Transition to Autumn

How great to start a month with a full harvest moon and temperatures in the seventies. It has been a wonderful Spring and Summer here with very wet weather and no 100 degree days. We did have a string of days over 90 degrees with no rain, but overall remarkably nice for the Triangle. The frogs, rabbits, hummingbirds, butterflies and unfortunately big garden spiders were plentiful. Of note, we didn't have any sightings of Gulf fritillary butterflies even though we have plenty of their host plant, Passion Vine. They were here the last two summers.

Ian and I are in the process of re-arranging plants in the herb bed and the garden in the backyard.

The plentiful moisture has encouragd some plants to take over such as the red bee balm and Black and Blue salvia. We also need to do a serious prune on the three beauty berry bushes. We will wait until the leaves drop and the berries are gone. The cardinals love the berries. We are taking things a step at a time; otherwise, it seems a little overwhelming. There are so many plants and not so much room to accomodate them.

Here's a few favorite photos from September through the first of October.

"September Charm", Japanese anemone

It's a magical moment when you see a Buckeye butterfly feeding on a "Teesbrooke Audrey", dahlia.

Waved Sphinx moth on the bedroom window screen.

Cyclamen coum in the shade garden

These are winter bloomers. I would love to have a colony of these one day.

The tea olive is blooming all over itself. Its high noted perfume scents the whole garden.

Close up of the tea olive blossoms

"Autumn" sage which has bloomed throughout the growing season.

This year we grew cosmos "Candy stripe" which turned out to be a giant, but we did enjoy them. I had to pull them up recently after the rain had toppled them over roots and all. I'm 5' 4" to give you an idea of the size of the cosmos. My goodness, I really do have Covid hair. Too much social isolation to worry about it though. I'm letting the gray come in.

Pink "Dwarf Early" cosmos was much more mannerly. I'd say it's about four feet tall.

Ian disturbed baby bunnies while mowing next door. Fortunately, they ran away. We hope that they survived since the nest was disturbed. We saw Mama rabbit, but not the babies again.

Coreopsis, Star Cluster They have been stellar performers blooming all summer and are still going strong.

The color changes with cooler temperatures.

I hope that everyone is enjoying the seasonal changes. Happy gardening!