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Ah, cooler nights, clearer days, some rain, some sun, the garden year winds down (and so does the gardener!). There is still much in bloom - Autumn Joy, 2nd flush of Nepeta (catmint), glorious dahlias,
zinnias, butterfly bush, coreopis, monkshood,
morning glories on the clematis oblesik. Yep, all still colorful and beautiful. The fall garden relies on later blooming perennials and any number of annuals. I expect my garden to be lovely right though October. And yours, too.
Yep, this beautiful day marked the beginning of my 71st year! A lovely day that began with breakfast with my dear friends Lynn & Rick. Delicious borscht, bagels, fresh, fresh, garden veggies and fruit. I always feel so virtuous when I eat with them!! Looks wonderous and tastes yummy! After this delightful beginning to the day which also included multiple window view hummingbird visits and petting of Max the cat, I was good to go -- back home to get ready with Jen for Yard Sale tomorrow.
Dump run, swap open (thanks to me and several other complaining activist citizens), scooped a few items, hung yard sale signs and off to lunch at 5 Main St. in Cohasset - home of awesome food and AWESOME chocolate cupcakes by Maggie - YUM and they gifted us as it was my birthday!
Off to Twist in Cohasset - a fav gift shoppe to find a few wonderous things for some Virgo birthday friends.
Transport client into downtown Boston!
Back for celebatory dinner at Not Your Average Joe's - heavy on the spirits...
All in all a lovely day for this happenin' wannabee!!
Oh, and the garden is still lovely, dahlias really coming in - nights getting cool - bought a few Pomergranite Yarrow yesterday for fill-ins. Yummy, yummy color. September is a lovely month in the garden!!
Rhode Island Dahlia Show today!
Small sign - big treat! There is nothing quite like a very large room totally filled with dahlias in all their splendor, so many blooms, so much color!
Check out this beauty, aptly named Alloway Candy
I spent several hours just browsing, snapping pics and making note of my favs (only 45 of 'em).
Whereas I do lecture on dahlias, this turned out to be a heaven sent event! I'm lecturing down the Cape on Tuesday and Hurricane Irene did a lot of limb damage here and managed to drop the one whole tree right on my Dahlia Garden!!
I usually bring armloads of flowers to admire, demonstrate with and to give away. Luckily, at the end of the show today, they gave away all the flowers - oh, my, the bounty!! I came right home, cut them back and plopped them into hot water - I'm hoping I can get enough in good shape to add to my own for Tuesday.
The show is put on by the Rhode Island Dahlia Society once a year in Wickford right on the Harbor. Wickford is a most artsy and charming town so the 1 1/2 hr drive well worth it. If you are interested in dahlias, you might want to check out RIDS website: Rhode Island Dahlia Society.
And now for a few more pics of these beauties:
Mingus Wesley
My Fritz
A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
I'm actually happy it's raining - we need it even after the dumping from Hurricane Irene. This has been a challenging gardening year - what with a bad shoulder and unexpectedly long staying house guest. I've been in my house 27 years and have been tinkering with the gardens for that entire time.
This year is a thinking, planning, revising, moving and simplifying year. I plan to move quite a few shrubs and small trees that have outgrown their alloted space and unify the scale of my front garden.
My furthest from the house garden have now become so shaded that I can no longer use them for growing cut flowers - I was using a portion for dahlias but Irene managed to crash a huge tree right into the dahlia bed!! You know what they say - of all the trees, in all the yard, this one had to fall on the dahlias (please excuse, H.Bogart)
More roses, more Siberian Iris, some different color phlox, fewer German iris (their foliage simply doesn't stay nice); also debating the fate of my peonies - they take up a lot of space for about 10 days worth of blooms that inevitably get bashed down in the early June rains - and, yes, there are ALWAYS early June rains!! I may move them to a bed where they can shine for their brief moment and then be hidden by other foliage which doesn't yellow so much.
I have 3 Julia Child florabunda roses in another bed which have really earned their keep - blooming over 4 months - fragrant and beautiful. I think I must find a place in the front garden for a few of them!!
Lecturing season starts next week and first up one of my fav programs, DAHLIAS - DEFINITELY DAHLIAS and I get to go to the Cape to give it. What fun!!
