Late August is a bit of a let-down for many gardeners, myself included. Here in Eastern Iowa zone 5, blooms are few and unless you have Cosmos planted in abundance and plants with Fall interest, this may well be the end of the season. I’d like to share with you some of my favorite late summer bloomers. We’ll start with this lovely pink Japanese Anemone acquired from  a generous member of my plant swap group.

Next is Angelica gigas (Korean Angelica), in her full glory.

And now on to Limelight hydrangea, the best and only hydrangea worth growing in my opinion. It has been reliably packed with huge upright balls year after year. I ripped out 3 Nikko blues this year- not one single bloom after 3 years.

Pictured here  blue vervain (Verbena hastata) grown from seed this year and already blooming away. It is almost indistinguishable from hoary vervain (Verbena stricta), which I also grow. In the background is the lovely Hopi-Dye Amaranth, an annual that sows itself everywhere.

Cleome is another annual that seeds itself with abandon. But it is very welcome here this time of year.

Wild fruit abounds out here in the country. Have never seen wild plum trees quite this loaded with fruit. If you can get at the fruit at just the right time, it is pretty palatable, but some pieces leave a chalky aftertaste, much like that of a wild grape. I did not sample many this year since our own Toka plum, one of the first trees planted when we arrived in 2007, bore a nice crop of “out-of-this-world” (according to me and several visitors) plums. On a side note, Toka is the only survivor of 10 odd fruit trees planted that first year. The others were peaches, nectarines and sweet cherries, which we have discovered with much exasperation do not like it here. Apples and plums are a much safer bet.

Pictured here is a cluster of unripe and one ripening Toka.

If I didn’t have so many other fruits and veggies to process I would be out in the ditch picking these elderberries.

For several years now I have wanted to make a trellis out of old bed springs, which are easy to procure out here in the country. Had my eye on some in a burn pile adjacent to our property, but then I found these springs, which look to be from an old truck seat, at the landfill. Narrow and easy for a lone junk picker like myself to load, they were perfect!

Joe Pye is looking extra handsome this year with all the rain.

I’m very pleased with this totally unplanned ensemble of Joe, Verbena bonariensis and Hopi-Dye Amaranth- the latter 2 seeded themselves. Notice the Russian sage foliage in the foreground. I love this plant but but am at odds with them since in my garden they never seem to have the space they need to hold their  their branches erect. This one looks better than my others, which look knotted up, cramped and just plain unattractive. I have resorted to either shearing these down multiple times or ripping them out entirely.  They don’t respond well to my tendency to plant things too close together. While we’re on that topic, last year I planted a shrub a little too close to Joe Pye. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this would soon become problematic. My gardening friend Shelby suggested I move the shrub and not even think about trying to dig up Joe. This spring it was apparent that Joe wanted to swallow that shrub alive. I couldn’t believe how he had increased. There were 2 huge distinctly separate clumps of him cornering the poor shrub. I didn’t remember planting 2 Joe Pyes- but then again I don’t remember planting a lot of things. Could a single Joe Pye plant do that? I still haven’t taken any real action (not surprising to those who know me). But for kicks I did slice off a few small pieces of Joe with a sharp spade, which felt like trying to dig into compacted gravel. I replanted these pieces in my new bed, which needs spreaders like Joe to cover the ground. They are now blooming away happily, just not as tall as big Joe since they were transplanted. I would never want to attempt to dig up big Joe entirely.

I have obviously fallen way behind in my posts. Where has the summer gone? We had a visitor the other evening, a very welcome one.

I wanted so badly to hold him in my palm and love him up, but I restrained myself so we could get the photo. He was perched on (or rather stuck to) a magnolia leaf- excellent choice of tree my little friend.

Now on to the veggie garden. We are growing Red Burgundy okra this year. Everything about this plant is attractive- the flowers, the leaves, and the red fruits themselves. This would look great as an ornamental. In fact, Frances of fairegarden talks about drying them for a fall wreath in one of her recent posts. This is a wonderful garden blog, please do check it out.

What’s making me happy lately besides the recently purchased very precious (and expensive!) Heronswood Globe Katsura tree ?  More on that later.  The newer “tree shrub groundcover area”, for lack of a better name.  After viewing expertly designed large scale plantings of the aforementioned at The Oregon Garden last year, I fully embraced this aesthetic and realized that in many ways it makes sense for our setting: easy to maintain + multi-season interest.

