Summer and Fall Garden

Hans Thoma, The Rhine near Säckingen, 1873

I got back from my trip to Germany about a week and a half ago, and I keep thinking of this painting that I saw in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The green color of the field reminded me exactly of the green that I noticed when I drove through the German countryside. It is a distictly different color green than what I see in the PNW - the German green is brighter and a lighter value. And it has been a little depressing to come back to Seattle since my trip: my lawn is completely burned out and my summer garden flowers are fading and shriveling away. The green color of the German countryside is nowhere to be seen.

I was able to buy some mums and asters this week to try and rejuvenate the color of the garden for the fall months, even if just a little. The Belgian mums colors are: Prima White, Conaco Yellow, Urano Orange, and Granata Red. And the asters are Henry III Purple and Henry I Blue.

This week also been looking at photos of my garden from earlier in the spring, to remind me of happier times when the plants were thriving. TO be honest, I didn't love the assortment of flowers in my garden this year: I had to plant a lot of marigolds and geraniums (two of the flowers that I like the least), simply because the rabbits would not eat them. I also planted a lot of snapdragons this year, too, but I like those flowers. I also planted a few foxglove as well.

I also tried out a few new flowers, and I was excited that the bunnies left them alone. I planted some lithodora and a Rolly's Favorite Catchfly. For my birthday, Ixoj gave me some Calibrachoa plants which did quite well (and the rabbits left them alone!). Ixoj also gave me Coreopsis Curry Up which stayed green the whole season, but did not produce any flowers. I'm hoping that it just needed time to stabilize and that there will be flowers next year.

Lithodora

Rolly's Favorite Catchfly

Coreopsis Curry Up (the small green bunch in the center)

Calibrate plant (at the end of the summer season)

We had a really wet spring and a very sunny summer, so the plants really thrived this year. The red Lucifer Crocosmia plant got huge and was larger than it has ever been. The daisy plant also got really large and the wisteria finally began to climb across the top of the trellis and down the other side. The hydrangea on the side of the house has gotten really large too.

Daisies in early July

Wisteria across the top of the trellis (mid-July)

Hydrangea in early August

The other major change to our garden is that we had to put up a little green wire fence (about a foot tall) to keep our puppy Violet out of the flower beds. Violet can stick her head between the wires if she is determined, but for the most part she keeps out of the flowers.

UPDATE (09/16): Well, I don't think we will be planting asters in our yard again. Either a rabbit or a deer completely eradicated the Henry I Purple aster plant. All of the blossoms and leaves were chewed off today, down to the stems. Too bad!