Awesome Autumn Asters

Asters are always worth the wait for me. They may not start blooming until the fear of first frost arrises, but when they do- the color is so welcome.

Here are some pictures of the asters blooming in my garden today.

 

Welcome Autumn!

Clematis!

The early bloomers are done, already! But the slightly later early bloomers are cranking out flower after flower now. This one is Juuli! Love the huge orangey center.

 Here's Blue Light with Rouge Cardinal:

 Kaaru

 Etoille Violette

 Eriostemon, not bad for the first year!

 Unknown

 Sunset, quickly becoming a favorite because the flowers lasted forever, even in heat- and didn't fade at all!

 Arabella

Inspiration

 Comtesse De Bouchaud

 Durandi

 Violet Stargazer

 Duchess of Albany

 Polish Spirit

 Unknown with Polish Spirit

 Mdme Julia Correvon

 Betty Corning

 More Etoille Violette

 Rooguchi

Happy gardening!

We put in a Pond!

Our neighbors have a large and awesome pond. They called me over the other day to ask if we wanted a pond liner she didn't plan on using. She had picked it up off the curb when our now landlord lived here-it used to be where I now I have hostas planted. My son Ben has been asking for a pond for a really long time- he always loves the water feature aspects of any garden place we visit. So we jumped for joy when this pond liner fell in our laps.

We figured out where we wanted it, called the dig line, acquired a filter, and while I rounded up rocks from various parts of the yard, my husband dug a hole and put it in. Ta Da!

 I "attached" it to an existing bed.

 My aunt gave us this quirky alligator years ago and I knew right away I wanted him close to the water. I planted steppables (thyme, sedge, and moss) around him so the kids can stepp all over here and get close to the water without any obstacles. The flat rock in the foreground of this photo is immovable, so the boys can lay right on top of it.

I had a hole in the rock garden area behind the pond I filled with this gorgeous sedum "October Daphne;" love the water hues here, and think it looks great spilling towards the the pond.

Since then we've added a floating blue ceramic frog and some fish... but 5 of the 6 fish already perished. Oh well. More coming soon! I also saw about 15 tiny birds splashing in the fountain on a very hot 94 degree day! So neat! The dragonflies seem to love it, also. But more than anything, my kids love it. They are by it all the time, reading, looking at the fish, putting their hands in the water. So great!

My front border in full bloom!

I'm beaming with pride over the way my front border, planted last spring, has responded to my doting. I made sure to prune well, feed on schedule, and pull weed after weed, and the result has been traffic stopping, literally. One lady yelled out the car window! Beside all the positive feedback, my favorite part is seeing the bees and hummingbirds, smelling the roses I've been loving caring for for so long now. Just happy to the core. I don't wanna be weird and pull up a chair in the driveway, but I really don't want to leave the site of it. lol.  Enjoy!