We had a warm spell last weekend that prevented me from tucking the rest of my gardens in. It seems the yellow jackets are immensely drawn to my scent, my voice, my appearance... something. They bee-line to me like a moth to light. Having been stung earlier this summer, I'm still a little gun shy around these nuisances. We have an over-abundance of them, with one nest, now exterminated at the front of the house, and a newly discovered nest, out in the field. They are particularly drawn to Crape Myrtles, for whatever reason. So hundreds, literally, surround our house at all times... but enough about bees. Let's get back to the point at hand. Fall.
Ah... quintessential fall. Maple trees. This is the most colorful one in our yard right now. I love all the various shades.
And talk about work horse plants with four seasons of color. The sedum surrounding the entire pool area started out as a lush, bright green cover, moved into a sea of starry-yellow flowers in Spring, remained green all summer, and now this pinky-crimson fall color. What a great plant.
The hills are looking a little bare these days. Makes me thankful for the hundred or so evergreen trees on our property.
Compliments of friends Diane & Gary, we now have a small family of pumpkins to greet visitors at the door. Two frosts later, and the ferns flanking the entry are still going strong. Green, lush, and just beautiful.
A few weeks ago, a visit to Home Depot ended with a truck bed full of things. Among those were three, yes three, of the pots you see below. These are pretty substantial looking but really lightweight. I love the shape. The color blends nicely with the rock on the foundation, and will showcase my annuals well. I had originally wanted to put them all in the front garden and fill them with boxwoods, but once home, I immediately saw the value in spreading the love around the house. Repetition brings a sense of consistency to the garden.
We are in the middle of a project to build a new driveway. The one we have is a little too steep, so we're looking to put in a lower entrance, something the daily delivery trucks can get in and out of a little easier, not to mention our house guests. In the process of creating this driveway, we either have to relocate or tear down about 10 lovely evergreen trees, and two cherry trees. Our neighbor is doing what he can to salvage the trees, but as you can see from the photo below, one of the pines didn't make it. So I figured, why not take advantage of the situation? I clipped a bucketful of branches and stuck them down in the soil. I've seen this done many times in magazines, but never had the guts to go cut the limbs off living trees. I have to say, this turned out really nice.
Here is the future home of our new driveway. A much more level venue than we have now. It's hard to see, but there is a faint spray paint line down the left side of the photo. The neighbor was also kind enough to move a gigantic rock near the well pump, so it wouldn't accidentally get bumped during construction, or afterwards. As he put it, "that'd be a bummer". If a car hits this rock, the car is going to need work. We need to do something like that on the other side of the pump too.
The garden surrounding the parking area is torn out. We have two dogwoods to relocate from this bed. I've already rescued a daylily, countless iris, a blue sedum, giant rush, peony, and 6 or 7 roses bushes. I've been busy prepping for this.
And last pic... it's hard to see, but here is where the driveway will touch the street. About five trees have already been removed (only 2 survivors so far). That pile of stuff at the end is the gravel from a leg of our existing driveway that we're going to abandon in favor of this new one. The gravel is covering a humongous drain pipe that Eric told me was "lightweight", and that he just needed me to lift one end because it was too long to carry solo. Lies, lies...
