Fall workout/cleanup!

Who needs to go to the "Y" to exercise when you've got the fall clean up to do? We got quite a bit of the backyard finished yesterday. By the time the side yard and front yard are done I'll be ready for a marathon!
The girls didn't have school yesterday or today because of a teacher work day and Veterans Day, so we went out early before the rain returned and got right to work.

This side of the pond area has had a major overhaul in the last couple of months. I've been doing a lot of rearranging of plants. I moved over this baby Dogwood (Cornus florida) from where it was planted too close to the apple tree. As my daughter Sweet Pea said, "this area needed some height." The neighbors on the other side of the fence limbed and thinned their Cedar trees way up and now there is finally space for a tree. I'm not done planting yet, but off to a good start.

Earlier this summer I found this very sad fuchsia 'Aurea' under overgrown hostas, it had one tiny withered stem left. I nursed it in a container all summer and finally put it back in the ground where it has room to grow. If you notice, it's even got a flower bud on it now.

Try to ignore the horrible fence that needs to be replaced, that is one of the first things on our to do list for spring. I've been adding and rearranging plants here too. One small tree that is new here is Juniper 'Gold Cone' which I'll show more in a later post.

Looking down the path was a solid sea of leaves and needles. I love seeing it all clean again. On the right side of the arbor I moved over Clematis 'Nelly Moser'. She never really liked her old spot and I only had one bloom this summer. I hope she likes it better here.

Another change was moving this birdhouse to this corner of the yard. The hellebores in this area are putting out a lot of new growth.

The entrance to the side yard which still needs more cleaning, but at least it's clean on this side of the gate. The Corsican hellebore on the left was a seedling from a friend years ago, now it's got seedlings popping up around it.

Heading back down the path to the area where nothing grows under the big Pine tree. I've read a lot about Epimediums and have decided they just might grow here. I've planted lots of Crocus bulbs and will be sprinkling more Columbine seeds here soon.

Looking back through the arbor towards the pond. The raccoons made a mess of it again, they tore up the lily pads and Water Hawthorne. They seem to get a little worse this time of year, but so far the fish are smarter than them.

Hopefully I'll get to the rest of the yard this week and then I can enjoy watching all the birds that have been in the yard from inside with a cup of hot chocolate!
I also want to add a big Thank You to the Veterans that have served our country!

Good thing they don't have calories!

There are days I walk through my garden and think about some of the names that varieties of different plants are given. Some have been named after people - some famous and some not, a place, a color or even a rock band. I have to say some of my favorites are named after food and drinks. Maybe because while I'm gardening I rarely want to stop and take the time to eat. Instead I can imagine how delicious some of these things are and not take in any of the fattening calories. It's probably good I don't have anything named peanut butter and chocolate, or pizza or french fries because those would be much more difficult to pass up!

If Julia Child (rose above) lived here she could really put together a gourmet meal for us with some of the food and drinks that have plants named after them in my garden.

Luckily none of these will make your hips bigger.

Heuchera 'Marmalade' can be used in everything from main courses to desserts.

Heuchera 'Berry Smoothie' with some fresh strawberries and blueberries from the garden sounds pretty healthy.

Heuchera 'Ginger Ale' might help if you eat too much to make you feel better.

Heuchera 'Pistache' (the tree from which Pistachios come from) to snack on while you wait for your meal.

Pansy 'Lemon Fizzleberry' sounds like a fun drink to have with the girls. Lemons, raspberries and a little Sprite sounds like the ingredients that could be in it.

Pansy 'Sorbet Orange Duet' to cleanse the palate between courses.

Other favorite names like Pansy 'Ultra Baron Merlot', Heuchera 'Caramel', Heuchera 'Black Currant', Heuchera 'Key Lime Pie' or Heuchera 'Beaujolais'. It seems that the Heucheras really have some of the best names in honor of edibles. I wonder if that's why I'm so attracted to them? All this time I thought it was because of the colorful foliage!

Seed Swap Sunday.

I'm a little late getting my post up today for Sunday's seed swap hosted by the Dirt Princess. My seeds for this week are Red Breadseed poppies. I actually got these seeds through a swap with someone I met through Garden Web Cottage Gardens forum back in January.

(click on the Seed Swap photo to see who else is swapping)

They were so easy to grow. I just sprinkled them around in a nice sunny area and before long they were growing.

Breadseed Poppy (Papaver somiferum)

I grew my Poppies with Larkspur and Salvias and they looked so pretty together. The seedheads from the poppies were just as interesting as the flowers and I left them all summer until I was ready to collect the seeds.

Let me know if you'd like to swap (or even just would like some without a swap) and email me your address using my contact me link in my sidebar. Click on the seed swap link above to find out who else has seeds to swap.

Fertilizer Friday - November flowers.

It's hard to believe it's already time for Fertilizer Friday again. It's getting more difficult to find flowers outside, but I did manage. Most are past their prime but still are a welcome sight now that it's November. As for the indoor plants, I've been very good and have remembered to fertilize the African Violets and have one in bloom, but I'll save those for a day when there aren't anymore flowers to show from outside. I've also added an indoor ornamental pepper plant to my houseplant responsibilities.
I'm glad I didn't wait until today to take these pictures. We had quite the storm last night complete with thunder, lightening, wind, rain and enough hail to make it look like it had snowed. It was all enough to knock every last leaf from many of the trees and really beat up the remaining flowers.

Cleome 'Rose Queen' on it's last blooms. I'm leaving the last blooms to go to seed.

Fuchsia magellanica is absolutely covered in flowers and buds still. This and the rest of my hardy fuchsias will probably bloom for another month. Last year they bloomed until the first big snow.

Lots of Pansies are blooming.

My pretty hanging Fuchsia that has been blooming since May. I admit I only fertilized it a couple of times and yet it's still blooming. I moved it from the front porch a month ago and just hung it in the side yard where I forgot about it until these flowers caught my eye.

Abelias are full of flowers. I have several different types throughout the front yard. They stay semi-evergreen in the winter and will bloom for awhile still.

Rose 'Kimberlina' has a quite a few new buds. Most of the roses seem to be about finished, although I was surprised to see that it looks like 'Abraham Darby' might bloom again. I was watching a local gardening show with Ciscoe Morris and he explained that all the rose hips need to be pruned from the roses now. I was planning to leave them for winter interest, and can't seem to find any information as to why they should be removed before winter other than removing ones with blackspot.

Flower Carpet Rose got beat up by the rain and wind but there are quite a few buds that are still wanting to open.

Now I hope you'll visit Tootsie Time who hosts Fertilizer Friday each week to see what's blooming around the rest of the world indoors and outdoors.