Post Hard Freeze

Since the last post, we've had some colder nights, and the colors have changed some more.  As usual, it has taken more than one day to get this post done.  I better get this posted tonight, because it is snowing right now, and it will be time to take the first snow photos soon.

Even though we have no trees in our yard, the neighbors have plenty to share with us, and the wind does a good job getting them over.

The Common milkweed buds seemed tightly shut to the point I thought maybe they were not going to, but they surprised me.  In the past, I took them off before they could ripen and blow around the neighborhood.

I do have these cut off now, but they sure are pretty.

The New England aster blooms have gone to seed, too.



I may have said this already, but I hope winter goes by as quickly as spring and summer did.

While we don't have room for a new tree, I do have lots of tall plants in the yard.

I'm enjoying the Rudbeckia maxima, on the left, behind the fence, and Grayheaded coneflower, Riddel's goldenrod, Little bluestem, and I think the plant on the right is Stiff goldenrod.

I don't show this area often, because it's been slow filling up.  The silvery groundcover is Pussytoes.

There are three New Jersey tea plants in the area.  I hope they grow to be a good size next year.

Looking back to the west:

Wild bergamont is another plant that looks pretty to me in the fall.

I am having trouble staying awake, so please forgive me, but I am going to go ahead and post this without identifying the plants.  Maybe I'll come back later.  Most have been identified in past posts, though.

Joe Pye weed:

The Hellebores have grown to a nice size, and the foliage seems to not mind the cold temperatures.

I think these are from a Butterfly milkweed.

As you can see, the irises are finished blooming.

Stock is an old fashioned fragrant annual.

Mountain mint:

My heart and prayers go out to those of you in Illinois and other places that have had severe weather lately.  I hope you are all safe and are ready to enjoy Thanksgiving.

Frost and More Fall Color

Yesterday morning was the first frost that I have noticed. When I went out to take photos, Heidi was in the back yard, and she was a little unhappy with me for being out there without her. 

This is Golden Alexander.

The Wild quinine foliage looked sparkly in person, and the Salvias I can't think of the name of, had lines of frost on the leaves, but the blooms are still holding on so far.

Looking at the Aster blooms makes me shiver!

Narrow leaf mountain mint:

Brr!  It looks like winter!

Lanceleaf coreopsis:

I forgot which kind of perennial Geranium this is.

A wider view:

I've mentioned this is the first year I've grown Sweet black eyed susans, and I'm loving the fall color.  I guess the frost didn't show up as well in the photo.

Prairie smoke geum is native to the states near Nebraska.  It is one of the early spring bloomers, and the foliage looks good all season.  The seed pods are Wild senna.

Later in the day, I took Heidi out to take more photos.

The Jupiter's beard still has blooms.  I don't remember if it normally does this late.

Snapdragons have a long bloom time, too.

This is an area by the curb where I have been taking daylilies out.  I hope the new plants, such as Amsonia hubrichtii, Big leaf aster, some grasses, and such grow well next year.  This is an agastache that I moved from somewhere else in the yard, where it had volunteered.

The frost did not harm anything that I could tell.  I hope the plants that are in the area in front of the fence leap next year, as most of them will have been there 3 years.

I like the color of the Switchgrass, 'Heavy metal'.

I've noticed that Mexican hats like to reseed.  I think I'll let them fill in any bare spots left in this area.

Please bear with me as I seem to like to show photos of the Grayhead coneflower and Riddell's goldenrod.  Oh, and there is some Little bluestem in front of the goldenrod, and the goldenrod on the far right is Rigid.

The east front bed also still has some nice color.

I am amazed at how well these irises are doing.

I've really come to appreciate the Heuchera richardsonii.  It has a nice fall color, and I'm thinking the foliage doesn't die back.  I'll have to watch and see.

I don't remember if I have mentioned that I clean up the garden in the spring.  There are some insects that overwinter in the stems of plants, and birds eat many of the seeds on the plants.  Plus, I like the look of plants, even if they are dormant or finished with their lives. 

This turned out to be a bit of a hodge podge post.  I hope fall is treating you well.  In case I don't post again before Thanksgiving, I hope you have a nice one!

