Autumn Really Is Here Now

Orange zinnias make for a nice autumn-themed bouquet.

Yep, Autumn really is here now, no denying it. It's been chilly and windy the past week, although it's been sunny too, so by mid-afternoon it's not too bad to work outside. I've been trying to do a few things around the gardens in anticipation of the end of the gardening season and the changes I want to make next spring:

North Border Improvements:

The new curvy front section of my North Border.

The biggest project I've been working on is the new curvy front section to my North Border. As I wrote in my last post, next spring I will move the flowers currently in the back section of the North Border to this smaller front section, and plant only evergreen trees, shrubs and plants in the back section, so I'll have a permanent Winter Border and a herbaceous Summer Border -- something to look at from my windows all year round.

My husband sprayed the grass last week and I rented a sod-cutting machine and used it to remove the sod, which I then had to pick up in small sections (sod is heavy!) and move to a large compost pile on the south edge of our property, using our pickup truck. My husband then tilled up the exposed soil. He'll spray any weeds that emerge at least once more before we plant anything there in spring.

The back left section of the North Border, which gets too much shade from the large ash tree at left for things to grow well there, is being returned to grass. I raked, seeded and watered it yesterday.

As soon as frost cuts down the annuals in the existing North Border, I will remove them, along with any weeds still growing there and anything else that I don't want to move forward to the herbaceous section next spring. That should make the reorganizing and replanting easier then.

All ready for planting -- now I just have to wait MORE THAN SIX MONTHS until mid-April, when the foliage of plants and bulbs will be up, to move them into their new arrangement. Guess I'll just have to be patient....

Seed Saving:

Another thing I've been doing is figuring out how to save seeds from my annuals -- something I've never tried before. I've always figured that seed packets are so cheap (only a dollar!), and I do enjoy buying them in late winter, imaging how lovely the flowers will be. But "only a dollar" adds up when you sow as many packets as I do in my large garden areas; I must spend at least $50 each spring on annual seeds, most of which are duplicates for large areas, things like zinnias, cosmos and four o'clocks.

These 'Old Spice Mix' sweet pea seeds were really easy to find and extract.

I'll still buy some annual seeds, particularly newer kinds of annuals that I haven't planted before or ones that I haven't been able to collect seeds for (or for annuals that are hybrids), but there's no reason why I can't save some seeds, especially from the annuals that are easier to do so for: zinnias, four o'clocks, marigolds, poppies, larkspur, etc.

These drying zinnia seeds are ones I'm saving by color (even though it's not
certain that they will indeed bloom in their parent's color, as they could have
been pollinated by pollen from a different color zinnia -- we'll wait and see!)

I'm also thinking about ways I could start more of my own annuals. I buy a lot of petunias, marigolds, impatiens and other common annuals as starts, probably spending $100 a year on them. I've justified it to myself because of the ease and the certainty (no depressing damping-off of seedlings, being able to choose colors by seeing plants in bloom before buying, etc.). And I know that it would take years to save the money buying starts to finance even a very small, unheated greenhouse. But I still think I could start some in my basement. I have a few shelves with grow lights that I've used to start vegetables in late spring with; maybe I can start some petunias and impatiens too? It'll be a project, one that will only cost a few dollars, and, if I fail, I'll just buy annual starts like usual -- there's really no downside to experimenting.

Bulb Planning:

The other usual activity for gardeners to undertake in the autumn is the planning, purchasing and planting of spring-flowering bulbs: tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, alliums, etc. Every year, those bright, colorful pictures on the packages turn me into a kid in a candy shop (usually with as little self-control as a kid -- with a credit card).

I generally have gotten most of my bulbs in past years at Menards, a local home improvement store, but a few weeks ago I walked into Costco and discovered their bulb display. Although their selection is limited, their bulbs are a much larger size and some are an even better deal price-wise. I usually also browse the catalog of and sometimes order from John Scheepers or their wholesale company, Van Engelen. Their bulbs can't be beat for selection and size/quality (although Costco's bulbs are their equal in size, impressively).

I suppose my splurge could have been worse....

 After my splurge, I sat down with paper and pencil and inventoried what I had purchased, made a list of where I wanted to plant bulbs, and decided which bulbs should go in each place. I'm still working on this and may still buy a few more things (I especially wanted to plant some Leucojum aestivum 'Gravetye Giant' after seeing it down in Texas last January, and only the catalog companies stock it).

