Iris

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As garden cleanup continues and I dream about spring and next year’s garden.

Last week I cut the old iris leaves and dead foliage. It’s what I do at the beginning of October.

This week I covered the bed with a light layer of compost. It will be a tidier bed for the winter and I won’t have to worry about clean-up in spring or rotting foliage over the winter. The new leaves are beginning to grow.

I look forward to next May and the big display of yellow iris.

Most gardeners I know have this wonderful obsession. We dream and plan and look forward to another gardening season. Next year’s garden is always the best.

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Celtic Classic

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The annual Celtic Classic was held in Bethlehem last weekend. Local Liberty High School Grenadier Band marched with competition pipe bands at the opening ceremonies parade on Saturday.

This year’s Classic was smaller than other years. The Celtic Cultural Alliance worked to make a profit after last year’s disastrous rain and flooding.

Lines at the ticket booths were long. The grandstands were gone from the competition field. But enthusiasm was still evident at the 16 lb. hammer throw as athletes waited their turn to compete.

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Tents filled with fans for a taste of Celtic music. Popular Band Blackwater rocked for fans.

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Even Sunday’s “soft day” didn’t dampen the Celtic enthusiasm with its misty rain.

Fall Colors

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It was too early this week to see fall tree color at Delaware Water Gap in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. I imagine it will take another two weeks to show the brilliant yellow, orange and red of a Pennsylvania autumn.

But there are lots of fall colors in my garden.

Mums in pots and in the ground.



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The combination of ‘Super Elfin Bright Orange’ impatiens and coleus ‘Rustic Orange’ is difficult to photograph and get a true color. But here’s the general idea.



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Marigolds

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And cosmos.



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Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximilianii) 4 to 5 feet tall.

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In a few weeks the mountains will turn gold and scarlet. The crisp fall air is energizing – a wonderful time for gardening.

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New Garden

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We have a truckload of compost in our driveway. My family laughs at my delight at a pile of “dirt”. But it’s just what I needed to start a garden.

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The air conditioner unit moved to a new location last spring. It gave me an excuse to put in garden to screen the big eyesore. In June, I found the Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’ on sale. That was the start.

Last week I put down 4 to 6 sheets of newspaper and topped it with 3 to 4 inches of compost. I’ve used mulch for this same purpose in other gardens and it worked just as well. Over the winter the newspaper will kill the grass and decompose into the soil making an instant garden.

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I tried not to get distracted.

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I’m fooling around with some kind of stepping stone path. I’ve set up some old bricks but I’m not sure what the final path will be. It will be less noticeable when I cover the area with mulch.
Next spring the garden will be ready to plant. I’ll put in some evergreen shrubs, a hosta or two and maybe a mum and a few annuals. Then I’ll cover the area with mulch.

It’s a simple way to start a new garden.

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Hemlock Scale

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Another busy week in the garden – pruning, dead heading and clean up. The new garden is finished. I’ll get back to that story next time.

The needles on our 65 ft. hemlocks have been turning brown and dropping off. I would hate to lose these trees. They provide shade and privacy for our deck. Birds nest and twitter in them all summer. Squirrels leap from branch to branch. They make me feel like I’m sitting in a cool shady forest.

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This isn’t a problem we could handle ourselves so we called a tree care professional. The trees have hemlock scale. The scales can be seen on the back of the needles as tiny brown dots. According to Penn State Department of Entomology, “Scales injure host plants by inserting their threadlike, piercing-sucking mouthparts into needles and withdraw vital nutrients necessary for plant growth from mesophyll cells.”

The trunk was sprayed with Pentra Bark/Merit solution from the base of the trunk to about 6 feet up the bark. The insecticide will go through the tree’s vascular system to kill the scale.

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It seemed like the most environmentally friendly way to save the trees. They have become old friends over the past 35 years. I hope the trees will continue live next to our deck for a long time.

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Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - September 2009

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I almost forgot about Bloom Day. What happened to the first 14 days of September? I ran out this morning and snapped a few pictures of the blooms in my garden.

Carol at May Dreams Gardens hosts this colorful day on the 15th of each month. See the links to what’s blooming in other gardens here. Thank you Carol!

