It seems Summer is rapidly coming to an end. Last night it was 17 degrees (67 fahrenheit) and I was able to sleep with my window open. Mind you, I don’t mind as I prefer cooler temperatures, but it seems too cool too soon.  I also feel the season is ending soon because the garden nurseries are having clearance sales. As well, the Fall semester begins in 15 days and I switch back to my regular hours at work.

This past weekend I worked more in the garden. I was able to finish the new compost area, which I decided will become a shade garden of sorts. I still intend on placing a compost barrel in the area, but there is plenty of room for shade loving plants. I have already begun to transplant the ferns to this new area. They aren’t doing well as the current fern bed receives too much light.

The entire garden area needed a fresh layer of mulch so this was done too. One of the goals was to extend the ground cover over an area behind the herb bed. It had been neglected for quite some time, but now the mulch extends right up to the azalea bush.

Since the nurseries are having sales we managed to pick up some new pots and a few new plants.  I transplanted the Fox Tail Asparagus fern from its previous location and planted in one of the new pots. The asparagus fern likes light so it doesn’t need to be in the shade garden. I placed the potted fern in the area of the “Butterfly bush” and the new “Black Corals Colocasia.” The Colocasia’s were on sale for $2.00 each!

This autumn I plan on transplanting the Crinum lilies, which are in the foreground of the above picture. They will be moved to the old fern bed because they are becoming too large in their current location. I am starting to damage their leaves when walking to the greenhouse. The new potted “Big Bang” Redshift Coreopsis will then be moved to the current location of the Crinum lilies. Another sale purchase were these three “Little Spire Russian Sage plants. They are absolutely beautiful! Their flower is very similar to a Lavender plant.

On my drive to work the roadsides are dotted with wildflowers. Currently there are huge patches of sunflowers that are absolutely beautiful. Now I want some! I know I should have planned this weeks ago, but I decided to plant some seeds and see what happens. I planted eight “Autumn Beauty” sunflowers and six “Skyscraper” sunflowers.  I have plenty of seeds left over so if these don’t work out I have plenty for next season.

This season a lot of money was spent on the garden, but I believe it was well worth it. I tried to keep with perennials only so hopefully most of the plants will return. I think this will be the last year we spend money on plants grown at a nursery or at least only the occasional purchase. To save on funds I would like to focus more on purchasing bulbs and growing them in the greenhouse.

If I haven’t bored you with all these garden posts… I will now. Ha! I created another video of the garden, but this time I included the front garden, which has not been mentioned very much. It’s another work in progress, but I think it has progressed nicely too. Enjoy and happy gardening!