The shapes, textures and foliage colors are compelling enough with or without blooms. This isn’t exactly the case in my “fireworks” bed, where the show is about over.

I’ve been meaning to mulch a few trees for some time now and when I finally got around to it the other day it occurred to me that I could build a new bed at the same time. Note that this new bed is for next year and NOT this year, since I vowed not to start any new beds this year after feeling totally overwhelmed. It is just as well that this new bed is for future use as it will be in prime shape for planting once all the organic elements break down over the seasons. It could be planted now but it would not be ideal.

My favorite way to make a new bed is to spread cardboard directly over sod (or weeds in my case), pile it high with a number of different organic matter like leaves, grass clippings, compost, peat, top soil, etc. in layers, lasagna style. Pat Lanza is this authority on this topic: http://www.lasagnagardening.com/

Some people use newspaper, I use cardboard since it comes in bigger pieces (think recliner and mattress boxes). Fewer seams means fewer opportunities for weeds and grass to grow through. Be sure to overlap the pieces by a good 4-6 inches or else weeds and grass will reach toward the light. The purpose of the cardboard layer is kill whatever is under there by shading it to death. Earth worms love damp dark environments like these and will eventually till through the cardboard, helping it to break down and spreading their rich castings all over the place. Thank you, Jake, for posing for this shot.

After thoroughly wetting the cardboard, I piled on leaves and grass clippings stockpiled from last fall and wetted those down. The leaves and grass clippings did not come from our farm, but from people in town (Yes, I do drive around collecting bags of leaves and normally post an ad on Craigslist or Freecycle soliciting this material). I will continue to add layers of other matter when I obtain it/get around to it. The beauty of building a bed this long in advance is that it allows for a comfortable amount of procrastination.

This little garden of birdfeeder sunflower, Hopi-dye Amaranth, Verbena bonariensis and a lone Cleome planted itself in a very inhospitable location. I could not have done a better job with this difficult site (I tried and failed at getting things to grow here last year). One of the many joys of gardening is letting nature do what it wants to do and observing the often brilliant results.

Lots of activity in the front cottage garden and very hard to capture it all as an “ensemble”. I do keep trying though. These photos are 1-2 weeks old (I’m getting lazier with every degree the temperature rises). I’ve got to get out there early tomorrow morning and get some shots with the day lilies in bloom. Problem is by 6 a.m. the light is almost too harsh, which explains why you aren’t viewing more current photos. Today I rose at 7 and it could have just as well been noon.

This garden may look like a mess to some people, but something’s always blooming and it sure is low maintenance. While weeds are taking over some of the newer more controlled beds at the moment, few weeds can grow in the cottage garden since every square inch of ground is occupied and any bare ground that may exist is shaded by a huge canopy of leaves.

This is my fourth summer living in the country and I have developed a deep appreciation for certain wild flora that city dwellers (myself included before I moved to the country) often aren’t aware of. One shrub you’ll see a lot of on gravel roads is Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). Just up the road is a particularly gorgeous example with a nice habit. So graceful, flowy and just simply comfortable in the country.

These lovely frothy fragrant blooms will become deep purple berries which can be used for wines and jams. I haven’t tried this myself yet but hope to one of these summers when I either stop planting and weeding or just make the time. I would love to have a field of nothing but Elderberry.

Peaches has started “acting out” again early in the morning. He comes in our bedroom and cries between 4 and 5 AM and today he wanted to play- which entails getting under the covers and rolling around while clawing at me and play biting. So today I’m up before my usual 6-7ish.

And now another naughty thing Peaches has done recently. I made a tiny bed to plant annual seed in- a piece of cardboard, a ring of stones, leaves and dirt. I went to all this trouble because this area is pure compacted gravel. I suppose I could have just sprinkled the seeds and seen what happened, as many seeds seem to like these conditions, but it seemed iffy. In the end the seeds never did get planted as Peaches seems to think this bed is his outdoor litter box. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked by and seen him in the bed assuming the position. And so now I’m left with the task of dismantling it.

5 minutes later: Just after I wrote the above, Peaches decided to redeem himself via an extra long cuddle session.