View from My Living Room Window

It is a pleasure to look out the picture in my living room. These pictures were taken from inside the house.  The pink angel trumpet is dominant.



Angel Trumpets Again

Most of my angel trumpets are fairly late blooming again this year.  About six weeks ago one bloomed.  I had set it out in late April, and it escaped the late frost by being in a sheltered place. 

This pink one looks great except where some bugs and a heavy rain wreaked havoc with its leaves.  I need to spray more, but the tender leaves really attract food seekers.  It is not just slugs.  I need to do some research.

Some yellow ones are ready to bloom also.

The Kitchen Sink and the Trellis

The other day I found a heavy metal trellis and bench on sale at Lowe's for 75% off, only $40.00.  I am happy to have a bench here and there to rest while I work outside. 

 My husband retrieved a kitchen sink full of ajuga that had been at my mother's.  He put it under the bench far enough back not to tickle the ankles of anyone sitting on the bench.  The sink covers the bare ground and by next summer the ajuga will have spread all around. 

I plan to put vines soon to grow on the trellis.  Another trellis has chocolate vine and jasmine starting to cover it.  Others have clematis.  Next to the sink I am trying to start some creeping cedar.

 Later purchase:  Today I bought a climbing hydrangea for the trellis, which should cover the whole thing by next year.  The label says it will send out shoots 60 to 80 feet long.  I feel sure my husband will use his pruners on those.

Ground Cedar



Notice the spores that spring up at this time of the year.



Ground cedar or creeping cedar or ground pine is a wild green groundcover.  The kind in the picture is I think Lycopodium digitatum.  It is supposed to look like a  wolf's foot.  My mother recently died and the large patch at her house will likely become overgrown or be bulldozed away.  It is the only large growth I have seen.  Some say it is common, but others say it is rarely found in our part of North Carolina.  I do know it is difficult to transplant.  I have tried several times with no success.  This year I am moving large clumps with the hope it will not notice the new soil.  It likes the edge of woods with a touch of moisture and some soil enriched over the years.  I tried to weed eat part of the patch so tall weeds would not overshadow the pretty growth.  I didn't get that done this year.



Garden Misplanting

I admired the pretty yellow blossoms on a prickly pear and planted some in my backyard.  What I didn't reckon on was the fact that I couldn't weed in or around the clump.  Grass stubbornly moved in. Little stickers even attacked my leather gloves and made them beyond repair.  Occasionally one got in my finger and stubbornly refused to give up its position. 

The answer became obvious.  I put on my heaviest long pants and a thick jacket and some old leather gloves and got my shovel and wheelbarrow.  I dumped the whole clump in my burning pile and said "Good riddance!"

Difficult Flower Beds



These two ferns are in pots and have to go to the basement
 for the winter.  The hostas are also in pots and stay outside.



I tried a few years ago to make some attractive square flower beds around the bases of the maple trees near the street in front of my house. 

The next year I tried to remedy the persistent, relentless root invasion by putting a layer of plastic under the skimpy soil around the trees. 

 Last year I gave up and started inserting potted plants around the  trees, disguising them with rocks and pine straw and whatever else I found.  Some I just left exposed.





The two begonias have to
 go to the basement each winter.
 I have had them several years.



The hostas seem to do well in their pots year around.




Perennial Ageratum

As summer ends, another reliable and attractive plant brightens up the garden.  It is the perennial ageratum, filled with puffy blue flowers. 

 Mine this year are a bit tall.  I should have pinched them back earlier in the summer. 

It occasionally sets a foot out in the path, but it is easily removed and should not be considered really invasive.  It does spread enough to be shared with the neighbors. 

 The blue flowers hang around until frost, and the plant returns in early summer.  It is another passalong plant.  I have not seen one in a nursery.

Muscari

Some one gave me these two varieties of late summer bloomers.  They also have the advantage of being pretty and green most of the year. 

I don't think the giver called them muscari, but I don't remember what name they used.  Perhaps lilyturf.  They are cousins to the striped liriope plant.  They are really a great addition to the garden as a border or to fill in little empty spots between taller plants. 

 They spread nicely, not really viciously.  They stick to their own clump and just get bigger.

Mystery Man

This is another strange yard ornament I got at the church bazaar this year.  He seems to be the man in the moon, perhaps made of cement with designs of stars around the base.  It is very heavy and much weathered.  It is signed B. J. Wirth '93.

Sedum

Few flowers contribute more to the garden than the sedum.  Its sturdy foliage adds texture to the garden early in the growing season.  Then pink, or rosy, or white blossoms appear and stay past frost.  The flower heads remain through the winter.  It spreads, sending up new shoots every year to be shared with neighbors and friends.  I got the sedum from my mother who got it from a neighbor. The most common kind, and my favorite as you can see, is Autumn Joy.  It seems more sturdy than the white variety.  Not even drought or freeze stops the spreading of this great garden plant.

Cosmos

Last year there was a beautiful field of cosmos next to my uncle's house.  I failed to gather some seeds, so I had to buy a small pack for twenty cents.  The result is a group of pink flowers around my mailbox. I had to cut them back so that the mailman could see the box.  Through the years people in this area have gotten seeds from their neighbors and relatives.  The elderly gentleman next door had only orange cosmos to decorate his front step.  He and the cosmoses are long gone but not forgotten.

Hummingbird's Nest

Our favorite birds are ruby-throated hummingbirds.  My husband tries to keep a feeder full while they are here during the warmer months.  This abandoned nest is in a tree between our house and our neighbor's.  In other words, they don't like the open yard nor do they want thick woods for their nest.  They are a bit more particular about nest materials than are larger birds.

Sir Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

This is an interesting small shrub about four years old. Usually you can't see the walking stick shape because of the foliage.  But some ornery critters --the small kind--ate all the leaves off.  Now in August green leaves are reappearing and the enemy seems to have

disappeared. 

I probably need to trim off one section to enhance the appearance of a walking stick.  The bush has a bad habit of sending up lots of little shoots every year, which I just cut off. 

Incidentally Harry Lauder was a Scottish comedian who used a twisted walking stick. 

Its other name is contorted hazelnut.