Autumn Snuck up on me!

I skipped August this year. I haven't felt very inspired. We have had an unusual amount of rain in late summer. I haven't spent much time in the garden. I've been hiding in the house due to high humidity, sogginess and plenty of blood sucking insects!

https://www.cbs17.com/weather/weather-stories/rainfall-totals-of-2024-off-to-highest-start-since-1939-in-the-triangle/ RDU Airport has recorded 30 inches of rain since July as of Sept. 24th. This is before the arrival of Hurricane Helene's rains.

There have been some bright spots though. The cardinal plant in the pond loved all of the rain. It has really filled out this year. One day I had the good fortune of seeing a hummingbird feed on the plant. You can see that the duck weed in the pond liked all of the rain, too. I skim it out of the pond from time to time. You would think that the frogs would be thriving with all of the rain, but owls have been very active near the pond this summer. No doubt, they are intimidating and eating the frogs. We have a group of young frogs now, but very few adults.

The area by the bench is not very attractive after the bluebells die back. This year I think I have found a solution to that barreness.

The yellow twig dogwoods have thrived in the wetness. One of the plants has produced a baby plant. I thought it was a seedling, but discovered that it was new growth on a runner. Next slide please......

The solution! Ian transplanted the new growth from the dogwood to this area. I don't think it will interfere with the bluebells when they are in bloom. We should also get some winter interest from the yellow stems this year.

The native Obedient plants have thrived this year. This photo includes an annual, white gomphrena. I am working on a white, silver and purple theme in the pots around the herb bed.

We had an indoor art project this summer. I ordered a wood privacy panel from Wayfair, but it needed a nice coat of green. We painted it inside with Sherwood Green by Benjamin Moore to give the panel a garden vibe. The paint is actually from Home Depot's brand, Behr. I love that it is so easy to get color matches these days.

So, we lived with the bare screen for awhile. My earlier desire to add more garden art from Cricket Forge was satisfied with this Tree of Life sculpture.

I think it adds some intimacy and interest to the patio seating area. The tall plant fronds below the tree of life belong to a Christmas amaryllis. We'll see if it blooms again.

It seems I'm always filling gaps in the garden beds. This year the echinacea and daylily bed had a vacancy. :) We added Coreopsis, Shades of Rose to very front of that bed. This variety truly has a lot of pink to it. I didn't have to wait for cool temperatures for it to be rosy.

This short variety of Japanese anemone was planted two years ago. It clearly loves our wet environment this summer.

I'm embarassed to say that I don't know the name of this plant. I thought I had ordered Margarete from Bluestone perennials, but these look different. I can't find the order now to be sure of the name.

We also planted a hortizontal aster, Lady in Black, in the echinacea/daylily bed this spring. It has thrived. The large pink anemone was peeking through the aster from another border. The rains have almost laid flat some of the bloom stalks of the anemone. The aster is very attractive to many native bees and small wasps.

The dahlia has been knocked low, too. At least it is blooming well.

I was in the front yard taking garden photos when I saw this hawk in the middle of the street this morning, Sept. 25th. He flew away when I approached. I thought he he might be injured. I've never seen one just standing in the road.

We also had a break in the rain the morning of Sept. 25th. Many butterflies were out and about. This is chocolate eupatorium with two Pearly Crescent butterflies.

I moved the Carmine gomphrena to the meadow style garden next door in mid-summer. They weren't getting enough sun in their original location. This turned out to be a good move. I don't see much interest from pollinators on this type of gomphrena unfortunately, but you can't beat that pop of color.

Something to look forward to in a week or so, future white echinacea blossoms.

I wish everyone well as Hurricane Helene passes through in a few days. I hope to have some sunny photos for the October post. The dark days and so much rain have been a little disorienting.

Happy gardening!