Wandering Off To Water Rock Knob

I think I am headed up there.



It's best to start goofing off in small bits. Besides I was told this was like climbing stairs.



Out yonder is the Great Smoky Mountains.



I will be guessing at many of the wildflowers. How about Angelica triquinata, Filmy Angelica. The seeds sure looked like Angelica.



Mountain Ash, Sorbus americana.



I just thought this was pretty and have been contemplating a short sedge lawn of sorts.



A place where I lingered.



There was a very interesting Viburnum up there. One had the first red leaves of the season to come. It also had some red fruits that fell off into my hand. I'm thinking it is Viburnum lantanoides or Hobble Bush.



Black Eyed Susan in a ditch.



Everywhere there is White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. I mean everywhere.



A Zizia perhaps?



A golden hillside



Of Goldenrod.
Short kind which is nice.



Undulating to the far horizon



How's that for goofing off?

Repetition

It all started with one pot of the medium sized, variegated Miscanthus sinensis 'Morning Light'. I divided that plant for two seasons running. There are now thirteen.



This past spring a large clump of another Miscanthus cultivar came home with me from a client's garden. I divided that large clump into six and planted three at each end of the sunny utility meadow.



Some where along the way I bought four of the variegated Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge'. More recently a pot of Feather Reed Grass, Calamagrostis acutifolia 'Avalanche' came home with me. I divided that in to three before planting it.

I think I have enough of the variegated grasses and grass like plants now to impress upon a visitor to the garden some sense of structure through the design notion of repetition. No doubt I will divide some of these again and spread them into the further reaches of the garden to be in the future. It will take a lot of repetition in a space this size to fully get the point across.



Some things do not need my help to repeat themselves. The Angelica gigas is quite happy in the sunny utility meadow. Their deep maroon heads bob above the meadow lush.



I am finding the perennial sunflower, Helianthus maximiliani in all kinds of places now that it is blooming. It tremendous size, eight feet plus and six feet around is some cause for concern. It really must be in the right place and I can't say all those seedlings, already at four feet, are.



This late summer blooming perennial sunflower would be a choice plant to repeat, but where is the question? Come spring it may be time to move them from the roadside vegetable garden area down to the much more expansive sunny utility meadow and plant them in one large group.

Girlilla Gardening

Lauri Newman Of West Asheville in Verve magazine. The photo is fab.

Winding Up

There is an abundance of butterflies in the waning days of summer. I don't know if they lay eggs that overwinter or if the last batch of caterpillars pupate over winter or both. Their numbers tell me they are up to something.



The roadside vegetable garden is slowing down. The last to get going 'Juliet' tomatoes that came up on their own are still in high gear and just look at one of my strawberry patches. It promises a berrylicious spring.



And because I can, I seeded another crop of corn with a due date of October 15th, also our first average annual frost date. It is coming along quickly. The sunflowers are now bird food, minus a big sack of seeds for next year, and the gold finches spend their days in the vegetable garden.



Ta da! I have reached the top of the shower. All the tile that can be tiled is done tiled.



It's near perfect. In that top left side corner you can see my grout lines in two of the cap tiles are a bit wider than the surrounding tiles. There was a 1/4 inch difference in width from one end to the other necessitating a cut and I cut a hair too much off those top two tiles. Oh well. I did it all myself. The white grout will help make it disappear I am sure.

That blank spot on the right side wall will get filled in after the glass block goes in.



Next comes the grout. Then I will put the soap dish and shampoo shelf on. I wanted to make sure to get grout in the joints that those will cover over.



Once that is done I may make like Crawford for the week and splurge on numerous naps.



And there will be wandering about and garden touring.



Perhaps I will even pull a few weeds.

Yesterday's Sunset

That's all you get. It was the last time I was able to upload a picture until who knows when this stupid Hughes satellite internet will work again.



My neighbors over the hill in the Kingdom of Madison put in a bid for some stimulatin', won and are getting a high speed internet line. I may have to run my own cable over there to hook up.

Late Summer Blooms

Don't get bored now. We are back on the ridge top garden where plants, just plants, are the main focus of things. In time the Garden To Be may contain more "yahd aht". I've got plans and have been collecting things.

For now late summer brings a new cast of flowers to the show. The Great Blue Lobelia, Lobelia siphilitica has wandered the entire mountain top.



We have asters, asters for every season. The White Wood Aster, Eurybia divaricata favors the shadier forest edges.



Turtlehead, Chelone cuthbertii is all over the place too. Sadly most of it is skeletonized to bare stems every year before it has a chance to bloom.



The Anemone japonica are blooming, a sure sign that the end is near. The anemone are really quite rambunctious and can cover a lot of ground.



I love how the lirope blooms here and need to put it to use in the garden to be.



There is plenty to dig and transplant.



A few random sedums live in the ridge top garden. They do ok for the shade they have to deal with. I know where cuttings can be had for my sunnier situations. I like plants that you can just stick cuttings in the ground and that will root.



In late summer a shower is nearing completion. I have reached the tiny sliver at the top.



The track for the glass block is in and the right side wall has begun. It should be nearly complete and grouted by Monday. I say nearly complete because the last bit of tile that will fit around the top of the glass block wall must wait until the glass block is in. The building contractor wants me to wait until he has returned from a month at the beach to do the glass block. I suppose I can do that. I can paint the walls and do the trim, build kitchen cabinets, paint the outside.....

After I goof off for a week.



A new client called.



An old client called.



It's almost time to plant bulbs.



It's almost time for appliances in the cozy cabin, but someones want me and my mouse eating kitties to stay in their house for the winter?

The Garden Of Christopher Mello

Gnomon



I stopped by






While I was in the neighborhood.


















To leave Christopher a beat up old shovel



Found high atop a mountain over the border in Haywood County.