Our neighborhood is finally getting some color on the trees. A sugar maple on the other side of the fence is orange. If I hadn’t been out taking photos I wouldn’t have noticed how the sugar maple complements the brick on my house. Out of my office window I see a yellow leafed maple, and beyond that some reds. The crepe myrtles usually have lots of color but so far mine are still green. I’ll stop complaining and enjoy what we get this year.
2. The seed heads of the native milkweed are open. I’ll push some seeds in the ground here and there and hopefully get babies. The butterflies, especially the Monarchs, love the milkweed flowers.
3. I have seen more bees on the Sheffield mums this week than I have seen all summer. At least I think this is a honey bee athough it doesn’t have the orange stripes with which I’m familiar.
4. Following a suggestion from another SoS gardener, I stapled bird netting to my wooden fence. The clematis seems to appreciate having something other than the trellis to climb on. And the yellow jasmine is finally happy. When I put it in this spot in the spring the ground was so wet for so long, I thought I might lose it. It should be spectacular next spring.
5. The rainbarrels have been emptied. They were made from food grade 50 gallon plastic drums used by a local wine maker and were free for the taking. Porch furniture has been stored behind the shed. Potted geraniums have been brought inside along with a couple of other tender things. They fill a corner of the living room and get light through a sliding door. Leaves are coming down and that will be the next clean-up job.
6. This is one of the crepe myrles in the area where I took out the river birch. It grew lopsided as it reached for the sun although I rather like the wonkiness of the trunks. I am hopeful with the birch gone I can coax it to fill out on the empty side. The husband will get those birch logs moved eventually. They won’t be fire ready for a year.
That’s my six for this week, a meme started by The Propogator, a UK gardener. I learn something every week from the participating gardeners. This is the link to the rules if you’d like to join in.
Those milkwood seeds are lovely. I may have to try that netting idea for our clematis.
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I don’t know how long the netting will last. Bird netting is very fine and quite invisible on the fence. It has been up a year now and looks fine.
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Beautiful pictures, especially that of milkweed seeds!!
For me, it’s more like a hoverfly, not a honey bee. (because of the head and eyes)
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Yes, it is a hoverfly – trying to be a bee.
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Was going to say the same about the Milkweed seeds – they look like silky Candy Floss (I think it’s called Cotton Candy in the US and Barbe a Papa in France)
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Yes! Good knowledge of French candy Katharine 😁😉
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Is that Father’s Beard or Grandfather’s beard? My french is non-existant.
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Beautiful colour on your crepe myrtles and the milkweed flowers are magical. Great idea about the bird netting, I might try that next year.
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Another one who likes the bird netting idea. I even have some netting in the shed, now to buy a staple gun! Love your trees. There aren’t many trees where I live now and I miss the autumn colours.
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Staple gun did make installing it easy. It comes very wide so I used it folded in half and still had to sort of wad it up at the top.
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The bird netting is a good idea. Got some Jasmine cuttings to establish next year.
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The trees are beautiful, it looks like a wonderful autumn day with you. Love the grasses in the foreground of your first shot.
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How odd that your crepe myrtle is not completely colored yet. Some of ours are green, but the mere two that I work with are already bare. I already pollarded one.
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Many in the neighborhood have color. I seem to recall that mine had color but later (although how much later can we get…)
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Well, in our region, there is plenty ‘later’ to come’ Some are still green. One of the two that I just worked with is not normally bare by now. I am sure that their schedule makes sense to them.
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Gorgeous photos. I’m going to copy the netting idea.
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Nice bargain on the rain barrels! who doesn’t love free stuff?
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When I got them I thought I would spray paint them white. Not sure why that seemed a good idea but I only got partway through two with two cans of paint and abandoned the idea. The blue isn’t bad.
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