Anyway, Autumn is indeed here, although if we're lucky, there will still be a few more weeks of decent weather to enjoy before it gets colder. Then, it's time to tuck in the last few bulbs, put away the hoses and gardening tools, and snuggle in for a long winter, while the garden sleeps its long slumber.

Still a few weeks left of flowers, if we're lucky. The zinnias, marigolds and salvias in the Rainbow Border are still gloriously in flower, which is a joyous thing to see in October.

I hope you are enjoying the transitions to Autumn in your own gardens, and that winter will be cozy -- and short -- for us all. Thanks for reading! -Beth

A Big Change for my North Border (Next Year)

This photo, taken from an upstairs window, shows a rough outline (using a garden hose) of my planned new border shape, as well as the existing North Border. (The far left end of the existing border extends beyond the new outline to the edge of the photo, but it was entirely filled with weeds, so I mowed it off.)

I've been thinking for some time now that I need to totally redesign my North Border. This large border, 60 feet long by about 12 feet deep, has been beset by problems from the beginning:

1. This is the border that I see from my kitchen window, and because it is a perennial, annual and bulb border, there is nothing for me to look at out there for about half the year.
2. It's been hard to find enough tall perennials to fill the back third of the border, so that part has been taken over by weeds. In fact, it's not just the back third, the middle section is hard to reach and not tightly filled with perennials, so weeds reign.
3. The left (west) end is in shade by noon from the large ash tree at the left side of the photo, so it's been hard to get anything to grow or flower in that area. Cue the weeds.
4. The long rectangular strip shape of the North Border doesn't match very well with the newer curvy island shapes next to it. I would like to the bed shapes to relate to each other more cohesively.

So my plan is this:

1. Reduce the length of the border, eliminating the shadiest 6-8 feet at left, to increase sunlight and flowering in the remaining border.
2. Next spring, move the better performing herbaceous plants from the existing border into a new, smaller, curvy front area (perhaps to be called "The Summer Border"). 
3. Plant only evergreen trees, shrubs and perennials in the existing border area (which could be called "The Winter Border"). Perhaps with a rock or statue or other permanent hardscape features for winter interest.
4. Heavily mulch the entire back area (the current existing border) with wood chip mulch around the evergreen trees and shrubs, to inhibit the weed problem. 

In winter and early spring, I would have the evergreen border and hardscape feature(s) to look at. I got the idea for doing an all-evergreen border from a photo I saw on Houzz.com:

This photo from Houzz.com provided me with some ideas for my own Winter Border. This border is called the Vermont All-Season Color Garden, and is a good idea for a place like Vermont that has especially long winters. (The warmer parts of Vermont are the same hardiness zone as here in southeast Iowa -- Zone 5B -- but the northern parts of the state are in Zone 3B, which can get as cold as -35F (-37C)!) Our growing season is longer than theirs, but winter still lasts too long in my opinion, and some bright colors and green foliage would be nice to see in the depths of winter.

I'm not sure that I will plant quite so many trees and shrubs as are shown in the Vermont All-Season Color Garden (it appears to be a bit crowded, and I'm not sure what will happen when the trees grow in size). And in addition to conifers, I think I might try to include some evergreen plants that are not conifers in my Winter Border:

• shrubs like holly and rhododendrons
• perennials that often maintain their foliage over winters -- last January, I noticed that there were a number of perennials that kept their foliage in my gardens: dianthus, Iberis sempervirens, phlox subulata, Veronica spiccata, lamium, Polemonium, hellebore

Those evergreen plants would give me something to look at in winter. In late spring, summer and autumn, the herbaceous plants and annuals in the front section (the Summer Border) would grow up in front of the evergreen border and provide the flowering that I crave to see out of my windows, and as that section is smaller than my current border, it would be easier to maintain and to contain enough plants to crowd out weeds (I think I will mulch the front section too this first year, while the plants establish themslves). 

I might leave the tulips, daffodils and other bulbs that are already planted in the back area between the evergreen trees and shrubs that I will plant next spring, so that I can enjoy them in spring, and the herbaceous foliage of the Summer Border will hide their withering foliage as it grows up. I might also plant some very early flowering bulbs there too, such as crocus, rock iris, early daffodils and maybe winter aconite. The idea is to have the back area have the green and other colors I want to see in winter, as well as the earliest signs of spring in late winter. 