Sedum Autumn Joy. A common fall plant but a reliable performer in the hot sunny, spot with a ground cover sedum.

One of my favorites, Japanese anemone. I also have a pink one but the rabbits chopped off the bloom stalks before they got a chance to bloom.
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The mum Clara Curtis has a long bloom time. It started blooming in August and will go until frost. Here with the ever present coleus.
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I don’t grow tansy for the blooms. The fernlike foliage and medicinal aroma make it a keeper in my garden.
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Phlox David is looking a little raggedy but still producing blooms (when I remember to deadhead).

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The annuals cleome, nasturtium and zinnia add color to the garden.

Fall is a wonderful time in the garden. Now if I could only get September to slow down a bit.

Houseplants

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Bringing in the houseplants in fall

All the houseplants that spent the summer outside are now safely tucked away in the house. When the temperature outside goes below 60 degrees at night, I know it’s time to bring in the houseplants.

The coleus cuttings will be houseplants until May. I start them in water. I know they can also be started directly in soil but water works for me. After they grow roots, I’ll pot them up. They will spend the winter under lights. I’ll do another batch of cuttings from them in late winter.

The Christmas cactus needed to be trimmed. After a light haircut, I rinsed the leaves with a sprayer on the hose. I sprayed with my homemade baking soda/dish soap/water solution (1 gallon water, 2 tablespoons baking soda and a little dish soap). I put them in a little used, cool room that gets no artificial light. I’ll wait for blooms to start in November.

The amaryllis is taking its yearly nap. They rest under the table in the same cool room as the Christmas cactus. I brought them in about the middle of August and stopped watering. I’ll take off the leaves as they die back. If there are any green leaves left by the end of September, I’ll cut them off. I’ll add soil and start to water lightly after thanksgiving for March blooms.

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The tuberose was disappointing again this year – no blooms. They are still growing in a sunny window. I’ll soon let the foliage die back and give them the same treatment as the amaryllis. Next year I’ll plant them in a larger pot and hope for fragrant blooms.

It’s sad to think about the end of summer but now I have one more chore checked off my long fall list. We had a good rain yesterday so I can get back to weeding, trimming and pulling. And then there’s the new garden – more about that later.

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A Walk Through the Garden

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I haven’t spent much time in the garden so far this week. I picked a peck of (un)pickled peppers. This has been a good year for sweet peppers!

The potted plants are growing tall and full. The pots with cannas and coleus are my favorites.

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The hardy hibiscus is being gobbled up by some unknown bug. The first picture is from the middle of August. The second picture is from the end of August. Not very pretty.
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The cleome is still going strong. Such an easy annual for me. The seed pods hanging from the stems guarantee next year's crop.
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This week in the Garden

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It’s been a good week in the garden.

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The Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis paniculata ‘Sweet Autumn’) is in full bloom. Sparkly little white flowers cover the lush green growth. There is a trellis under that vine. I’ve had to tie it up several times this year. The growth tends to go off in all directions.

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I dug out some suckers from the Sweet Shrub (Calycanthus floridus). I need to do this in spring and fall to avoid growing a Sweet Shrub forest.

The bush could use a hair cut too.

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I have the same sucker problem with the white lilac. I dug out some of those roots too this week.

I got a good start on a new garden to screen the air conditioner unit. More about that in a later post.

While working in the garden I noticed a welcome visitor on the coreopsis.

Garden Thug

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Mexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa ‘Siskiyou’)

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Once again, the Evening primrose is out of control. It’s growing into the path and coming up a 3 feet away in the middle of the lemon thyme groundcover. Plant catalogues state it “can be aggressive”. That certainly is an understatement.

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I've been trying to weed them out all summer one by one. Time for radical surgery I decided. The plants really need to be dug out because the roots break off easily.

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The roots are everywhere sending out shoots in all directions. Roots live under the stepping stones and come up on the other side.

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It’s impossible to get them all. The best I can hope for is to slow them down. I also dug back about 6 inches inside the little brick edging that is supposed to be their boundary.

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Evening Primose has a pretty pink flower in spring and long bloom time. If I had done a little research before I planting, I may have found out that it should be contained or given free range in a lot of space.

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After 5 years in my garden, I wish I had done my homework before I planted this little thug.

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