Coleus Capers

Well, the coleus may be a moderate success this year. At first, I thought maybe it was going to turn out to have too much afternoon sun where I want to put them. They did not look happy at first- kind of sunburned.

But they have been in the ground for almost 2 weeks now, and they are getting better.

As a reminder, I bought one, the 'Inferno,' that was deep orange when I first put it out.

Very interestingly, the orange color has changed to almost a ruby red. It's really doing the job to brighten things up there, but it needs friends.

Nine of the coleus I managed to keep over the winter are planted, and a few of them are perking up. This one is doing the best. And most of them are this color pattern. It is tall enough now, and is contrasting nicely with the violet leaves.

Here's an example of the condition most are in. This is another of the bi-color ones that is brightening up and looking better, and above and left of it is one that is all dark. It will be great if it manages to get bigger. It might. The last time I tried significant coleus there, I got some end-of-season ones that were too small, too late, and they never filled in.

I have three more stalks rooting. I think one is rotting, not rooting, but I may have two more to put out in a couple of days.

Seen from any distance at all, the only one you can see is the 'Inferno,' but hopefully that will change as the season goes on.

The thunderstorm yesterday evening dumped another 1.2 inches of rain and there were high winds. We're supposed to get one more round of that tonight, possibly with damaging hail. I have staked the tall lilies that are in bud. I'd hate to lose them, but it could happen.

I did projects, I edited on both manuscripts I have in house, I did a little deadheading and weeding, but it's awfully wet! Not surprising.

There are so many jobs I need to do, it's pretty hopeless no matter what. And the lawn needs mowing again. But I can only do what I can do.

See Orange and Gold

The Indoor Plants

It's astonishing, but I can't think of anything interesting to blog about!

I edited, I did computer stuff, I shopped, I filled the veggie tray using my new chopper (it looks beautiful), but how many times would you readers find the same tray filled with the same vegetables interesting? I started to look up a little bit about the next generation in the genealogy, but as I suspected, there isn't much to find. I may have to get that DAR membership to learn much (which would be easy except for the dues because Granny and Mom were both members- so I don't have to start from scratch to prove anything). It was this generation's son-in-law who fought in the Revolution, and gives me the right to belong.

I played my game (but I MAY be able to be calmer about it.) They've added many layers of events because the really top-level players need things to do. So there's no way mid-level players, such as I, can explore all the lands. So I can just pick what I want to work on and try to meet my own goals.

It's fun. The current quest is to assemble a skeleton of the "Loch Dess" (not a typo) monster. You have to get some of the bones from an Inuit who was making oars of the ribs, a dog who wants to keep some of the bones, and a clown who is charging people to look at the skull. You have to go find the things these people and the dog want to trade for the bones. Along the way, there are rewards you can get, resources to collect, etc. And you have to keep your home station operating in order to have enough energy to do all this stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure you really don't want to see a lot of screenshots of a game you aren't playing yourself.

How about the plants I'm nurturing in the house over the winter? Still not too exciting, but it's the best I can do today. I am attempting to keep a bunch of Coleus going. I brought in the 'Lemon Coral' sedum and the 'Sea Urchin' sedum. I have one sprig of 'Blue Elf' sedum, the wandering jew, a tiny aloe that manages to live but not thrive, and a whole bunch of the Aloe squarrosa which is a houseplant. I'm still trying to give several of those away if you are interested...

Remember the cleaning/sorting project I mentioned in September? Well, the point of that was to make space on a table where I can keep these plants for the winter. I think that space gets enough light to make them happy. And it doesn't matter if some water leaks onto the plastic cloth or the junky table underneath. In my dream world, I have one of those earth-sheltered greenhouses attached to my kitchen door by a breezeway, so I can keep plants and grow vegetables over the winter. Meanwhile, I have a rusty folding table and an old plastic tablecloth. It works.

Tomorrow is going to be nice again. I have a plan to do something more exciting than grocery shopping.

See Last Hurrah, Rock Garden 2025

Visiting Margaret's Garden

I am going to try to get some plants going for the gardens over the winter. I do not have a track record of being very good with this, although I did OK last year. I'm going to try some coleus this year. Friend Margaret gave me cuttings from two different ones, a dark purple and this interesting variegated one. Look at the scalloped edges on the leaves.

She has a huge fenced garden- her whole back yard. She has vegetables and all kinds of flowers. A lot of them are tubers and bulbs she has to take in every winter. I don't have the patience for that at all. These are begonias that should only be good for one season. But she says she takes them in and every year they come back.

This is her back porch. Look at all the plants! She apologized because it's not at peak beauty. Hey, it's September. I think it looks great.