You can see the edge of the outlined area at right. I think the new curvy shape will fit in better with the curvaceous bed shapes of the North Island and Yellow Garden at left.

While I was up the taking photos, I thought I might get one of the fields surrounding our house before the tall, golden corn is harvested. A quintessential Iowa scene.

Anyway, my work will certainly be cut out for me next spring -- but it makes me happy to have something new to plan and think about over the coming winter.

Does anyone have any suggestions for colorful conifers that are readily available, and for non-conifer plants and shrubs that retain their foliage in Zone 5 winters?

Thanks for reading! -Beth

A Late-Summer Ode to Annuals

Still going strong!

As I walk around my garden areas, I notice that one of the very few things that still look good in August and September are annual flowers. Yes, I have a few mums and asters that are now flowering, but on the whole, most of my perennials are not just done blooming, but also looking tattered, bug-eaten and withered, and actually subtract from the beauty of my gardens.

These ligularia have definitely seen better days, but the impatiens are a bright spot of color here. 

But the annuals have been at their peak for more than a month now. Zinnias, petunias, snapdragons, annual salvias, cosmos, four o'clocks, impatiens, marigolds and other annuals: they're all still looking good at this difficult time of year.

Annual salvia 'Victoria Blue' are the only thing blooming
in this border.

In my opinion, annual flowers are just not given the respect that they deserve. It seems like many gardeners feel that perennial plants are somehow more horticulturally "serious" than annuals, particularly the popular annuals that big-box retailers carry that have been bred for large, colorful, long-lasting flowers, like petunias and marigolds.

Some people might think they're gaudy and too bright, but I think these marigolds fit right into the Yellow Garden, and they've been flowering non-stop since I planted them in May.

Looking around at this time of year gives further weight to my hypothesis: that (at least here in my growing area) in order to maximize flowerage, gardeners should rely on annuals for color in the second half of the gardening season. The sequence of planting and bloom times should include the following:

1. as many spring bulbs as possible, together with the earliest-flowering perennials that will grow here, such as basket-of-gold (Aurinia saxatilis), together with a few cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons  
2. late spring- and early summer-flowering perennials for bloom in May and June
3. a select number of July-flowering perennials and bulbs such as lilies and perhaps phlox (if mildew isn't an issue)
4. significant numbers of annuals, planted in May, that will start flowering in July and continue through to frost
5. a limited number of fall-blooming perennials such as mums and asters to complement the late annuals

This area would be pretty boring without the salvias and marigolds in two colors to complement the mum that is starting to bloom now.

I've been going through my borders to clear some space for planting more annuals next May. There were a number of under-performing perennials in my front border that I will hardly miss: big clumps of iris that flower for only a week and take up more square footage every year, the so-called "obedient plant" (Physostegia virginiana) that is anything but, and other plants that take up too much room for the short-lived and less-than-glorious flowers they produce. I have started moving and removing those to free up space for planting more annuals next spring.

My front border a couple of weeks ago: overcrowded and messy, with little color.

After the clear-out, with spots left for annuals next year. Perhaps some zinnias and cosmos in the big spots and maybe some salvias, snapdragons or petunias near the edge in front. And some more tulips as well, since I have room now.

Some of my favorite annual flowers, ones that flower well for long periods here:

• Short annuals: petunias (don't sneer, millions of gardeners love them because they flower their heads off), marigolds, dianthus
• med-height annuals: zinnias, snapdragons, annual salvias, four o'clocks (these look like a flowering shrub by August)
• tall annuals: cosmos (they can get to be eight feet tall!), sunflowers (I like the smaller-flowered ones)
• shady annuals: impatiens (it's too bad about the blight that sometimes is affecting them), lobelia

The four o'clock plant makes a larger shrub than some actual shrubs and trees -- this one nearly dwarfs the magnolia behind it! I think I'll plant more of these next year here in the West Island, which is reserved for trees, shrubs and bulbs.

Additionally, I think I might be ready to try some different annuals to see how they perform, perhaps some more exotic and less common ones, like amaranth and some tropical annuals. I'll have to get out a few books about annual flowers that I haven't looked at for a while.

Does anyone have any suggestions for less well-known annuals that thrive and flower well?

