faded into oblivion.

Got the Dahlias for writing KC's press releases. (She grows them.) Got the Sunflowers for sending Jamie on my New Mexico horse ride 'cause I no longer wanted to go plus they wouldn't give me my money back.

Dearly Departed Dahlia

Got these gargantuan Mums for doing absolutely nothing. Seriously. I met up with Sandy for wine and appetizers, complimented her on the gorgeous Mums and she said, Here! Take them! (Don't ya just love how wine makes everyone all generous and stuff?)

Which makes me think I should be very forthcoming on flower compliments from here on out. You just never know when a gardener might be in the mood to gift you with something...

~~~~~~~~~~~~

* After Googling Mums until my little fingers are all worn out, I'm beginning to wonder if the term 'Hardy Mum' is a conspiracy theory. Did you know Mums need to be planted in the Springtime in order to have half a chance at surviving the cold, cold winter? I didn't either.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Mish Mash Monday is the brainchild of Monica, resident gardener to the fairies.