September Photos

September is here. School is back in session and I am eagerly anticipating the beginning of autumn. I'm not a fan of the heat, so summer is my least favorite month. I adore autumn! And in Virginia there is lots to do. We will go to a farm and pick pumpkins, we will stomp in the leaves, and we will plant mums. Also, we'll eat a ton of squash, which I adore.

Anyway, in our garden, a few things are starting to hint at the changing season. Our blueberry plant is starting to change the color of its leaves, the beauty berry berries are beginning to turn lavender (they will be dark purple by sometime in October). But the crape myrtle is hanging onto summer as best it can by blooming brightly.

We have yet to discuss in depth what our plans for the fall/winter prep are going to be, but I know they will involve some pretty intense work, so stay tuned.

This month's photos highlight the flowers that are still blooming. I love the variety that we have in our garden and hope that, as our garden matures, we will develop even more variety. Here are our photos for September:

Passion flower (Jo brought this with her when she moved in.)

Our latest addition is a satellite dish that Charles "needed" to be able to watch European soccer.

Wild grape vines that volunteered themselves for the job of covering our fence.

Beauty berries are just starting to turn.

Cherry corner

Our cherry tree is getting big and it needs some work pruning this winter in the hopes of producing fruit next year.

Lilac and butterfly bush corner

Japanese maple corner

Blooming crape myrtle

Fig tree!

Impatiens

Morning glory

Butterfly bush

I don't know what this is called but I like its delicate nature

Daisy

Blooming clover

Morning glory vines hide the compost pile

August Photos

Today is the second of September and I am just getting around to posting August's photos. My legitimate excuse is that I couldn't get my photo stream to update and so I couldn't access the photos on my computer. But I finally sorted that out, so now I'm getting things up and running.

August is a month of wild growth in our garden. There are fewer flowers than in the spring and early summer months, but what our garden lacks in flowers it more than makes up for in foliage. There always comes a point in August when I am out in the garden and have that feeling that if I don't watch my step I will be enveloped by plants and disappear from the map. It feels a little like Little Shop of Horrors.

Sometime in July we had a volunteer plant show up in a pot on our deck. The pot used to sit on my kitchen counter and house a Venus fly trap. But that died and I had never gotten around to planting anything different. When our infamous kitchen remodel began, I didn't have anywhere to put the pot, so I just stuck it out on our deck table and figured I'd deal with it when the kitchen was more manageable. But then, one day, a little succulent sprouted. Since life was still chaotic, I didn't even pay attention to it. And it flourished. The next thing I knew, there were beautiful pink flowers blossoming on it. Where it came from is a bit of a mystery, but it is a delight nonetheless. We named them "LiLi flowers" because Lianna's favorite color is pink. They bloom every morning facing the sun, and die off around mid-afternoon. Almost every day we have at least one and every day Lianna is genuinely impressed that a flower bloomed just for her.

LiLi Flower

And now, to the photos:

Water Lily in our (failed) water garden

Pallet garden

Beauty berry bush

Cherry tree corner

Lilac and Butterfly bush

Back right corner

Crape Myrtle in bloom

Spiral

Crape myrtle blossom

Japanese maple corner

Fig tree

Volunteer squash blossom

Cairn