Thanks for reading!  -Beth

My Redesigned Cutting Garden

Strawflowers, zinnias and poppy heads a couple weeks ago.

We've been having some pretty hot, muggy days here in Iowa, so I thought it might be a good time to stay indoors and review how the changes I made to my cutting flower garden this year have turned out. I apologize that this post has turned out to be somewhat long.

Some background: When I laid out our new Kitchen Garden design in 2013, I provided for eight rectangular beds for cutting flowers, which turned out to be far more space than I actually needed for growing flowers specifically for cutting.

Back in 2013, I used the six beds shown in the right and bottom parts of this photo, plus two more to the left out of the picture. The sparse planting only encouraged weeds and many of the flowers I planted weren't all that great for cutting.

The following year, in 2014, I tried again to do a better job of filling the beds with flowers that are good for cutting, but the results were even worse, as many of the perennials, such as Shasta daisies, had died over the winter, and several kinds of flowers, such as Love-in-a-mist and Brown-eyed Susans, had seeded around throughout the cutting beds.

And I ended up not liking many of the flowers -- the pink Achillea I planted turned brown in the vase, the dahlias were a weird purple color, the irises had a very short bloom time, and the Blanket Flowers were too short-stemmed and coarse looking for my taste (although I like them planted outside).

Last fall I resolved that this year I would reduce the size of my cutting garden area by half, and try to plant flowers that are better for cutting. This spring, I moved the few perennial flowers that I wanted to keep to one of the four beds (down from eight) that would remain as my cutting garden beds. Then I redesigned those four remaining cutting flower beds:

A plan I made of the redesigned cutting beds this May.

• One bed for perennials (Top Right): These included Shasta daisies, painted daisies, carnations campanulas and mums. I also tried to grow a packet of delphinium seeds, but they look identical to the annual larkspur that I planted in another bed, so they aren't what I was looking for. Because I have had trouble keeping perennials alive over winter in this exposed location, I will try to cover the bed with straw and/or leaves this winter. 

• One bed for spring and summer bulbs (Top Left): Tulips followed by dahlias, cannas and a few gladiolus.

• One bed for annual flowers from seed (Bottom Right) These include some remaining Love-in-a-mist, bachelor buttons, strawflowers, Canterbury bells, annual poppies and larkspur. I planted these in neat rows, something I had not done before, to make it easier to control weeds.

• One bed for any leftover flowers (Bottom Left): more gladiolus (planted in succession), annuals that didn't fit in the annual bed such as zinnias and cosmos, some alliums, and some snapdragons and salvia transplanted from other parts of my gardens.

The four beds this spring in early May, with tulips and alliums planted the fall before, plus daffodils that never bloomed. You can see that the beds are being taken over by Love-in-a-mist that is sprouting up everywhere, especially in the right-most bed.

Later in May, after getting the Love-in-a-mist mostly under control (I allowed some to grow in the left edge of the closest bed, and deadheaded it after bloom this year to prevent reseeding). The perennial bed at far right has been planted, and the rows of seeds have been sown and marked in the closest bed.

Since these beds are supplemented by a number of other flowering shrubs and annuals, such as peonies, roses and the sweet peas that I grew successfully for the first time on the east side of my house, these four small beds provided more than enough flowers for me to cut and bring into the house, without subtracting from the beauty of my borders.

By the end of July, the Shasta daisies were lovely, and the seeded annual bed beyond was quite productive, yielding larkspur, poppies, bachelor buttons and Love-in-a-mist.

Zinnias, cosmos and gladiolas were also blooming by the end of July.

I am much happier with my cutting garden this year, although this is still a learning process for me. Not all the flowers I grew ended up being nice flowers for cutting for one reason or another. Here are a few observations about the flowers I grew this year:


My favorite cutting flowers that I had the best luck with:

1. Gladiolus: these were absolutely magnificent this year! Next year, I will try to stake them so they grow more upright, perhaps by growing them through a piece of cattle panel or other grid with large openings.

2. Zinnias: I love the rainbow of colors they come in (all except blue).
3. Shasta Daisies: The cheeriest of flowers.

Zinnias, Shasta daisies, coneflowers,
larkspur and snapdragons. All my
favorites!

