The light of fall

Even though we don't have trees turning orange and yellow, I can still tell that the season is heading for fall.  How?  The light.  Perhaps it's the angle of the sunlight, or some other meteorological explanation, but I have always responded viscerally to the light as it falls across my path this time of year.  I especially sense it as I'm driving along tree-lined roads.  There is a stretch of I-95 driving north from here where the divided highway is suddenly encased by trees on both sides, effectively blocking traffic on the other side.  Whether morning or afternoon, I detect the subtle changes in light during each season.  For me, fall is special, it's romantic and exhilirating.  And in Florida, it also means new growing opportunities, as in the clematis I said previously had begun new growth.  Here are a photo of the new flowers plus the honeysuckle berries I said I had noted last week:

One of the September chores I hate to do but is necessary is trimming the rose bushes.  The gardening gurus I've researched say to cut the main stems by about one-third.  I admit to not cutting that much all the time, but I still cut quite a bit where the bushes have many branches and stems.  The exception are my climbing roses where I trim back only to an upward-facing growth bud.  Fortunately for viewing pleasure, the roses always rebound quickly and I know in a few weeks the bushes will be full of new green leaves and stems and flower buds will reappear. I see better growth and flowering through the fall and winter.  The roses survived last winter's freezes better than my other plants.

I will make another foray to the garden center on Friday for grass plugs and check on the availability of the pansies I want.  Saturday is delegated for more digging and planting.  Enjoy your weekend.

Mother Nature surprises

I love surprises, especially in my gardens. 

When I walked out into my backyard this morning to begin another grass-planting effort, I was enchanted at the view before me.  On the arbor, the honeysuckle was waving its arms beckoning me to watch.  Suddenly I spied red berries on one of the arms!  I hope they attract birds that we can also watch.

The other surprise was on the same arbor.  I've shown here before the clematis that was blooming earlier in the spring.  Well, over the summer the main stem had seemed to die.  A few weeks ago, though, I noticed new growth from the ground.  Today, a beautiful purple flower radiated against the green honeysuckle and the white arbor. 
Alongside it are more buds waiting to open.  I don't know how long the honeysuckle will continue to grow, but it will be delightful to have the mix of purple of yellow
for a few months.

All in all, a beautiful start to my day.

I did plant more grass -- two flats of two dozen plugs -- and dug out more crabgrass.  Then I planted a new red ixora in the back corner.  That spot has confounded me ever since the azalea there died.  That azalea was one of the first plants I put in nearly 30 years ago!  I don't know what ultimately killed it but since other plants I've put there have also died, I'm thinking some kind of poison.  Yet, other plants nearby are growing fine.  I hope the ixora survives.

I want to plant pansies for the fall and winter, but garden centers tell me it's too soon.  Our weather is still too hot.  I'll be checking week to week.

That's it for today. 

Laboring on Labor Day

Since my last posting, my husband capped the sprinkler pipe and I filled in the holes as best I could.  The result is that the rest of the sprinklers on that section have ten times the force and two and three times the distance the water reaches.  

On Saturday I planted two flats of St. Augustine grass plugs in the front yard to help fill in the bare areas where I have dug up crabgrass.  I am nearly overwhelmed by the task of removing the crabgrass as I look more closely around the yards.  But I keep telling myself "one step at a time" and "slow and steady wins the race."

Today I had a more positive outlook for my gardens.  I finally got back to planting.

I started a little later than usual (8 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. -- had to sleep a little later on this holiday) but fortunately Mother Nature also slept late.  The sky remained overcast for two hours so the temperature stayed lower (still high, but reasonable).

Filling the space left by the removal of the diseased rose bush in the back yard was the first task.  I hadn't yet decided what to plant there until a trip to Home Depot made the decision for me.  I had gone to the Depot to find more grass plugs and buy a few tomato and pepper plants.  I was cruising the aisles looking for inspiration to fill that empty spot and, although there were many tempting possibilities, I hadn't seen that "a-ha" plant yet.  Then, as I passed the tables of roses, a bright red spot caught my eye (see left).  When I moved in for a closer look I saw that it was a Mr. Lincoln hybrid tea rose.  Mr. Lincoln is my favorite rose to grow (you may remember I have a couple of them in the front yard's rose garden) and I knew that was the one.  So that was the first of my plantings today.

The second planting was the tomatoes and peppers, which is a new endeavour for me.  In past years I have not grown any fall/winter crops.  This year I thought, why not?  It's not as ambitious an effort, more of a test to see what happens.  I have two Big Boy tomato plants and two Super Chili red peppers.  

Before I could plant anything however, I had to weed and clear out the vegetable corner.  The weeds varied from crabgrass to half a dozen other leafy varieties.  It took me longer to weed than to plant the vegetables. But, it's done.

Last of the tasks was pruning the snow-on-the-mountain bushes.  Not only have they survived and grown well, they are putting out a lot of leggy growth that I want to contain.  I've seen too many homes with the plants unpruned that are tall and leggy with new growth on top and bare branches below.  I hope to keep mine fuller.  The pink and white leaves on the new growth is what drew me to the plant in the first place.  Below are the bushes after pruning and a close up of the new growth.

After those tasks were done, I was cleaning up and looking around the rest of the yard.  My honeysuckle vines caught my eye and I photographed the flowers.  Yellow is not a color I usually include in my gardens, but I enjoy these.

That's all for today, and probably the week.