Other 2026 Garden Endings

 There was a hard freeze at least once while I was in Kentucky. The gardening season is really over unless I manage to do a little weeding in the rock garden.

However, here are a few final bright spots. This is the 'Forbidden Fruit' hosta. I love how yellow it got.

I was really shocked to discover there is a 'Firefly' Heuchera still blooming!

And, not in any flower bed... one self-seeded marigold insisted on blooming. But in general, the marigolds just aren't working for me.

I'll close with a sort of report on the Moon Garden. I had hoped to bring in some of the annuals to propogate them. Well... the deer pulled the frosted Gazania right out of the ground and ate them. I put the new hosta and the dogwood in prison before I went hiking. They kicked off the fencing and chewed the dogwood, but I think it will be OK.

I didn't manage to get any of the white petunias in the house to root and propogate for next year. Not in the moon garden this year, but I was hopeful they might be next year.

However, the dusty miller were not dead. So I have split them, and we'll see how they do in the house over the winter.

Today was busy. I managed to edit a bit. Then I spent the afternoon doing errands, one of which was to choose a new Medicare plan. What a hassle! But I think I've done it. Then I had a Zoom meeting and a flurry of communication after that.

See It's All I've Got

Moon Gardening in the Rain

 I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish today in the Moon Garden. I thought I had till about 4 pm before it was going to rain. Ha! The rain started at 1 pm, so I just kept working. As it turned out, we didn't get nearly as much as the forecast said-- less than 0.2 inch. But I got things done.

This is probably all the plants that are going to go in the Moon Garden this year with the possible exception of some from my other gardens that I might split. In other words, I have to stop buying plants for now.

Long shot just for reference. Yeah, it doesn't look like much.

What I wanted to do was get the plants that were still in pots into the ground, and move the variegated Miscanthus grass to it's actual location. It was a darn good thing I didn't wait any longer to move that because the roots had started to dig right in. So here it is, moved, with the other things I planted early showing beyond it. This is one of the plants that will get tall to add a vertical dimension (and wide).

You can see the Guara at the end of the row. It has continued to bloom and look great. It's supposed to get about a foot taller, which will be perfect.

Right now, the best of the low plants in this row are the 'Frosty Kiss' Gazania. I'm hoping I can keep some of those over the winter. My grow light came, so hopefully the winter plants will do better this year.

The 'Steal the Spotlight' Hosta went in the ground. The rain speckles make it look a little funny. The blueish hostas look that way because of a waxy coating on the leaves, and the water temporarily messes with that.

Here's the plant I said that I bought at 60% off. I've waited to show you because it didn't look good when it came. That's not the grower's fault. I'm pretty sure it sat in a hot warehouse or truck overnight. The leaves were withered and burned. However, it's a shrub, so I got it right in the ground and have been watering it like crazy.

It's an 'Ivory Halo' Dogwood. This will also get about four feet tall, and add another vertical dimension in the garden. The twigs are red in winter.

Here's how it looked the day it came. The browned edges of the leaves don't show as much in the picture as they did for real.

Here it is after 2 1/2 weeks of babying. I think you can tell that there are a bunch of new leaves that are much healthier. I think it will be OK. I emailed the company after it came, just in case it didn't recover.

Last goal for today was to get some of the white Deadnettle that I also have in the front garden moved out here to the deepest shade right on the north side of the trunk of the tree.

The color of all these pictures is off a little because of the dark sky and rain, but you can get the idea. Most of what will happen for the rest of this season is continuing to dig up the grass, maybe move a few more of the free plants I can split from other gardens, and build the bench and level up the "nook." I think I have some more broken blocks coming to continue to work on the paths too.

Plants I want to get:
Hosta- "Dances with Dragons"
Santolina
A couple kinds of Artemesia
Heucherella- 'Cracked Ice'
Sedum ruprestre- 'Silver'

There are others on my potential list, but these are top priorities.

So, I got this done before it started raining hard. Also edited a bunch, did some volunteer stuff and watched a movie.

See Bonsai Apple Tree is Getting Friends