Summer Garden Goodbyes

The Black Eyed Susans have bloomed out.... the Daisies are gone.  I've pulled up the Coreopsis Tinctora.  It's time to say goodbye to some of our backyard flowers of spring and summer.  It is August.  So it's been nice to have had some of these flowers blooming for almost two months.  It's time to pull the old plants up and look forward to next year.  I'm just so happy that the Black Eyed Susans will come back again next year.  Usually they multiply in the garden.  They did this year.

The Purple Cone Flowers in this photo are waning too.

My "mini meadow" of wildflowers will come back next year I hope.  I just have no idea in what form or fashion.  I have a feeling every year will be different because seeds fall due to birds and wind and no one knows where those seeds will land.  We found Black eyed Susans coming up in the middle of our yard this year.  My husband was so sweet to mow around them because he knows how much I love flowers.  I finally put some rocks around them and made a tiny flower bed for them.  My sweet next door neighbor was talking to me over the fence one evening as I was putting the rocks down and she said, "Where there are flowers, make a flower bed." with a big smile on her face.  "Yep!" I said.  That's exactly what I was doing.  I've enjoyed seeing this bed outside my dining room window.  They are still blooming.

Black Eyed Susans grass and all

There are still some flowers blooming, but they too are not going to last too much longer I don't think.

Next year I can't decide if I want to keep my mini meadow of random wildflowers or try to make something more organized.  I like seeing what God does each year by letting things just "grow".  I also like some order to the yard.  Maybe I'll do a little of both.

There is nothing I love more than sunflowers.  I've planted many seeds this year a few times during the late spring.  I've used different seeds in a variety of places and have finally decided the sunflowers of 2007 will never be repeated in the spot by our deck.  There is not enough sunshine now due to the Willow Oaks.  There may be a question of the soil too, but these seeds will grow in average soil.  So I don't know.  The Mammoths I've planted are hardly 2-3 feet tall with skinny stems.  When you consider the 6-8 ft sunflowers in the garden plot of our sons and that they are the same Mammoth Seeds, you wonder.....

The colored sunflowers that just "came up" by themselves this year were tall and beautiful.  They are blooming out too.   The Gold Finches have enjoyed them immensely.

My husband convinced me this year to stagger the sunflower planting.  So I did.  Some had automatically resown themselves from last years crop.  I planted others after these were at least 2-3 ft high.  So now there is joy still in the garden because even though some flowers are gone, we've got others that are still blooming.  

And the BIGGEST joys of all are blooming now....
Despite all of these garden "goodbyes", the sunflowers our sons planted in their little flower beds in June are now blooming.  We have lots of Zinnias, and the Mammoth and Colored Sunflower mix are taller than I am.  They look to be about 6-8 feet.  I am in love again.  Just to have 3 or 4 of these giants plants brings me so much joy.  We have found a new sunny spot for sunflowers.  They get sun all day long where they are this year.  Problem solved!  

Joseph

 

PJ.... Wow that's tall!

Our little plot may not be much, but it's ours.  The boys have had the joy of seeing things grow and and "not grow".  We'll have to do something different with the sugar pumpkins.  They are learning by their mistakes.  You have to spread things out in order for things to grow.  Sunflowers will suck the nutrients and water out of the soil, from plants close by.  This is what happened to Joseph's pumpkins.  Philip's pumpkin plant was not watered enough in the heat.  Another lesson learned, which he'll remember for next year.  "Pumpkins need A LOT of water to survive our Charlotte summer heat."    There is joy in the learning though.  I like letting them make their own decisions about their garden plots.  I give initial advice from my experiences to help them.  If they want to make their own decisions about their plots and don't take my advice, then they learn from the experience.


Joseph has won the prize for "Biggest" sunflower this year.  The boys planted them at the same time.  Both wondered whose would grow the tallest.  We call the tallest sunflower the "Granddaddy".  It still has not bloomed yet.  I predict next week!  Stay tuned for photos.

The "Granddaddy" sunflower this year.

I'll be pulling up the spent Black Eyed Susans this week and the flower beds will look "cleaner" and more organized.  Good bye spring and summer flowers....  I didn't mention earlier the tomato garden is waning as well.  Still have lots of fruit left to pick, but they are not going to last much past August.

I've loved the Husky Cherry Tomatoes this year.  They are delicious!!

 Hello Zinnias and Sunflowers!!  We'll have Zinnias and Cosmos blooming until the first frost of autumn.  That could mean the first of November or end of October if we keep them watered well. That's what I LOVE about Zinnias.  They are hearty, bloom if you keep clipping off the dead blossoms, and will bloom until the first frost.  I love cutting flowers from my yard in October!

 

I just wish sunflowers lasted that long.....