4. Snapdragons: These are my go-to flower for adding spikes to a bouquet, as they bloom from the end of May until frost in my gardens, self-seeding themselves in numerous places, and all of them welcome. I may plant some longer stemmed ones for cutting in my cutting beds.
5. Larkspur: I may try to plant these in successive groups next year so that they don't peter out by August, as they have this year. They were great for bouquets when they were blooming.
6. Poppies: The first ones I picked drooped immediately until I seared the stem ends on my stove gas burner and then put the whole vase in the refrigerator for a while. Then they looked beautiful for several days. It's not that much trouble, really. Plus, the ones I didn't pick have great-looking seed pod heads that are nice in a bouquet too.

Poppies and larkspur.

7. Sweet Peas: I didn't grow these in my cutting garden beds this year, as I think that location gets too much full sun. Instead, I tried planting them as early as possible (early March) against a trellis on the east side of my house, to avoid afternoon sun. They have been pretty nice, blooming from the first of June until now (they're finally giving out in this burst of heat we're having now). Next year I think I'll try to make sure I water them more and keep cutting them to discourage seed production. Perhaps I can shade them somehow on the hottest mornings too? Or maybe I can start a second batch in mid-summer?

Sweet peas in early July. I've noticed that
the kind I grew smell wonderful, but only
for 24 hours after cutting them. Then they
lose their scent.
Has anyone else noticed this?

8. Straw Flowers: (See first photo). I tried growing these last year, but to no effect. I think planting them in rows and watering them well has helped. These are such cool flowers, which make a strange, dry, crackling sound when you touch them. I'm drying some to keep for winter.


In addition, I can't leave out roses, peonies and mock orange shrub branches, which smell so wonderful, although they are planted in different spots in my gardens, not in the cutting beds.

Back in May, I made a bouquet out some delphinium stalks that broke off :-(
and several mock orange branches with a heavenly scent.

Some flowers I tried growing with less success:

1. Bachelor Buttons: I love these in the garden, especially because they self seed and bloom quite early. But the ones I grew in the cutting bed had short stems, too much foliage that had to be painstakingly removed, and in a vase they either wilted immediately or dropped a white powder all over my table. Perhaps I'll just leave these outside from now on, although it could be that the variety I grew just wasn't so good. I did cut a few others that self-sowed elsewhere earlier in the summer, and they weren't so difficult. Maybe I'll just cut those volunteers next year.

2. Dahlias: I haven't liked the colors and shapes of the dahlias that I have bought at Menards for the past several years. Perhaps I'll have to order some better ones with nicer colors and shapes through a catalog next year. Another problem however, is that the flowers seem to be eaten by insects by the time they are ready to cut, so there have been few blooms that I have been able to cut this year. Hmmm.

3. Love-in-a-mist: These never seem to last very long in a vase for me, plus they seed all over the place and don't seem to bloom for a very long period before going over. And even worse, they somehow remind me of spiders with their fine foliage near the flowers, which kind of creeps me out (perhaps I'm just weird).

4. The tulips that I planted seemed to bloom disappointingly late (and the daffodils, not at all). I yearn for flowering bulbs to cut in March and April, not May, when all sorts of other things are blooming already. I'll try to plant some earlier varieties this fall, and maybe I can accelerate their bloom with a cold frame or something? (My efforts to force bulbs in pots was an utter failure last winter, as I'll write about in another post....) Perhaps I'll just have to buy cut flowers in winter and early spring.

5. The jury's still out about the mums I planted. Maybe I need to remove lower branches to encourage longer stems and bigger flowers (the opposite of pinching out mums to promote bushy growth). Some other colors might be good too.

6. I'd like to grow more carnations (especially the white ones, which smell so spicy) and/or fragrant pinks, but carnations never make it through my winters and pinks have such short stems. Perhaps covering the perennial bed with straw will help them overwinter? And I never know when to pick carnations, because the side buds don't bloom at the same time as the main buds; do I wait until the main bud is past, or sacrifice all the side buds? Aagh!

An all-white bouquet from last week, with carnations, cosmos and
snapdragons. The carnations smell so lovely -- I wish I could
grow more of them!

Anyway, this year has been a great year for learning for me. I have learned more about which flowers I like best, which flowers perform well in a vase, and how to grow them successfully. Next year I'll make some more changes (although I think I'll stick with the four-bed approach, which worked pretty well and seemed like the right amount of space to devote to cutting flowers).