This is a really healthy Jimsonweed. She called it a moonflower. Common names are all over the map. It's Datura stramonium. Ingesting any part of the plant can cause severe altered mental states and even death. So, enjoy looking, but don't get the sap in your mouth!

There were lots of other things I could have taken pictures of, but I didn't. Oh well. These are the annuals along her front walkway. She says the petunias have bloomed all summer even without very consistent deadheading.

I enjoyed the tour! I'm glad she was home to show me. We had left it that I would come snatch some coleus from the front whether she was there or not. But I got the full tour.

I spent a big portion of the day doing errands. There weren't any big glitches with any of them, so that's good. I have a preliminary dentist appointment tomorrow.

I also edited and answered various correspondence, blah, blah.

See Margaret's Garden

Conservation Trail - Not All Paved

 Today's miles were tough only because it was impossibly humid. We got out early enough to beat the real heat, but it didn't really matter. About the first third was still paved trail.

After that, it was still the rail trail, but it was a grass surface. Nice to walk on! Our only real complaint was that the grassy trail had no benches. We walked and walked til we found a place we could sit for our break.

Some cute little white mushrooms looking like scarecrow hats.

Miles hiked so far in 2024: 307.4. Finger Lakes Trail miles hiked in 2024: 40.1

Conservation Trail, Western NY. Shimerville Rd. to Forest Rd. 7.1 miles

BONUS SECTION: Ann's Garden

We went to host Joyce's sister's garden the other evening. It was beautiful! Come along.

She has waterfalls and ponds. This one has pink lights in the water.

This one is even larger and has blue lights in the water.

Container gardens on the steps are always nice with a number of different coleus and other things.

I really like the gooseneck loosestrife.

But the garden phlox and daisies are spectacular too.

The new one to me was a large bush called sweetshrub with big flowers. It's supposed to be aromatic, but I didn't smell it. Next time.

I'm in the very last stages of getting How to Hike the North Country Trail ready. The final check of the pdfs just happened. If I can stay awake, I'll upload them to the printer tonight. If not... tomorrow.

See Peanut Line and Stella T. Rex

The $1 Marigold

In mid-June, after I finished the hike, I planted a dollar's worth of marigold seeds. I figured whatever I got would add a spot of color. Well, they did. It did. I got one, one spot of color!

The impatiens haven't recovered from being eaten a second time. That was probably asking a lot. Well, they were practically free, and the foliage looks better than weeds.

Here's one more gazania. They are doing pretty well.

The tiny coleus that was absolutely free because it was an accident in one of the other pots didn't get big, but neither did it get eaten.

I never did show you the plant I bought for the rock garden, but it wouldn't stand the sun. It's this vareigated ajuga. I really like the looks of it, and it's quite happy in the shade. The bronze one will tolerate the rock garden, but not this one!

And finally, I wanted to show you the flowers of one more hosta. I have no idea what variety this is, it was free long ago. Ordinary green leaves with narrow white edges.

But it's another one with pretty flowers. The blooms in the above picture are past their prime. But when you look inside the blossom, they are neat.

As you can see, a lot of that bed did not get weeded for the second time. I may have time to do one more fall cleanup after I get home in October, but right now I'm focused on getting ready to head for New York.

More NCT work and some house cleaning today.

See How Are Those Annuals?

Cathie's Garden

I needed to run out to Cathie's house on another errand, but a side perk of that is that I knew she has a very nice garden. This was the first time we'd actually met, although we've been conversing via Facebook. She took one of my least attractive house plants before I went hiking. It's still really leggy, but it's very happy.

She has a whole patch of red Crocosmia. I tried to grow this once with no succes. It looks best in a mass planting like this one.

She also has a few stands of hollyhocks. I prefer these, the old-fashioned single ones. For a while the double ones were hugely popular, but I'm glad to see more of this kind now.

The deck planters are phenomenal! They are mostly Coleus and Bidens 'Stellar Blanco.' (white star). I thought at first they were Bacopa, but the leaves aren't right. You don't want to run into the wild Bidens species in the fall. They are the classic "stick-tights" with the two prongs like devil's-horns! I think the other flowers are a petunia.

I loved the hot color palette of her front bed. And what I really like is the little solar fountain she has in the birdbath. She says the birds love the splashing. You can barely see it squirting in the picture, but it sent water almost 2 feet in the air. I think my bath is too small for this, but it's definitely cool!

She must spend every minute gardening. She also has a pristine vegetable garden, all fenced about 10 feet tall. This is only maybe a quarter of it.

