What's Happening in the Garden

I love my garden this time of year. I love my garden at any time of year but this time for sure. Everything is all almost over grown and almost past it's prime. It reminds me of a little southern lady with too much blush on her cheeks, her hair done in a "big" style and lipstick that is slightly outside the lines. If you have ever spent time in the South then you have seen someone who fits that bill. You know you have!

Every once in a while I find a mushroom (or is this a toad stool?) coming up in the garden. They don't seem to last very long, sticking their heads out one day, full out the next, gone the third day.

My "Hen n Chicks" are going great guns after their deer haircut earlier in the year. I started out with just a few of these things tucked into a few spots and they have just gone crazy. What is it about these plants that I just love?

Ah yes, the fly in the ointment. The curdle in the milk. The ever present problem child. The Deer. At a certain point in the year I just throw up my hands, throw in the towel and say, "Eat away Bambi, eat away!" And that time has come. This is just one stalk of the hosta, minus it's beautiful heart shaped leaf. Take this picture and put it on an entire hosta plant. Well all except for the leaves that are closest to the ground. It sort of gives the hosta the look of a monk with a very bad tonsure haircut. Where do I come up with these things???

I love Alyssum. It has a funny smell but I just love it. These particular plants are coming up in the middle of my front walk because several years ago I had some alyssum that self seeded and now it comes up every year. I just have to be very careful when I am weeding in the Spring because the new plants look very similar to weeds. It helps to know your plants. That also applies to poison ivy. It helps to know your plants.

Another plant that I love the smell of. What is it with me and smells? At any rate, these are waiting to go into the ground or onto the front steps. Of course, once I do get them into the ground I will have to spray them with the stuff that smells like a vomitorium to keep the deer away.

Aren't these lovely! And in another few weeks they will be a wonderful red color. And at the moment I can't for the life of me remember their name. It will come to me....just wait for it......it is on the tip of my tongue....Oh forget it.

Ferns, I love ferns. They are so cool and green and mysterious. I also love the word mysterious. It is one of those words that just rolls off your tongue.
Mysssssteeeeeeeerious.
And if you say it with a fake Russian accent it is even better. Or perhaps channel your inner Greta Garbo.

And again with the Rudbekia Debbie, what is it with you and the Rudbekia? Well, it is a happy flower, all sunny and bright. But look closer.....closer......closer. Do you see that thing sticking off of one of the petals. It is a slug, frozen in time, dried out in the act of trying to make a leap from the leaf to safety in the leaf clutter underneath. Sort of his own slug olympic dive that went horribly wrong.

And to end with here is a picture of one of my last remaining clematis blooms. I love these things.

And so, you can see, life is busy in the garden where I am enjoying the last of the blooming things and not looking forward to all the cleaning out that will happen in late October. For now, I will go out and smell the alyssum and look at the clematis and see if there are any more dead slugs on the rudbekia.

Someone has to do it.