A "Pseudo Friday" (For Me)

Nice fall color starting on the Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger') above. It will get a brighter orange with more hints of red in the next week or so. This is my favorite stage though. This is the golden version essentially of the native staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) that you see colonizing the slopes along our highways (and is just starting to turn brilliant scarlet). This variety, like the species, does spread by runners which is important to note but not enough in my estimation not to use it for a splash of color from May thru October!

The image to the right is of our golden Irish moss (Sagina subulata 'Aurea') which is not a true moss, but a flowering perennial (mosses don't flower). It looks great this time of year! Tony and Rick worked on replacing a path in our Japanese garden. This is a tough path to access with our utility vehicles so they were scraping out old gravel by hand and will bring in the fresh stuff tomorrow. Definitely a tough job but one with many benefits. Marv and Terry were bouncing around between projects and continued to help clear some of our fading annual beds. The picture below and to the left is of the perennial (and very invasive) blue lyme grass (Elymus arenarius) that was in our "pillar planters", taken down today by Marv and Terry. Look at that root system! It took up all 18" of potting soil. Glad it was contained and imagine what it would do in rich, open garden soil... Marianne pulled 5 times her weight in annuals today. I don't know what she weighs but she brought back cartful after cartful today. Heck of a worker. Jerry continued clean-up and pruning in the Japanese garden which is one of our most labor intensive spaces. Kay was a whirlwind of destruction (in a good way) with removing annuals. She has great attention to detail and when she cleans a bed out, every weed and leaf is out of there as well. She is a good argument for cloning.


I have a talk up in Stevens Point tomorrow and will head up with my wife and younger daughter. We'll hang out in that area on Friday where fall color should be at peak. I lived in Stevens Point in 1994-1996 while going to grad school at UW-Stevens Point for Urban Forestry. What a great community and beautiful area of WI. Also the home of Point Brewery....


Next week will be crazy with preparations for our annual Halloween Walk, the start of putting up lights for our Holiday Lights show and of course, continued gardening. We should have 7,000 tulips en route as well that will also need a home! Interesting shot below (clipped from an email). I hope no one is offended!