I'd certainly like to hear from you about which flowers have worked particularly well as cutting flowers in your own gardens, or any advice or thoughts about the issues I have mentioned here.

I appreciate your patience in reading all the way to the end of this long post -- Thanks! -Beth

My New Adventure in Color!

My New Adventure in Door Color....

So I know this is a gardening blog, but there's not much going on in my gardens at this time of year so I just had to share a change of another sort that I was finally able to make: After more than seven years living in this house, I finally painted our front door a different color!

I know this is an incredibly easy task that requires only a couple of hours and a small amount of paint, certainly less than $20 worth, or no additional cost in my case, since I already had the paint. And I have painted the walls in every room in our house at least once since moving in, so it's not as though I couldn't physically paint our door. The trouble was, I just couldn't decide what color to paint it.

Over the years, I've spent a lot of time considering this issue, yet I've remained paralyzed by indecision:

• I've read numerous articles on Houzz about how to choose a color for your front door and what the colors traditionally signify. 
• I've tried changing the color in pictures of my house using Photoshop and Sherwin-Williams' Color Visualizer software. 
• I've looked at countless photos of nice-looking house fronts that beckoned me with their curb appeal and their sophisticated door colors.

Now this is curb appeal! I've been saving this photo in my Houzz folder called "Front Doors" for several years, as I liked the blue door against the white wood (I also like the classical, symmetrical entrance area, and the winking eyebrow window too, and, in fact, many things about this very grand house). (Houzz.com)

Or how about this cute house? I considered painting my front door a soft yellow, which I think looks very nice against white siding and trim, and as my door opens into my kitchen which is yellow, I thought it might look good from the inside too. (Houzz.com)

When we moved in, our door was dinged-up white paint over a dented, gray, steel hollow-core door, and as I wanted to paint the door a different color, I put off painting it at all for several years while I tried to decide what color it should be. After a few years I couldn't stand how grungy it looked any more and re-painted it white, so that it was at least clean looking. But I really wanted a more fun door color.

It was impossible to find a photo in which my front door was closed, but here it is last year after I cleaned it up by repainting it white. I know the white looks crisp, but I really wanted something different.

The problem was that my house and every outbuilding on my Iowa acreage is white, as are most older farm houses here in Iowa. My husband, who grew up on a farm not far from here, is highly suspicious of any other color than white for farm houses, or perhaps tan/beige in the case of newer construction. And he's undoubtedly right that our house should remain white -- but I wanted to try a different color, just for the front door.

Recently, my nearly teenage daughter decided that she no longer likes the light purple that I chose for her room when we moved here (too girly!) and chose instead a bold blue called "Mr. Bluebird," and we repainted her walls together.

Since there was leftover paint, and my husband and the kids had left me on my own last weekend while they attended the ComicCon in Chicago (superheroes, comic books, etc.), on the spur of the moment on Sunday afternoon I decided to throw caution to the winds and Just Do It, and I rolled on two coats of "Mr. Bluebird" with a little roller.

This door is a similar color to the "Mr. Bluebird" that I first painted my front door. I decided upon reflection that the color was too dark.
(Houzz.com)

But after I finished the second coat and took a look at it from outside, it looked too dark. Then I remembered that I still had some paint left over from painting our downstairs bathroom seven years ago, called "Walden Pond," that was a few shades lighter, and before "Mr. Bluebird" was even completely dry, I re-painted over it.

Our front door after two coats of "Walden Pond."

Now our front door matches the pots on either side of the door, which I bought to match the light blue on the underside of the porch ceiling. And I think it makes it easier to tell where our front door is for people who visit for the first time.

Our front door is easier to see now. (And my "Welcome" sign with the bluebirds fits in now.)

I think the new door color goes well with the blue porch ceiling, as well as with the blue in the pillows on our porch bench.

And since this is a garden blog, after all, I'll close with a
closeup of the reblooming delphiniums along our front
fence, not incidentally in a color reminiscent of my
new front door.

My husband and children are still not sold on this color, and perhaps I will want to try a different color in the future, but at least I have finally painted it some color other than white. (Now we only have to pay someone to repaint the white exterior of our whole house, the expense of which I've been dreading. I think we'll have to put that off until next year -- it's too bad that job won't be as quick, easy and inexpensive as painting the front door was....)

What do you think of experimenting with front door colors? Have you tried different colors on your own front doors, and did they change the look of your house?

