FIRST FROST

 Since starting a plethora of bi-coloured Rudbeckia from seed two years ago I have fallen in love with these long-blooming, vibrant, stalwarts of the Sun Garden.    It takes more than one frost to put these beauties down.

Upon looking at these Gaillardia I am immediately struck by how much it looks like they have been sugared and are ready to eat for dessert...unfortunately they are not amongst the edibles in my gardens.

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BACK YARD PRIORITY - follow up

Last week I explained that I would be renewing my focus on the backyard gardens which up to this point have been lower priority.

My how fast things can change - as you can see, the garden is quickly filling up!

The first step was to remove the enormous quantity of chives which immediately made it look much cleaner.

The biggest source of plants to fill the void have been:

• those that the deer eat in my unfenced front gardens
• those that I find on sale once they are past their best for this year
• those that are unsuited to where I originally planted them

Deer rescues include:

- lovely orange Oriental Lilies that were completely eaten by the deer last year and heavily pruned by them again last week when they were just about to bloom!

- a few Malva and the lone Lupine from the Monet Garden that the deer also snacked on last week

Sale plants include:

- 5 "Popsicle Mix" Lupine.  Regular price $11 on sale for $3.50, done blooming for this year. I have  to admit it feels quite freeing to purchase a colour mix and it will be exciting to see what comes up next year!

- 3 red and white carnations that would not have fit into my colour-themed gardens, which after a hard pruning should come back for a second bloom this fall. Also on sale for $3.50 from $11.
- 5 Primula with a great spike of purple bloom for the Monet Garden where I have created space by taking out the deer-chomped Malva.

Plants getting a second chance include:

-5 or 6 Rudbeckia that have grown much larger than I imagined when I direct sowed their seeds last spring
- 5 or 6 large-flowering, yellow Primula that have been completely overshadowed by their enormous Rudbeckia neighbours and need to see the sun again

Next I need to dig up the Dutch Iris that clearly did not get enough sun in the Monet Garden. While they may have been the perfect colour match but that does not matter if they do not bloom, does it?

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CLOSING UP SHOP

Short of getting my order from Van Fleur with literally still dozens of things to plant and freezing temperatures creeping in, I am done and ready to finish closing up shop.  

Thank goodness the weather has been hospitable.

I grew lots of plants in the Sun Garden this summer I had never grown before so I had to learn about their pruning procedures and it turns out they almost all get severely cut back:

Blanket Flower

Monarda

Bearded Iris

Helenium

Peony

Crocosmia

Lilies

Echinacea is either/or.

Asclepias should stay up "until spring".

Rudbeckia laciniata 'Goldquelle

Rudbeckia wavers from keep the seed heads up for the birds to trim almost to the ground.

I will leave them until last and see how I am feeling...

Let us hear it for tomorrow, one of the season's final days to be spent outside.
Hip hip hooray!

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WORDLESS WEDNESDAY - last gasp

Thank you Loblaws for these plants, they kept their colour to the bitter end.

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MACRO MONDAY - rudbeckia

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GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY - september

For GBBD I have a round up of what is in bloom in the Sun Garden. The later the season, the better the garden is looking.

Three red Chrysanthemum have just recently begun to bloom. I am happy with the colour; remember this is the first time I am seeing these plants bloom in my new gardens.

The Thunbergia vine behind these Heliopsis is one of the few annuals in my gardens and a solid choice for late season colour after the Clematis have stopped blooming.

The Blanketflowers were a great choice and the Helenium behind them are not too shabby either.

The Rudbeckia from Loblaws are settling well and looking as healthy as ever.

This little "Secret Desire" Echinacea is the only of the four I planted last fall that has had a bloom this year, mostly due to being nibbled by rabbits all spring, before becoming surrounded and hidden by the Nasturtium border.

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A NIGHT IN THE LIFE - busy bee

I dug out these yellow daylilies on Monday but then it got too dark and for once I did not feel like putting on my headlamp.  I felt tired. Actually tired of gardening. 

It was a strange feeling.

While we have done an absolutely enormous amount of work here this year this feeling still felt unfamiliar and it took me a minute to understand what it was.  

The daylilies sat above ground for days until this evening when we were able to come home earlier than expected, otherwise they were going to have to wait even further, until early next week. 

Dug up. 

Split.

Drying out.

 

Have you ever bitten off more than you can chew in the garden? 

This is not my first time.

Now you understand my motivation for taking advantage of today's unexpected window of opportunity.  Once in the yard I felt refreshed and glad to be outside, so much so that when it got dark I donned my headlamp and happily kept going for another hour.

I prefer to tease apart plants when dividing but this was one giant mass of roots and a flat-edged spade was definitely in order.  These taller yellows will join the shorter reds I divided in the spring.  There is no question that I am going to enjoy having them intermingled rather than in side-by-side clumps AND there are going to be plenty more of them since they had not been divided in a donkey's age.

The clump made 8 very decently sized smaller plants that are sure to thrive next year, daylilies being daylilies.

 

The cup in the photo was for slugs, which I detest, but at least there are fewer than there were in my Toronto shady gardens. 

Mint and Chives had to come out. One of the few times I have put plants straight into the compost; it felt terribly wasteful, another unfamiliar feeling.  I decided I am going to take them all out but will wait until I have the time to guerrilla garden them this fall.

