Sunday, November 6, 2011

A Delightful Day Of Gardening

Today was overcast and windy but turned out to be a pleasant Sunday with temperatures in the lower 60 degrees F. I had a nice day gardening at home and accomplished plenty of clean-up duties. I had my camera so took some shots as I went along. The top picture shows some of the leaves that I'm still collecting. I like the lime highlights on that Norway maple (Acer platanoides) leaf and noted that 90% of the leaves in our yard drift down from huge maples (silver, red, Norway, boxelder) from all of our neighbors. The image directly above is the annual, sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) that shrugs off all by the most severest frosts and continues blooming (and reseeding). Other highlights (below) include Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) still looking good in my deck planter, continued blooms of a hardy chrysanthemum ('Single Apricot'), neat foliage on my 'Vancouver Centennial' fancy-leaved geranium (Pelargonium) and some "hitchhiking" seeds from the globe thistle (Echinops) that clung to me by the hundreds.



































Two pictures above is the tinge of reddish color on my Golden Spirit smokebush (Cotinus coggygria 'Ancot') and directly above are some of my trimmings from a contorted European filbert (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') which is also called Harry Lauder's walking stick. They do benefit from some serious pruning and thinning. The variability in the "wandering stems" is amazing Further below is the cool, striped bark on the White Tigress striped maple (Acer hybrida) which is a supposed cross between Acer davidii and Acer tegmentosum. To the left is the orange fall color on my Dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) in the back yard. It's about 12' tall and has filled in well. To the lower right is the golden fall color on the variegated Solomon's seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum'). At the bottom is a closeup of a lungwort (Pulmonaria sp.) leaf and some artwork on my back fence. Lots of progress today, more to do this week. I'll be laying out cords tomorrow.











































1 comment:

Unknown said...

the striped maple is the least known of all the common maple species in Kentucky. In our state we find it primarily in the true mountains at higher elevations Online Plant Nursery