Hard to Keep Up with Everything

  This week's stars are the PeeGee Hydrangea in front of the vegetable garden and the sedum clump in the west side garden.  They are coming into their best days, and give an important late boost to the declining garden.  Coneflowers are fading.  They still look very nice from a distance, and give alot of color to the yard, but when I  go out and try to find some nice fresh ones to pick  there really aren't any.  Wave petunias didn't do as well this year as usual.  Some combination of rabbits and maybe even too much rain was not the best for them. 

Speaking of rain, we haven't had any since the 4th, and it is really dry around the yard.  Hard to believe, but the grass is starting to brown out at the edges and over the rocks.  The creek is still pretty high, meaning that the groundwater situation is still fine.  But the gardens need some surface water. 

The Hibiscus that we bought at Ebert's in Ixonia has produced saucer sized blooms of a gorgeous dark red that are unbelievable.  Sure hope it survives the winter and blooms each year.  The bush cherry has its own little spot in the Northeast corner of the yard, but Bill has plans to turn that area into another bark bed. 

It is the time of year that I am starting to think about what was successful and what wasn't and planning for next year's plantings.  Sometimes I think that I really need to thin out the stuff in the first berm, but then I realize that even though it isn't perfectly manicured and elegant, it is always in bloom with something.  The area around the pond is not as nice this time of year as I wish it was.   But that is an opportunity to consider enlarging the pond and not worrying about what plants may be lost in the process.  Fall projects are starting to stack up.  

The robins have almost completely stripped the pagoda dogwood of its berries by now.  Our new cat, Grace, likes to sit in the bathroom window and watch them.  I think she'd like it better if she could leap out and catch them.