Blooms and Seedheads

In Sweden, where Katarina, from Roses and Stuff lives, it is Saturday, making my Blooming Friday post a day late. She doesn't mind, though, and I'll go give her my link when I get this posted. Her theme for the week is seeds and seedheads.

The blooms on the German statice dried on the plant this summer, and I never got them picked to bring inside because I enjoyed having them in the garden.

This lone seedhead on the clematis by the veggie garden looks pretty still.

Ageratum:

I'll want to collect some of the datura seedheads, as there will already be lots more moonflowers than what there is room for.

The Virginia mountain mint is still looking great. In the summer, the blooms are white, and loaded with wasps and bees.

This photo is from the 20th. I found it when looking for camera critter photos. It's a spent zinnia.

I meant to pick the blooms from this globe thistle to dry this summer, but didn't get to it. They will plant themselves if I don't remove the seedheads.

The short toothed mountain mint looks pretty good all season, too.

This is the second year for the Queen Anne's lace to bloom, but last year it bloomed later in the season, and didn't have nearly as many blooms. I had been doing a good job cutting the seedheads to dry, but the plant just kept blooming away. Soon, I will need to be snipping these off. I wonder how many new plants will come up next year.

This hollyhock photo was taken the 20th, also.

There are some yarrow blooms behind the blackberry lilies.

The 'Pia' hydrangea bloom was finished awhile back, but last year, when I picked the one set of blooms, the plant didn't bloom again, so I left it on this year. This is the only one that grew, and it was on the same stem as last year's.

There are still some blooms that I haven't shown lately. The catmint has a new flush of blooms.

The 'Spooky' dianthus I posted about early summer bloomed all season, and still has a few blooms.

I'm thinking the blue flower is another flush of blooms from a campenula I moved to the new bed from another area of the yard last year, and the 'Harvest Moon' coneflower has a bloom.

Have a great weekend! I'm happy to report my knee and ankle are starting to feel better after my fall almost 5 weeks ago. The school I work at has fall/quarter break next week, and I will have it off. I feel like my leg will be strong enough for me to get some gardening and housework done. I just hope there will be some good gardening weather. The highs are supposed to be in the 50s the first part of the week. That's doable with a jacket on.

Some Seedlings in the Veggie Garden

When I was taking photos for my veggie garden update, I noticed cilantro and other volunteers coming up, but had taken so many other photos, I decided to do a separate post. It has been raining since early yesterday morning, so once again, I went out in the rain after work today, and enjoyed my hunt for seedlings to photograph.

This afternoon I was trying to remember what I'd learned about whether all of the larkspur and bachelor buttons that I saw in the spring were new seedlings that waited for the right season to sprout, or if some of them were brave ones that had survived the winter. When I did a search, I found a post on a blog, How the Gardener's Workshop Garden Grows, that was quite informative. This person actually plants seeds to come up in the fall. It was stated that up to zone 6, the seedlings that come up in the fall are developing roots for spring. I am 5b, but I have a feeling some of the seedlings I have in the fall make it through to spring. I know there have been some plants survive that are grown as annuals here, such as a few daturas, and verbena bonariensis. Also, at least some of the flowers that come up, are newly sprouted, because we get more than the ones that come up in the fall.

I have a feeling the cilantro, shown in the first photo won't survive the winter, so I should use it soon.

This is larkspur, an annual. There are a number coming up.

I've had some hollyhocks that were supposed to be perennials. I'm not sure if this one is, or if it's a biennial. The ones that come up here seem to be yellow, even though the first ones I planted were blacks and reds.

This is bachelor button, an annual. It's the only one I've noticed so far.

The annual, cleome will send up lots more seedlings in the spring. I read that I should wait until spring to thin these to see which ones will survive winter.

Verbena bonariensis comes up at all times of the season.

This is a perennial sweet pea, coming up in the middle of the garden, next to some cilantro.

Once dill starts blooming, I have trouble keeping it deadheaded to prolong the season. I have been using the dill I dried, but maybe there will be enough to use some fresh before the snow flies.

I think this is catmint. If not, it could be anise hyssop.

I still have borage blooming, but some seeds evidently matured in time to start a new plant.

There are a number of young weeds enjoying the rain, as well.

October's Veggie Gardens Updates

Tina and Skeeter, from In the Garden, do veggie garden updates the 20th of the month, and put links in their sidebar to other bloggers also doing updates. The season is about over, but there are still a few things going on. I was able to pull out the tomato and pepper plants at my home garden a few days ago, but haven't made it across the street yet. I have next week off, so hopefully my knee and ankle will be healed enough to get lots done. The temps are supposed to be in the 50s and 60s.

The first 3 photos were taken Saturday. Grandson thought it was cool digging in the dirt, and at first, didn't want to give up the trowel to get the sweet potatoes harvested, but once he figured out what we were doing, he got into it. I also harvested the ornamental sweet potatoes, but plan to do a separate post on them after I cook and eat them.

Last year's sweet potatoes weren't so skinny. I think next year, I'll go back to not planting flowers in with them.

Here is a long view from the east end of the garden.

This is about halfway in. The flowers in the sun are Verbena bonariensis, a favorite

hangout of butterflies and bees.

The day before the snow, I harvested a lot of the lettuce. I'm glad I left most of the roots in the ground. They are growing again.

This is the kale I planted this year.

Looking back to the east:

In our dash to pick the last of the veggies before the freeze, we didn't get the grape tomatoes picked. I was disappointed, because they were loaded. I had picked some of them up before taking this photo.

Back to the east end of the garden, here are some closer looks at the Nero Toscana kale. I have been including both kinds of kale in soups this fall.

While cleaning up the garden, I laid some marigold seed heads down in a row. Today, when I did more picking up, I had fun pulling spent flowers off a plant and throwing them all around the garden. It will be fun to see where they come up.

It's looking pretty sad across the street.

The zinnias and Mexican sunflowers that were teaming with bees and monarchs a few weeks ago, are now ready to be pulled out.

These tomatoes that I started inside were so small when I planted them, I didn't know if they would grow. They did very well and would have continued ripening all the lovely tomatoes that we had to pick green to avoid freezing.

I have kale and lettuce here, too. I forgot to take a photo of the area behind the butterfly shelter, where I planted strawberries this summer. The 2 kinds of parsley and fennel planted for the butterflies are to the left of the chair, still green.

The bushes I planted near the back fence seem to be doing fine.

Soon, there will be lots of bare dirt, and I will be excited to make plans for crop rotation. There is a good chance the kales will still be producing next month. Most of the perennial herbs are doing fine, too. How is your vegetable garden doing this month?