Now for my favorites. She is actually growing a lemon tree. I had no idea you could get away with that here. These are the flowers. Behind these, there were very (very) tiny lemons forming on the faded blossoms. Actually you can see one just to the right and below the center.

This plant was new to me, or at least I never noticed it enough to learn the name. It's a Petunia relative, Calibrachoa from central South America. The red and yellow together is stunning! This planting can also be seen in the picture with the birdbath.

Last night, my brain was just racing with ideas for my current project. I decided it was stupid to lie still and try to remember everything I was thinking of, so I got up and turned the comupter back on. Worked until 5 am. Slept until 10:30. That was fine, since we were having a thunderstorm anyway!

I also got a calendar widget installed on my desktop. That was WAY more difficult than it should have been. The Google one is apparently no longer available. I finally found one I like, although I haven't managed to customize the categories yet. I can only take so much frustration in one day.

See Margaret's Garden

Betty's Garden Fun

It's turning out to be a huge job to go all through the blog posts and make notes of who was there on which days, and how long I stayed at each host, etc. How about some more pretty plants instead?

This is a garden loosestrife (not the horrible purple loosestrife that takes over wetlands. Actually, this probably isn't even in the same genus.)

She still has a columbine in bloom!

These are some variety of "Sundrops," which is an evening primrose relative. Genus Oenothera. I used to have some shorter ones, but they all eventually died out.

Here's the one that takes my breath away. She can grow delphiniums! I have killed a few. This is a lighter blue one, but it's still stunning.

And how about those pots of coleus? They are looking great! But she has not escaped the deer eating her hosta. I'm not gloating... just saying.

Can you tell that I'm getting a lot of joy from plants and flowers and gardening? Very much so!

See Gardening with Betty

Revolution in a Cage

 
This day lily is the variety 'Revolution.' I paid money for this one and I really, really love it. Last year the deer ate every single bud - no flowers to enjoy at all. This year, in addition to the sonic deterrent, I put the flowers in a cage. It's ugly, but at least they get to bloom.



Here's a low shot with two of the surviving coleus. I'm always picturing what the ideal would be instead of what I have to settle for. Wouldn't this be lovely with clumps of the lily surrounded by nice full banks of these coleus?



I worked all day long on the corner trailer wall. Not quite done, so I'll wait to show you. The weather may not be conducive to outdoor jobs tomorrow, but I have plenty I can work on inside the house. Finishing this one wall section is probably going to be the last big trailer project before my trip. Well, except for fiberglassing some wood to the back wall for the table brackets, but that's easy. Then I have to put the kitchen end back together, and start loading the trailer, and cleaning the house up a little bit!

I'm beat, but feeling confident that I'll get this wall licked the next day I'm able to work on it.

See Garden Survivors

Garden Survivors

 
I did a lot on the trailer project today, but don't quite have the next piece done. I'll wait until it's finished to share.

Instead, here are a few survivors from the attempted flower bed this year. The coleus are too widely spaced, but I really couldn't buy any more. However, they are looking colorful. There are now 3 fewer of them than in this picture. But they do make me smile when I walk by. And the rose I hate is blooming. Less than usual, also thanks to the deer!



Here is one of the blue hosta. It has been in wire prison since the deer missed it on their first forage of the garden. The wire does seem to keep them off, but it's not so pretty to look through to enjoy the plants. At least I can remove it for pictures. I don't know what variety this is. It was a freebie from Ester.



This is one of my favorites. I bought one, but the deer finished it off. Then Ester gave me one, and I split it so there are two chances that I might get to keep it. This is a hosta variety called 'August Moon.' Yes, it's very yellow-green. That's not just a trick of the light. It's so bright and pretty- it's as good as a colorful flower and the color lasts all season if you can keep the leaves from being eaten. Both of these are also under wire.



I worked very slowly again. I think on a cooler day I could have done everything I accomplished in maybe 3 hours instead of all day. But I guess I need to take what I can get. I'm still trying to get outside earlier, but my brain does not appreciate it. I had a headache until noon today- usually the result of trying to wake up too fast. And there has been heavy dew the past couple of mornings, and that doesn't lend itself to doing some jobs when your workshop is totally outside. And, the golden biting flies arrived in time for lunch again.

It's supposed to rain tomorrow night. I have a book event that I have to leave for at 3 pm. So I brought in most of the tools today (I've been leaving everything out on a table and covering it with a tarp since the probability of rain has been down around 5% for the last 10 days). I'll just try to finish this one piece of the trailer project in the morning and then clean up and make sure I'm ready to get my head into book sales.

See A Little More Garden