Under wraps

I'm not giving up on this plant.  Click the pic to unwrap the story.

Cash crop

I babied these wintersown perennials all summer on the deck: 3 kinds of foxglove, red lobelia, ironweed, New England aster, dame's rocket, lupine, columbine and (not pictured) Golden Jubilee agastache and blue globe thistle.  I watered and fertilized and kept up the sun umbrellas so as not to scorch the (most) shade-loving plants.

But it was time to go, babies.  Time to go.  So into the hatchback and over to Mom's allotment garage sale.

Whoops!  Hey, someone forgot to list the lobelia.  *sheesh*

Friday was dreadful - cold, windy, and, eventually 1/4" of rain. Yet around noon the plants started selling. Most took advantage of the 5-for-$10 deal. And then I gave away blue globe thistle plants which (while they had terrific root systems) did not show well.

Saturday I brought along 4 Haruko Nishiki willows that I'd bought bargain at a local nursery because they were so ratty.  But I babied them for a couple of months and ended up looking great.  One shopper took the 3 smaller ones and within a half hour the larger specimen plant found a new home too.

Oddly enough, while Saturday was dry with some spotty sunshine, there were few shoppers that day. Around noon I marked down the plants 3/$5.00. I also started giving away a bonus plant or two (or three) to selected (friendly and chatty) customers. Before you know it I'd changed the sign again - $1/ea.

Then I started handing plants out to the neighbors. LOL I just didn't want to have to bring many home. But I think all and all, everyone got a good deal.

I know I sure did! :-D

Vegs vegs vegs

The harvest is winding down.  Click the pic for more...

Cutting down

Uh oh.  Now, what the heck is going on here?  Click the pic for answers.

Cutting back

It's been a worrisome month or so (financially and emotionally) and to compensate I've had to cut back.  

To see how I'm coping, click on the pic.

Sunshower

With the odd retrograde weather that started with Irene and continued with Lee, the clouds don't know WHERE they are going.  These days rain falls without notice, even from a very sunny sky.

After the sunshower, this spider web is squeaky clean. 

Sweet success!

For all the juicy harvest news, click the pic. :-D

From out of the blue...

...a rain shower.  How bizarre.  The sky was cloudless except for one nearly transparant powdery puff, yet a light shower persisted for almost 5 minutes.  Very odd, indeed!

Not so odd, yet equally surprising is to see that the transplanted clematis (H.F.Young) has surpassed itself this year.  Usually I get a first flush of flowers early in spring, then a 2nd, smaller flush beginning of July.  This year the 2nd flush was easily as profuse as the first and now a THIRD flush promises to be a showstopper.  I guess at this point it would be safe to agree with Glenda - the transplant was a success.

As for other successes, click on the pic below and check out the big backyard roundup.