Fall Colors in the Yard

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 Sometimes the colors are the brightest and best in your own back yard. Yesterday we traveled along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Afton Mountain near Waynesboro. The sun was shining and the colors were about the same a here...a little bit more yellow.

  A very small flower has continued to bloom through snow and freezing weather.

 The red leaf maple has been in the yard for about nine years. This year it is the most vibrant red it has ever been.

 Trees in the back yard next to the woods at the spot where the deer come out to enjoy our gardens.

                           The little maple tree in our mountain yard. It has a natural slope to it.

 So many leaves have dropped from the tulip poplars that you can see the colors of the mountains.

 Next to the studio, petals falling as the wind blows. A small insect inside the only blooming Japanese anemone.

               A milkweed plant grown from seed that took its own time in coming to flower.

                                    A few asters are still purple and shielded by the butterfly bush.

                                                                Into the woods...

Fall Flowers

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The end of October and we have yet to have a heavy frost. The yard still has green tomatoes on the vine and several sweet green peppers/ The lemon grass and lemon verbena are huge! They also smell so nice. Thyme is spreading nicely down the hillside and between the stones. Lavender from seed is safely tucked into the greenhouse growing nicely.

 There are still several butterflies flitting about the flowers. It takes patience and lots of tries to have a butterfly with its wings outstretched. This one didn't mind me being around.

 A purple hyacinth bean grown from seeds purchased at Spring Creek Gardens in Fort Collins, Colorado. The deer ate the scarlett runner beans as they flowered but seemed to leave these alone. I am drying the bean pods for seeds for next year.

                                                 They do look like sweet peas, don't they?

 Can you find all the bugs on this flower? We use no chemicals in the gardens. All the flowers are grown from seed collected from the previous year or purchased.

                  These had a late start, but they are enjoying the sunshine and spreading.

 There are many varieties of rudebeckia or Black Eyed Susans in the gardens. This variety has ruffled leaves and is quite large. Pockets of the smaller varieties are scattered all over.

 A fall aster that grows over six feet tall. It started with one plant and has spread by root runners.

                                                      This aster is native to the mountains.

 A beautiful flower, but the Japanese anemone spreads once it finds a place it likes. If you live close by and want some, come by in the spring and take home bags of this plant.

 This is the bud and you can see the flower in the background. They are all part of the same plant.

What a joy to see the milkweed pod open and the seeds caught by the wind. Each year, I find more and more of these plants volunteering in the gardens. Lots of different varieties of milkweed in the gardens. And there are monarchs....Fall in the gardens is filled with intense colors. The zinnias are doing very well.

May Flowers After the Rain

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 Geraniums blooming among the columbine in the front of the house under a very large tulip poplar.

 On a warm day in February, I scattered some poppy seeds. I carefully covered them with soil and waited. This is the first of several poppies that made their way into the gardens.

 Last year, I began growing flowers from seeds in the greenhouse. The snapdragons grew so well last year. Early spring, I cut them back. They have been blooming most of the spring. These were the only variegated blooms.

 Just a few of the snapdragons blooming with one foxglove. Iris leaves stand behind stately.

   About six or so years ago, I bought this bush at Lowe's on clearance. It gets larger every year!

 These are Ray's blueberries. He planted them. He weeds and mulches all the blueberry plants. This plant gives us lots of berries each year. We net the berry bushes when they begin to turn blue. If we didn't the birds would not leave us one berry.

 These sun drops have traveled with me for over 35 years moving from house to home. These are the first to bloom. Easy to transplant and quick to spread.

 A few of the coreopsis which are scattered throughout the gardens. Behind them is the leaf of three let it be. Will be getting rid of that after the rains...

                      This primrose does not spread like the sun drops but is in the same family.

      Right outside the door of the green house is a cluster of sweet william and pinks.

 I grew this butterfly weed, a member of the milkweed family from seed last year. There are now over a dozen milkweed plants throughout the gardens. The newest addition is from the Asheville Botanical Gardens spring sale. No flowers on that one yet...

 Not sure of the name of this, think veronica? It is a very sweet little flower that grows on a very long stem.

 Nestled in among the plants near a butterfly bush is a foxglove. Last year I scattered seeds after a foxglove had bloomed. Several of these are coming up in interesting places.

Angelica among the ferns is a plant that is very invasive. If you have just one tiny bit of a root attached to another plant, it will multiply. It self sows itself and also grows on runners. Deer do not eat the angelica or it would not be spreading into the woods.

Late Summer in the Gardens

Late Summer in the Gardens

When we moved in into our home, there was a lilac in the yard. We have been here eight years and the gardens continue to spread and grow. One of many hydrangea bushes scattered about.

A close up of the hydragenda blossom

This butterfly plant was grown from seeds I started in the greenhouse. It is blooming just before the Monarchs are due for arrival.

These lovely anemone spread and threatened to take over the yard. They have been contained this year and a large beetle has been loving the leaves.

I must have planted six packages of nasturium seeds everywhere. Some bloomed and some didn't. These seeds came from Hudson Valley Seeds.

A geranium which usually blooms in early spring but came up a few weeks ago.

I cast these cleome seeds all over the yard. They have come up in the most interesting places.

I found this flower bulb discounted at the grocery store in Big Stone Gap.

                 These seeds I found at Millmont Garden Center in Stuarts Draft, Virginia.

My most successful flower seeds: snap dragons. I grew so many of these that I donated them to the Norton Elementary School farmer's market in May.

Scarlet runner beans are grown for the hummingbirds. These beans can grow ten feet!

Entrance to the green house is covered with these black eyed susans. They are in several gardens especially near the front of the house growing up through the moss.

Cuttings of lavender that are three months old! I simply snipped leaves from plants. I put the ends in a rooting hormone. I placed them in a seed growing mixture in the greenhouse. They continue to grow.

                         This beauty came up from a seed mixture and is two years old.

Spider plant or cleome growing in between the angel trumpet.

One of my grandaughter's favorite plants, she calls them poppers. When they go to seed, you touch the seed pod and they fly everywhere.