Fall Foliage Colors

I can't believe it has been almost a year since I last posted on this blog. Where does the time go? We have had a mild summer and cool and rainy weather so far this fall. Today was the first day we have had a warm sunny day in the last week. I have been walking my landscape and took a photo of my Stewartia - the fall foliage colors on the Stewartia have been spectacular this year. The tree produced a good amount of blooms this year, more than in the past few years - the Japanese Beetles did not attack the buds like in the past - maybe due to the fact that the beetle population in our area was not as heavy as in recent years.

Fall Foliage

I looked out the window today and noticed a few of the trees in my landscape aglow with color, and this is the beginning of November! We have had beautiful fall foliage colors this season. The foliage on many trees have changed colors later than usual for our area and the leaves held on many trees longer than other years. This could be attributed to the amount of moisture and the pleasant temperatures we have enjoyed this year.

Two of my landscape trees in full fall glory this morning were my American Hornbeam and Japanese Maples. I didn't think my hornbeam would produce good fall foliage colors this year - it didn't appear to be changing much and the hornbeams at the nursery didn't have much color when I walked the nursery yesterday. The tree seemed to have changed colors overnight.

I hope you enjoy the photo I took today of the hornbeam. If you have the chance today, take a walk outside and enjoy what is left of the fall colors. We are expecting rain and cooler temps and the beauty of the fall colors will soon be gone leading us into the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays! Enjoy!

Until next time,

Happy Gardening

BAS

A Perfect Fall Day

Good morning gardeners!  It is a beautiful fall day.  Fall officially arrived in September, but nothing makes me think of fall more than pumpkins and gourds.  We had a wonderful surprise this year when the seeds from pumpkins I composted last November sprouted in our compost pile this summer.  My husband gathered some of the most beautiful pumpkins from a vine he let grow and clamour over the compost bin.  I have also been busy doing many fall chores in the garden - ridding the beds of weeds, moving plants and trimming back overgrown areas.  Hope you enjoy some photos from pumpkins the nursery staff grew at the photo.

Until later!  Enjoy this beautiful weather.  Happy Gardening!

BAS

Fall Chores

Fall has arrived with warm days and cooler nights. If you moved your houseplants outside over the summer, now is the time to begin moving plants back inside your house.

Inspect plants for insects and wash off the foliage before moving inside. You may also want to re pot plants into new potting mix to make sure you are not carrying any insects from the soil into your home. Plants may have outgrown their pots over the summer and may need to be replanted in a pot one size larger than the previous pot.

Many of my plants have grown over the summer and I am pondering where I am going to keep these larger specimens. One of my favorite pots I planted this summer was of a group of succulents I was not familiar with or had not grown before. It was so exciting to see how well the plants have performed through the season. I'm planning on wintering these in our patio room. Hope you enjoy the photos of the "before" planted in May and the "after" view of the summer growth.

Happy Gardening

Until Later

BAS

Another Beautiful Fall Day

The weather was beautiful again today. The recent rains have kept the weeds growing and I spent time ridding my flower beds of an abundance of weeds.

Now is a great time for over seeding your turf and preparing it for the winter.

I will leave that chore to my husband.

I am posting a photo of my paw paw tree. It has been in the ground 2 years and I saw several inches of growth on the tree this year, in addition to much larger leaves than last year. I was amazed to see the flowers this year and captured this photo when the tree was in flower earlier in the season. If you want a closer look at the paw paw tree, visit the Missouri Botanical Gardens and walk through the children's garden.

I did encounter an insect problem on my paw paw tree this year - I looked out one day and saw the leaves turning brown and curled up and upon closer inspection saw insects and webbing. From my research it was a leaf crumpler or leaf roller. I pruned off the damaged areas and I have not seen any more problems.

Happy Gardening,

Until next time

BAS

Back to Blogging

It has been quite some time since I have posted to my blog. I have gotten some photos loaded to my computer from summer events and hope to post at a more regular schedule.

The fall weather has been great in our area, except for the fallout from Ike. Sunday, September 14, we received over 3 inches of rain and heavy winds. A group of ducks visited our backyard yesterday afternoon - I think they thought we had a lake in our yard with all the rain that saturated our lawn. At the nursery, it totaled 4 inches of rain in the gauge. Many locations in the St. Louis area had heavy flooding.

On the bright side, this rain is great for fall planting and things should be ahead of schedule.

The temperatures were in the sixties today. I love sweatshirt weather!

Tomatoes are still growing in the garden, but the fall lettuce is slow to get going with all the overcast days recently. We have a great patch of pumpkins! And we didn't even plant pumpkins! I always deposit my pumpkins in the compost pile after Thanksgiving and the seeds sprouted up this summer. My husband let the vines go and they traveled over the compost bin, around the wood pile and into the garden. At this time, we have about 10-12 nice size pumpkins for Halloween and Thanksgiving. What a pleasant surprise. I will try to post photos at a later time.

For now I am including a picture of a bird that showed up in our landscape this summer, actually 2 of them appeared for a day or two. I think they are indigo buntings - I see these birds along wooded areas and fields on my way to work, but we usually don't see them show up in our yard in town. Hope you enjoy my photo - the birds were a delight to watch in the landscape; only wish they would have stayed longer.

Happy gardening! That's all for now.

BAS

Azaleas

The weather has been cool and wet for May. Temperatures are averaging about 10 degrees below normal for this time of year. However, the weather forecast is for temps in the 80' s at the beginning of next week. With all the moisture in the soil it will be hot and humid. It has been a great year for flowering plants. Our azaleas are in full bloom and it is the middle of May. Seems a little later than usual. Lilacs are also in full bloom. We have had over 4 inches of rain in the last week. The moisture in the ground makes it easy to pull weeds - now is a great time to keep up on all the weeding chores in the yard, garden, and flower beds. I have pulled out small tree sprouts and dandelions with roots over 12 inches in length with just a little tug on the plants. Among my other garden chores, I have been dividing plants for our local garden club sale tomorrow. That's all for now. Check out my photos of our azaleas.

BAS