Blustery Day

miscanthus

 We have had some big wind storms lately, today is blustery but not damaging. Grey and wet, getting cooler as it goes. I like to wander on days like this and just look at the garden, see what it looks like as the season ends and it goes to sleep. This year I decided not to buy anything new, just shift the old stuff as needed. I moved a few things but not as many as I did the year before. We had a lovely cool wet spring that gave all of my foundation plants a chance to really get established AND I fed everything first thing in the season (usually thats miss for me). Over the course of the summer I have tried to get some ground cover established in the back border. I want to reduce the amount of mulch I need to use on it. I took sprigs of Snow in Summer, Lamium, myrtle, and sweet woodruff  and tucked them into the beds, some has taken and will start to spread next year.

lots of texture, muted colors

crabapple and pine

 The last thing I did this season was to cut back most of the flowering shrubs (weglia, japonica and spirea) and the smoke bushes. That'll improve the foliage next year. I cleaned the beds up a bit and now they are messy again. They can stay that way, I just need to keep the walks clear and it will all be fine. Cleaning up helped me to identify some weak spots that need tweaking, either some sort of planting or an improvement in the hardscape, I didn't get as much done with the paths in the bird garden this summer as planned, maybe next year.

winterberry

messy paths in the bird garden

 I'm still looking at the sinkhole and trying to figure out what to make of it. It has the potential to become a really nice seating area, but its a big job and I have concerns... also maybe next year.

still looking

 The container garden in the front wall came along nicely. All of the sedums and hechera I potted up have survived and seem pretty happy in their new homes. I have more sedum started for next year.
I plan to rework the stonework and containers to create a waterfall look and build up the terracing.

sedum 

fading colors

 So many plans, maybe next year.