Thanks for reading!  -Beth

August Malaise

As I walked around my gardens this week, I found myself feeling totally and utterly dissatisfied with nearly every area. I'm currently contemplating redesigning all three of my large borders next spring because when I look at them, all I see are weeds and very few flowers. Hmmpph.

My North Border has a few blooming daisies and phlox, but not much else -- unless you count the grass and weeds that are taking over the back of this border, because little else seems to grow there. Grumph.

I suppose all gardeners must go through times when they feel deeply dissatisfied with their gardens in nearly every respect -- I know I cannot be alone in feeling this way. And I'm not sure what triggers this, but in my case there are probably several factors:

1. Perhaps the heat of late summer, which makes it unpleasant to spend time outside, is partly responsible. I know that I often feel unenthusiastic in hot weather, when I seek refuge in air conditioning for weeks on end. 
2. Since many of my favorite flowers bloom in spring and early summer, it can often seem like all the fun and excitement are past by the end of July. I try to include late-flowering plants in my gardens, as well as relying on numerous annuals that are just starting to reach their crescendo at this time: zinnias, cosmos, sunflowers, petunias, four o'clocks and the self-seeded snapdragons that seem to go on all summer long. But these still lack the excitement of the glorious times of tulips, peonies, delphiniums and roses. 
3. The weeds can often get out of control by midsummer if we do not make an effort to stay atop them. This year is even worse than usual in this respect in my situation, as my husband, since his hip surgery, has been unable to do his usual share of weeding, trimming and spraying of hardscape areas such as our driveway.

   

   Not many flowers here in the Front Border either, but plenty of weeds are growing in our driveway. Hummph.

4. Maybe I feel that if I am not constantly improving my gardens, that they are of less interest to me, and most of my "projects" and planned improvements are usually finished (or put off until next year) by midsummer. Lack of direction breeds lethargy.

   

   Not much color in the so-called Rainbow Border. Meh. I think some changes are in order....

5. Also, I tend to experience annual "seasons" of interest in various activities: 

• April, May and June are "the gardening season" 
• July is a month of rest and summer activities 
• August and September are "back to school" in my homeschooling family
• October and November are the depressing Autumn months which although beautiful and not unpleasantly hot or cold for planting bulbs and doing other outside tasks, do signal the coming bleakness of winter
• December is for preparing for "The Holidays" and enjoying the novelty of the first snows 
• and January, February and March are marked by dreary desperation and attempts to leave Iowa and spend at least a few days in a warm climate while waiting impatiently for spring. 
• Rinse and repeat yearly. 

Does anyone else have trouble maintaining their interest in their gardens each year after spring and early summer? My malaise is even affecting my desire to write and read garden blogs -- it's been a whole month since I've posted....

I know I shouldn't complain -- perhaps I'm simply expecting too much (who knows what?) from my gardens.

And there are a few areas that do look pretty nice, so to try to be more upbeat I'll conclude by showing a few scenes from the past couple of weeks:

Zinnias are blooming like crazy in the Mint Circle. I started these inside and planted them outside after the tulips in this spot had a chance for their foliage to die back, in early June.

Rose of Sharon has been blooming well in a beautiful shade of blue.

The relative of Rose of Sharon, hardy hibiscus, is at its peak too. I just
planted this one this spring.

Another of my new hibiscus acquisitions. It doesn't seem safe for such a small
plant to have such oversized blooms....

Surprise! The surprise lilies / naked ladies / Lycoris are shooting up and blooming next to my
East Patio. 

My husband's vegetable garden has been productive this year -- perhaps the best year since we've lived here, despite his surgery keeping him from the garden for over a month. I tried to help keep it in order during his absence, but since it's not my garden, I'm never quite sure what to do in his domain. But I do know how to make salsa and pickles. Mmmm!

My husband and I went to St. Louis for his final checkup on his hip surgery last weekend and stopped at a garden center on the way back, where we happened upon just the kind of garden bench I had been looking for to put in my Yellow Garden -- and it was on sale too. It's a light, airy design that doesn't overpower the space, I think.

So maybe things don't look as bad as I've implied -- although I'm still thinking about big changes next spring. And I hope the coming cooler weather will allow me to focus more of my time and attention on gardening and blogging. I look forward to catching up with everyone's posts.

Thanks for reading! -Beth