Fall in the Front Yard

I was going to do a post of photos taken from our front porch, but then, decided to go into the yard and take more photos.  I'll let you know when I get off the porch.  ;o)  (By the way, this post was over a week in the making.  I wanted to take more photos today, but it was very windy, and Larry wanted my help putting plants in the egress window and getting ready for winter.)

I've had trouble finding a good time to take photos, because there has either been too much or not enough light.  I'm forgetting now what time of day this was, because these were taken a few days ago, and this post has been 3 days in the making so far.  I didn't get to work on it yesterday, though.  I used my zoom for this and some of the others, so I was still on the porch here.  The tall plants are Joe pye weed, Meadow rue, and, on the right, Cup plant.

Here is a fuller view of the Cup plant, which is also in the next two photos.  I'll be showing the other plants here closer, too.

Even when the plants are finished blooming, they have a beauty all their own.

There may be a few seeds left for the birds to eat.

We'll head to the west.  I love the colors of fall, but spring and summer are still my favorite seasons.

Here we see Wild quinine, Switchgrass 'North Wind', Illinois bundleflower, and Grayhead coneflowers on the far right.

I used the zoom for this one.  The tallest plants are Rigid and Ridell's goldenrods.

Here they are even closer.  The little pink blooms are some kind of Boltonia, I'm pretty sure.
 

Still using the zoom:

Someone told me that deadheading Gray-head coneflowers does not extend their bloom season, but I did an experiment this summer, and the ones I did not deadhead were finished blooming several weeks before the ones I did deadhead.  I did not deadhead the Wild senna.  The seed pods are almost as cool looking as the blooms.  I like Liatris in the fall, too.

Larry took most of the garden stakes out today, and put a tarp on the bench, so the next photos will need to be taken around that.  He also took off the baskets that were protecting some plants from the rabbits.  I'll have to get those back on.  I also saw him start to pull some plants from pots.  I requested that he leave that job to me, since not all of the plants are going to get pulled.  I hope I stopped him in time.  He does know that I do not clean up the flower beds until spring, though.  There are some beneficial insects that overwinter in the stems.  Hey, I need to ask Gail what plant it is she says should be taken out in the fall, though.

The grass near the stump is Switchgrass 'Northwind'.  I am tickled that the strawberries under the bench produced this year, and are spreading.  I meant to take the plants out that are next to them, except for my mother-in-law's 3 peonies, so they have more room.  They are growing in there, though.  I'll have to be careful when I take the other plants out.

Have I mentioned that this season flew by way too quickly for me?  I retired in May, and am now subbing as a special education paraeducator, so I'm looking forward to next spring.  My plan is to work 3 or 4 days a week when it is not gardening season, and 1 or 2 days a week when I can be out gardening.  Maybe I'll be able to keep up better.

I'm still on the porch, and have turned the camera back to the east.  I don't even know what kind of shrubs these are, and am not in love with them, but Larry takes care of them.  There was a spring when a bunch of garter snakes mated in there.  Beyond that is the one butterfly bush we have.  I get it deadheaded several times during the season so it can't send seeds anywhere down stream.  I've considered taking it down.  It has gotten larger than it should for the space, but Larry has certain plants he likes, and this is one of them.

Here is where I got off of the porch.  I think I've already named most of the noticeable plants, so I'm not going to label many here.  The plant on the left next to the Liatris is one of my favorites, Whorled milkweed.  I've mentioned I dug it from an area at our church that was about to be dug up.  It was growing there on its own, so it is a regional native.

This is a few feet along the path, heading west.

The Little bluestems are quite pretty this time of year.

The Rudbeckia maxima is pretty cool looking still.  Last year, its first here, it only had 3 or 4 blooms.  Oh, I see the few blooms of the Prairie dock I planted this spring, right behind the white trellis/bench.  Maybe it will have much more next year.

We need to get the rain barrels drained.  There are some plants that could use a drink.

I walked out to the east side of the area to take this one.  I'm glad the Baptisia, which has been there 3 or 4 years is doing well.  To the right of it is one of the new Swamp milkweeds I planted this year.  On the far right, the Meadow rue has a nice golden color.

I hope fall is going well for you.  I sure am thankful for the outdoor space we have that I get to garden in.