East Front Yard

I worked on cleaning out the room we keep toys in for our grandsons much of the day, while listening to the coverage of the horrible event of yesterday.  Early in the afternoon, I needed a break from both, and walked outside for a few minutes. I thought Heidi was in the basement, and maybe she was, but she heard the door, and when I saw her looking out at me, I grabbed my camera, and let her come out.  It was in the 40s, cooler than it has been lately.

After taking some photos for a new header photo, I decided to focus on the east area of the front yard.

The mums are finished for the season, and a number of plants have new growth at their bases, including some daylilies, yarrow, and hellebores.

The plant in front is a money plant.  It's a biennial, that will bloom next year.  I sure like the color of the leaves.  Behind it is a hellebore.  I thinned the irises in this area, and there are some small new ones taking advantage of room to grow.

I wonder if we should be covering the bicycle for the winter.  I don't think we have in the past.  Poor thing!  I bought it from a garage sale a few years ago.  The people who sold it to me knew I wasn't going to try to get in working order, and didn't seem to mind my plans for it.

I don't remember which plants normally have new growth this time of year.  These are the orange blooming poppies coming up amid the thin leaves of something I planted as a bulb a number of years ago.  Those are aster seed heads next to the poppies.

I'm thinking the pine leaf penstemon is pretty much evergreen.

Continuing to travel to the right around the bed, the kniphofia has green under the tannish finished leaves.

There are some bare spots that I planted seeds in this fall.  I am hoping they all grow.  Some are prairie larkspur, and I'll have to look again to see what else I planted.

These are money plant seedlings.  I am assuming they will put on growth next season, and then bloom the next year, assuming I let them grow where they are.

Here's where I planted some prairie larkspur.  I can't tell what the seedlings are that are coming up, but I was thinking they needed the cold of winter to germinate in the spring.  The hellebore plants sure look good, even though we didn't have as much rain as they prefer this summer.  We watered, but they did get dry at times.  Oh, and I hope the Indian grass I planted near the bicycle this fall took hold and survives the winter.

I divided the large clump of Indian grass, and put the other half here, to the right of the daylily.  The drumstick alliums are up, and I'm thinking they usually are up in the fall.

Some of the sedum type plants I planted in the basket are not winter hearty, but I hope the ones that are do OK in this spot.

I like my tall plants.

I like rattlesnake masters in all seasons.

I am excited for spring to get here, and to see what all comes up in the bare spots.

I like hibiscus seed pods.

Here's the view from the porch I like to include.

I used sage from the herb garden for Thanksgiving turkey.  I don't remember if one can cook with miniature sage.  Do you know?  I'll have to check.

I'll need to give the lavender a trim this spring.

Heidi did a good job staying in the yard.  I normally tie her to a long leash in the yard, because she tends to wander off when she gets a chance, but the grass was still damp from the almost inch of rain we were blessed with last night.

I also took some other photos in the yard, and when I did, I noticed a hellebore on the east side of the house with a couple buds, and a fully opened bloom!  I went back to the front, and saw these buds on the first hellebore plant that was shown in this post.  I hope they still bloom in the spring!  We really have had a mild fall so far.

joigos[nrgu  LOL, I am editing this.  Our son and grandsons Facetimed me, and I thought I was ready to publish this, but see I wasn't.  I always type some letters after the last photo, to make sure I will have room later to write a closing.  Sometimes in the past, I wasn't able to write under the last photo.

Well, I have been doing a lot of crying and praying for the families of the murdered children and educators, and for the family of the shooter.  I don't understand why anyone should feel they have the right to own those kinds of weapons.  Do people who collect guns also collect the ammunition for them?  I'll never understand that.