The Hardy Geranium I divided the other week is coming in nicely. I do not think we will get another bloom but the plants are very healthy. Under the glow of my headlamp I transplanted Petunias from the Sun Garden since I had to make room for moving around the Rudbeckia I started from seed (which I hope will look the same as a gift I received for the Lakefront Garden earlier this year).

While this little fella I found stunted and hidden under a Petunia may look like the rest of those Rudbeckia, it may actually turn out to be a red one I direct sowed but had thought none had survived.

To be certain I just need to get a bloom before the frost comes.

Tick tock.

Good night!

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LOBLAW'S SPECIAL EDITION - rudbeckia

Let us not forget that I am a marketer as well as a gardener, so when a publicist for Loblaw's contacted me about getting some plants from their store you can bet that I jumped on board.  I am used to working with bloggers on behalf of my clients but this is the first time the shoe is on the other foot. 

Thank you Loblaw's, or in the case of Winnipeg, "Superstore" as people here know it. 

A few weeks ago I was supplied with two Rudbeckia plants which turn out to be a great addition to my Sun Garden.  

 

 Since I try and picture my beds three years out I did what I generally do when a store-bought container clearly has multiple plants: I split them apart before planting. Yes, when they were in the middle of blooming & no, this is not generally recommended for short term performance, but as I always say, "as long as they come back next year...".  I want to delay having to dig them up and divide them as long as I can but still have them pack a punch in their first year.

 Three plants in each container were split and planted as six separate plants, which already have a much grander feel than if i had just planted the two bushier plants as-bought and they have hardly skipped a beat despite my aggressive treatment.  

I did not realize how much something taller was missing from the west side where I started more plants from seed and so where they tend to be shorter, at least for this year.  You can see in this fish-eye perspective the role they are playing in bringing height-balance from one end of the garden to the other.

From this perspective you can also see the colour-balance they bring with the Heliopsis on the far right.

All in all a great addition. Thanks Real Canadian Superstore.

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REPORT CARD - sun garden

Just over one month ago I shared my detailed plans for the Sun Garden, the garden that is clearly progressing the best with its sunny location.

How is it doing? Let's take a look.

Clearly things are growing well. Lots of rain, lots of sun.

Turns out fertilizing Nasturtium promotes leaf growth not blooming. At least they are hiding the Coneflowers I planted along the edge that the rabbits kept dining on, maybe now they will get an uninterrupted period of growth.

Nonetheless there are some gorgeous Nasturtium blooms making an appearance. 

I cannot believe I have never grown these before. 

I love them.

In the centre of this crowded space (inside yellow oval above) I believe we have orange and chocolate Rudbeckia, but we will have to wait and see blooms to be 100% sure. There are loads of them and I am trying my best to gently jiggle the roots apart and transplant them in any empty spaces in the Sun Garden. 

For example in the above small clump there are seven healthy plants; where they grow extremely close together I pinch the smaller one out so as to not disturb the roots of the other.

The Blanketflower running along the north border are going gangbusters.

The yellow stand-out above is Coreopsis Roulette. A flower I thought was red with yellow stripes but apparently also comes in bright yellow with flecks of red. 

Coreopsis Roulette is seeded mainly throughout the northeast part of the garden and its wispy and airy foliage makes the blooms seem like they are floating. 

Among the volunteer plants I have found are Stonecrop, which I moved to the Alpine Garden, white Dianthus which now lives in the Moon Garden, various Sunflowers, Vinca and these unexpected Pink Petunias.  

Is someone playing a practical joke on me? I am specifically trying to rid my garden of pink.

I planted Crocosmia from corms and from plants - the plants are finishing up their blooming but some of those started 'from scratch' are just about to begin  theirs.

So how do I feel about the Sun Garden? I feel great. It continues to improve with age.  Once the Coreopsis and Rudbeckia start flaunting their flowers it is going to be an absolute riot of joyous colour.

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LAKEFRONT GARDEN - what happened?

Upon our arrival at the Ontario cottage a few weeks back we found a portion of the Lakefront Garden - the portion with the greatest variety of plants including Hardy Geranium, Ox-eye Daisies, Iris, Sundrops and of course the garden-defining Daylilies - had been severely cut back on either side of the steps leading down into the water.

An honest mistake by someone trimming the lawn, but still a disappointment.

This is how it looked this year: B-A-R-E

Compared to how it looked at the same time last year.

Most are tough plants and are already coming back but will not be blooming this year.

This is how the rest of the Lakefront Garden currently looks, a mix of (mostly Kwanso) daylilies, Yellow Loosestrife and Sundrops.

I quickly set about remedying the situation by taking the rest of the Sundrops I started to remove from the Lily Garden last year where they were not getting enough sun. They were past blooming but at least they filled in the empty space somewhat. I also added in some Fuscia; though annuals are not normally my cup of tea they are hard to beat when you require immediate colour.

Friends bought me these "Autumn Colours" Rudbeckia which I just love.  I truly hope they take and become a permanent part of the Lakefront Garden where they were a welcome and timely addition. 

Have you ever found an unexpected and drastic change to your own gardens?

What did you do?

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