Time To Walk Away

The babbling brook is done.

It survived its first deluge completely intact. The storm surge overflow worked perfectly.

More plants were planted. Smaller pond rocks were added. They are whiter than I would have liked. I hope they age, get dirty, and become a bit darker in time.

The plants will have ample time to settle in before winter arrives.

I can get back to my routine gardening chores. The babbling brook and rubber lined pond need to be left alone to congeal for a while before any further adjustments are made.

Soon enough it will just be another routine garden maintenance task. With goldfish. I want to get it some goldfish now.

The Theory Of More In Practice

After a long pond building it was easy to think I deserved a treat. So while I was shopping in the rain today for more plants for the babbling brook there was little resistance when I found nice big two gallon Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' for six bucks. I have been looking for them all season at the right price. I bought a dozen. I hope that's enough.

I know exactly where I want to put the bulk of them on the sunny slope below the cozy cabin. The extras will be used to repeat the theme in the garden becoming. I have four of them up top at the entry now. This bold element will wander through the sunny parts of the garden.

The green species form is native in these hills. They are also evergreen and will stand through the winter to add interest in the barren season. The bloom spike is quite dramatic. I was really taken by them when the first ones I planted bloomed this year. A mass of these bloom spikes will be quite the show.

Six dollars! It was a great bargain for plants this nice. I couldn't pass it up.

I accidentally picked up another little plant for myself while shopping for the pond today.

Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low' is a groundcover sumac with very fragrant leaves and great fall color as you can see. It is an East Coast native that will grow 2 to 3 feet tall with a spread of 6 to 8 feet. I have been eyeing it for weeks when I have been at the nursery and finally succumbed. I can give it a good home. It will make a unique specimen plant and I have the perfect spot for it.

All I have to do is weed out space in the wild things to make room for planting. Some wildflowers will have to be sacrificed in the planting. Not to worry. There is no shortage of them and they will reseed themselves and come right back.

Now The Angels Rest

More rocks were added to the back side of the rubber lined pond. It looks pretty naturalistic.

More plants were planted, but it can use more. I need iris and what ever else may strike my fancy. More steppable ground covers can be placed along the flagstone path.

The babbling brook is 99% complete. The angel has come to rest.

Next I will add several bags of the smaller round pond stones from the big box store in a few locations for more texture and the realism of a natural stream.

I am most pleased with my first ever babbling brook and rubber lined pond. This does not mean I will try this at home. I have a stream. I'll put a path beside it and work on its babble.

The storm overflow test will be beginning tonight. The little rain there was today did show the overflow worked at a trickle. I am curious to see a storm surge move through. If it is all still there Wednesday morning I'll take it to mean that it worked.

A closer look at the detail in the bottom of a babbling brook.

I think it is ready for goldfish.

A Spectacular September Bloom Day

It may be a day late, but there is no shortage of flowers for Bloom Day. The wild cultivated gardens are even making up for damaging late freezes and heat waves with an extravagant showing in September.

Primarily a spring bloomer, the Ox-Eye Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare, can still be found this late in the season.

There are three Goldenrods on this mountain by my count. Identification is tricky. This is Solidago canadensis, Tall Goldenrod I think.

This is Solidago ?, I have no clue. The flowers are clustered in the leaf axils and the stems do not branch. A third Goldenrod's picture came out too blurry. It might be Solidago rugosa. It would not surprise me if closer inspection turned up another species or two.

The asters. I got asters. The White Wood Aster, Eurybia divaricata.

The Blue Wood Aster, Symphyotrichum cordifolium. The flowers are bluer than they appear. The do range from a pale blue to a deep blue.

The New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae. Hate it. Too tall, too floppy and chokes every thing else out. It is more purple than it appears. I even found a pink one today.

The aster I forgot and don't want to look up to identify. I know it is a different though. It has very tiny flowers.

Symphyptrichum pilosum, the Frost Aster. I like this one. It has nice woody stems.

Joe Pye is winding down, but still holding nice color.

Joe has a lot of near kin folk in the wild cultivated gardens. White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima.

The flowers are near identical. The plants look very different. Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum.

The regal Ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis. I did a little weeding today to plant some Baptisia and found more seedling Ironweed. I look forward to vast quantities of Ironweed.

Ironweed with Helianthus maximiliani. This perennial sunflower is seeding more than I'd like. It's nice. It's just gigantic and flops to the ground at the moment of bloom.

There are two wild impatiens, the orange Impatiens capensis and the yellow Impatiens pallida. If they didn't get five feet tall I might appreciate them a bit more.

The Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica is every where. It qualifies as a dominant species.

Pink Knotweed, Polygonum pensylvanicum. Might as well learn to love it since I shall never be rid of it.

All together now.

Mexican Hat, Ratibida columnifera, has a nice long bloom season. I need to collect seed for flinging.

Now is the time of year when the grasses come into their full glory. Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light' with Pink Muhly only beginning to glow.

The grasses have proven to be the quickest way to get some privacy screening from the scenic byway.

The cozy cabin still peaks through in places. That is the intent. A little peak.

By the end of the season and well into winter I am not fully exposed to cars passing by. That is the roof of a car on the left.

Grasses and Goldenrod do their thing, a prelude to fall.

Last but not least a pink anemone hiding in the Lush, just because it's there.

This is certainly not a full listing of every thing in bloom on a September day high on the low spot of a North Carolina mountain top. It is just a sampling and only from my part of the mountain. I didn't get very far from home today. I was resting.

Be sure to visit Bloom Day headquarters for more of your blooming planet.

A Rubber Lined Pond Day

I got home late. Bloom Day will have to wait until tomorrow.

It was another day at the rubber lined pond trying to get the thing finished. I added a few more rocks at the upper falls trying to give it more movement. A little better. I need to stop and just let the shrubberies grow back. They will blend it all in.

The main focus today was the lower pond.

I dug the sides down and placed the rock I fetched from further away.

Yes I fetched all that rock and then some.

Much better. You are not staring at five inches of rubber liner below the rocks and above the water level. The water level is actually about an inch high so there will be some liner visible when it goes back to normal. I'll hide it with water lilies and other pond plants come spring.

The babbling brook and rubber lined pond is 95% done.

I have some more planting to do.

And I want to add some more rocks on the back side of the pond.

It is filled to capacity, just below overflow level. All ready for the big rain the weather diagnosis says is headed this way. I want to see it in a big rain and make sure it works.

On Monday I'll do more planting and add a few more rocks on the back side of the pond. Then I need to walk away and let it be for a while. It would be good to come back with fresh eyes after some rest. The rest of the grounds need tending after spending so much time on the babbling brook and rubber lined pond.

From On High

My week is filled with a variety of views. From here I can look across the valley to the other mountain I work on. I work at a number of houses on the left half, high above the town below.

From the decks here I can look down on the newly planted shrubs and perennials. They are doing fine and settling in.

This job was about adding more to the already existing huge beds that were half empty. I didn't ask how this occurred. I just suggested plants to fix it. There were a number of plants that did not survive the first planting. I like to make sure that doesn't happen when I plant things.

The nice tidy gardens I tend are such a contrast to my own garden back home.

From down below I look up at the chaos of the tall flower meadow.

These pictures will give you some sense of the riot of color currently on display. The camera can't quite comprehend what the naked eye can.

We could call this September Dreams Gardens.