Category Archives: General Gardening

Fall continues to roll in.

Fall continues to roll in. The nights have cooled to the 60s and the days are barely in the 80s now.

It’s hurricane season. We have not had one come this far inland in years but it has happened before. It’s not always a bad thing. They clean out all the dead limbs in the trees and wash out the rivers of all the debris that has accumulated over the years. The last storm that made it inland punctured the roof of the house with a large limb.  I always wonder: Will this be the year?

The vegetable garden has produced its last few chilies and the tomatoes have long died. The basil plants are so large they are like small shrubs. I think I may be attempting to make pesto soon?

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Winter is the time when I focus on the hardscape in the garden and attempt to correct any ideas about the layout of the beds that seemed to not work over the season.

Throughout the year I take pictures of ideas in public gardens or around town as reminders of elements I would like to have in my garden.

I particularly like this stone wall and capstone JC Raulston Arboretum installed in their lathe house. I would like something similar on the North side of the patio as that is the high end of my sloping property. It would provide a place to sit or display potted plants and also frame the bay laurels I have planted there. The cap stones are beautiful.

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Garden spiders continue to appear out of nowhere! Beautiful yet creepy!

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And Fall bloomers continue to create a beautiful palate of color and fragrance.

Colchicums:

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And I think ahead to next year and make my wish list:

I dream of gingers… the clump below are a peach-colored and  variegated leaved plant at J C Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University.

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And the wish list becomes longer every day…

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More fall bloomers and SPARKcon

The colchicums are blooming! They are wonderful Fall bloomers that remind me of a giant Fall blooming crocus. After they bloom they grow wide, thick leaves which die back in the spring.

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The hurricane lilies (lycoris) continue to bloom. After they bloom the foliage grows and persist through out the winter then dies in the spring.

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And the garden in general is very lush because of a wetter than normal summer.

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Of course, it’s best to begin the morning with an heavenly iced double mocha latte at Cup A Joe! Um, what does she have hand?

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This weekend is SPARKcon in Raleigh which is an celebration of all the arts. There are sub-festivals such as musicSPARK, fashionSPARK, danceSPARK, etc- all named after the respective class of art.

Last night was circusSPARK. Fayetteville Street was closed and circus-type performers were doing their thing. The cooler weather was perfect! http://www.sparkcon.com/

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Fall is just around the corner!

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Weekends….and Four-O-Clocks.

Weekend mornings at the coffee shop are busy with older adults which is in marked contrast to weekdays. The NCSU college students are all still sleeping.

The adults are discussing sports, politics, and trying to boast about the accomplishments of their children. Its funny… but I digress.

I like to people watch and catch up with those I only see there on such mornings and, of course, enjoy my iced mocha latte. I have always found the older adult’s viewpoint interesting for their different and varying experiences. The retired professors, especially, seemed opinionated.

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Its that time of the year when seeds are ripening in the garden and its time to collect and store them for next year or plant them around the garden.

The Four-o-clocks reliably produce small, black, hard seeds which germinate easily. Its early enough in the season they may germinate and produce a nice plant to survive over the winter. Otherwise, they would drop near the parent plant and produce large colonies.

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Four-o-Clocks are named after their habit of opening late in the evening and closing the next morning. They come in a range of colors from white, to hot pink, and pastel shades. There are a few species with long trumpets or fuzzy leaves.

Here in Central North Carolina they are perennial.

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They are very easy to grow and relatively pest free. I remember my grandmother in Beaufort, North Carolina always having a patch of them on the side of her house.

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