I began this post in July, and am just getting back to it on this first day of September.
Live in each season as it passes: breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit.
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817-May 6, 1862) Such a short life.
I am living fully in this summer season, and want to share some pictures of the beauty at Windy Poplars Farm. This summer has been spectacular. Everyone I talk to comments on the flowers everywhere.
The brown-eyed Susans are all over the place. They just pop up and don't care what the soil is like.
Hollyhocks - my friend said this color has such an old-fashioned look. It is really achingly beautiful. This is a perennial one that I bought from White Flower Farm years ago.
And this is one that comes back year after year - just a regular hollyhock. I recently read that if you leave the seedheads on, they will fall off and root the next year. Since I never cut mine down in a timely manner, that must be what happens here.
Now that I am here, and late, I thought I'd post some August pictures, too. This is the side yard on a beautiful morning around 8 am. Not the clearest but that's part of what I like - that misty/sunny look.
I finally found one that grows in zone 3. I bought one plant. It grew well last year, though the leaves had mildew. I looked it up and one result was from Martha Stewart who said to never mind it - that it wouldn't hurt the flowers at all. Well, this year, that one plant spread and overtook the entire terrace garden. Some other kinds of plants disappeared, and others were greatly diminished, but that's alright. It is in the mint family after all. Every single minute of the day, these plants have been full of bees and butterflies.
I'll end with the pride and joy of Windy Poplars Farm - Cleome, and Amaranth! Last year we grew cleome and it was a lovely, big addition to the vegetable garden. This year, we started seeds inside under the lights, and they again have been beautiful. A surprise for us is that last year's flowers self-seeded, and are actually double the length of the ones we transplanted! What a plant!! And the amaranth came in my CSA bouquets years ago. I asked the grower what it was, and she called it "love lies bleeding." Whatever it is known by it is the weirdest plant we've ever grown. Weird but very wonderful. We will grow both flowers again next year.
I plan to do another post on the vegetables this year.
And the font changed as I wrote. I didn't do it on purpose. I started with the font of our computer, comic sans, but then it went to something I didn't like. I tried to get CS, but it wasn't offered so I used open sans.
Your garden is always so beautiful, Nan! I love the variety and colors. Thanks for taking us on a garden walk on this first day of September. xoxo
ReplyDeleteThank you, Les! Such a nice thing to say.
DeleteI love that Thoreau quote but, I must say I'm happy to be done with summer and on to fall and what comes next. As you can probably guess, the heat and humidity were not the only factors for me. Those flowers are spectacular Nan and can see why their presence has brightened your summer at Windy Poplar Farms. Enjoy and with sone luck you may have an Indian Summer.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you are. I think of you so often. The summer here is longer than it used to be. It was common years ago to have a frost at the end of August. The gardens are such a good thing for me. I forget everything else when I am with the veggies and flowers.
DeleteBeautiful garden! Do you ever harvest the seeds/grain from the Amaranth for eating?
ReplyDeleteThis is our first year growing it. I did find a you tube video on how to do it, but the fellow said he mostly did it to have seeds to plant around. It is apparently quite a job to get very many seeds. I guess most people eat the leaves. For me, it is just the joy of looking at this strange plant!
DeleteIt's a treat to see green grass and lovely flowers! Here, we all have brown grass and dying plants, due to drought.
ReplyDeleteI have a volunteer cleome in my herb bed. I better pick the seeds and spread them where I want it to grow. I posted today about flowers too. Yours are/were lovely.
ReplyDeleteDid you have cleome there before, or did it just come in the wind or via birds?l Amazing, amazing plant. But yes, you wouldn't want it everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI love all the colors of summer. This year, we planted lots of yellow flowers - sunflowers, black eyed susans, daisies, zinnia, plus we have pink coneflowers as well. Enjoy your summer and autumn farm.
ReplyDeleteSounds so beautiful!!
DeleteI'm thinking of the monarda that grew well for me in my Vermont garden--in the Champlain Valley [Addison County] I think we were considered a mild zone 3. I had the old standby 'bee balm', Jacob Kline [red] and a lovely one from White Flower Farms, 'Raspberry Wine' which is now widely available. I have both of these in my KY garden, some mildew, but worth it for the butterflies and hummingbird moths. My new favorite monarda is a dwarf deep purple--almost no mildew unless it gets over-shadowed by other plants. I think your pale lavender variety might be monarda fistula--I've raised that from seed in KY and it is similar to what springs up on meadow verges.
ReplyDeleteHollyhocks here tend to go rusty very quickly. I once had some called 'Old Vermont' [White Flower Farm or Wayside Gardens] and grew from seed a satiny burgundy/black, again in Vermont
Amaranth and its varieties of 'cockscomb'/celosia are very popular with the local Amish women--I've noticed that their dooryard flowers tend to be in vivid colors, a flourish they are allowed to indulge.
Cosmos here this summer--only one plant germinated in a garden row, but those raised from seed in the greenhouse and tucked into the 'wildflower garden' in progress did well. Zinnias are late this year as are nasturtiums. Gardening enchants and frustrates in nearly equal proportions on a given year.
Nan, I always love to see your place in whatever season. Beautiful, beautiful. We finally have had some rain and so our area doesn't look quite so awful. Take care, my friend, and hope things are well for you guys. Hugs sent to you and family!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kay. It sure was dark and rainy and nuthin' much out when you came! I'm happy you got rain.
DeleteNan, I feel that I've been truly living Thoreau's quote this summer, something I haven't always done in an effort to rush summer on to autumn. I've written down names of three of your plants, the monarda and the hollyhock from White Flower Farm (I love their plants), and the amaranth that at first led me to think I'd found the name of an annual from last year that have given us two large plants in a path that had a similar bloom that plumed like it. But when I looked it up, the amaranth leaves are not purple as ours are so it still remains a mystery plant to me. Soon it will be time to "drink the air" of autumn where you live, won't it? Changes here in TN are still very subtle but at least our nights and early mornings are cooler.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that summer has become much more wonderful to me now that we have some window air conditioners. I just couldn't take hot weather. Now I can enjoy being outdoors because I know I can cool off inside. Seems silly when I write this on a cool autumn morning but it is the truth. I truly live my summers now. I wonder if you have a different variety of amaranth?
DeleteOh, the hollyhock. How I love it. Hope you can get some.