If you want to see plants waving fronds, flowers, and foliage in the air like they just don’t care, come to my garden now. If you want to watch purples, pinks, whites, greens, yellows kaleidoscope as they flop atop each other, lounge on the lawn, collapse carelessly hither and thither, now is the time to visit.
While I do plant spring bulbs and early blooming perennials, my gardens are primarily August and September gardens. They come into their own now, fully formed, hosting a variety of pollinators, pretty much untended by me, messy and abundant and vibrant. And there’s something about the late summer sun that also enters into the sensual equation, where colour plus languidness plus light concoct the kind of shimmering magic that keeps me in the garden more and more often now.
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability. –Sam Keen
(As if laziness weren’t always respectable!)
I planted a couple of wildflower mixes this year, two kinds for sun and one for shade, and some zinnias and cosmos from seed, plus a few late-season annual plants like a pink phlox and some grasses; I love the surprises that pop up; I’m going to do it again next year!
annual bachelor buttons in wildflower mix, 4 Augbumblebee on annual bachelor’s button, 6 Augwood nymph butterfly on annual pink phlox, 25 Augred, orange and blue annuals in wildflower mix, 25 Augpink, blue, orange annuals in mix, 27 Augpurple wildflower in mix, 27 Augyellow tansy and red clover, 27 Augpurple cosmos, 5 Septmonarch butterfly on zinnia, 7 Sept 2014
The back border, home of the many monarchs, also hosted bees and mimics of all stripes, a small tree frog, dragonflies, birds, and lots of others:
5 bees on veronicastrum, 1 Augred glads, 6 Augmagenta phlox, white hydrangea, veronicastrum, 7 Augmorning glory, 8 Augwhite admiral butterfly (Limenitis Arthemis) on echinacea, 11 Augwhite echinacea in bloom, 12 Augpart of back border, 15 Augred eyed vireo in pagoda dogwood tree, 16 Augred dragonfly, 16 Augback border with echinacea, miscanthus, and Joe Pye weed, 18 Augjuvenile grey tree frog on echinacea, 25 Augwillow gentian flowers, 25 Augpurple and white phlox, 26 Augbumblebee at willow gentian, 27 Augwillow gentian under miscanthus grass, 1 Septpart of back border with gentian, phlox, grass, 1 Septpart of back border, 1 Septyellow glads, 1 Septmiscanthus sinensis ‘Gracilimus’ grass, 5 Sept
The side bed, with some new plants (like the tall vervain, below), really came to life this year:
blue vervain, 3 Augbuddleia and lemon balm, 6 Auggreat black wasp on asclepias, 9 Augperovskia and pink ascelpias, 14 Augbuddleia and echinacea, 27 Augperovskia, 27 Augspent allium and perovskia, 27 Augasclepias pods, 7 Sept
And the rock wall, partly planted by me (hazelnuts and clethra this year) and partly by former owners and airborne seeds:
yellow daylilies in rock wall, 16 Aug‘Ruby Spice’ clethra blooming, 24 Augwhite hydrangea in rock wall, 24 AugJapanese barberry (invasive), 4 Sept
The front and sunroom borders (and even the patio, which hosted this garter snake) are a joy to behold:
garter snake, 3 Augblue lupine with ant, 6 Augechinops (globe thistle) in bloom, 9 Augmonarda (bee balm), lupine, hostas, 12 AugAmerican Lady butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis) on buddleia (butterfly bush), 14 Aug“Autumn Joy’ sedum and ‘Rozanne’ geranium, 16 Aug‘Hab Grey’ sedum and red monarda (bee balm), 16 Aug‘Hab Grey’ sedum bloom with bumblebee, 24 Aug‘Loyalist’ hosta yellowing, 24 Augbaptisia (false indigo) pods, 25 Augblack-throated green warbler in ‘Tina’ crabapple, 31 Augchipping sparrow, 31 Augfritillary butterfly on buddleia (butterfly bush), 1 Septfirst anemone tormentosa, 7 Sept
And then there is the back “edge” (my narrow “forever wild” strip), the back fence itself, and other nooks and crannies where plants and animals come together as summer slips away …
Melanoplus bivittatus femoratus (two-striped grasshopper) and friend, 6 Augcrow on motion camera, 29 Augphoebe on fence, 31 Augbumblebee in chelone (turtlehead), 5 Septchipmunk on bench with penstemon, 6 Septgrapes in ‘forever wild’, 7 Sept
from Three Songs at the End of Summer by Jane Kenyon
A second crop of hay lies cut
and turned. Five gleaming crows
search and peck between the rows.
They make a low, companionable squawk,
and like midwives and undertakers
possess a weird authority.
*
Crickets leap from the stubble,
parting before me like the Red Sea.
The garden sprawls and spoils.
The garden sprawls and spoils, collapses, feeds, fertilizes, hosts, rots, roots, holds on, lets go, careless, carefree.
Hi Molly, Especially loved these photos of all the blowsy, luxuriating flowers — really gorgeous! I guess I need to try sprinkling some of those packs of wildflower seeds in my “meadow” — it really didn’t go very far this summer, although I’m still hoping some of the plants I set out there will settle in and do better or at least drop some seeds that will have a chance of blooming next summer. Susan
Hi Molly, Especially loved these photos of all the blowsy, luxuriating flowers — really gorgeous! I guess I need to try sprinkling some of those packs of wildflower seeds in my “meadow” — it really didn’t go very far this summer, although I’m still hoping some of the plants I set out there will settle in and do better or at least drop some seeds that will have a chance of blooming next summer. Susan
Thanks, Susan. I tried this another year, another garden, with a packet of wildflower seeds and they never really took off. This year’s seeds did much better, especially those for sun, the Bring Home the Butterflies seeds (https://botanicalinterests.com/products/view/7009/Bring-Home-the-Butterflies-Seeds/srch:bring%20home%20the%20butterflies) … More like Bring Home the Bees, but that’s good, too!