September Garden - Beauty in the Details

It's really been a remarkable year for landscape gardening in my Zone 7a region. Although late summer starts stressing the plants with continued heat and there's less light, the details unfolding in the garden and surroundings are very much worth paying attention to. There's still so much beauty! Come into my September garden, and I'll show you the beauty in the details. Most of these shots were captured just within days of Hurricane Florence's projected rain path over our region.

My trellis is completely covered with the hyacinth bean vine I planted from seed, and I love the shade it creates - even on the sunniest of days - as I walk beneath it, to and from the garden.

Inside the garden and looking back to the gate we just entered, you see the east wall of my landscape.  The covered trellis is in the background, the knockout roses are reblooming just in front of it, and the dwarf butterfly bushes on the ground below are also in bloom. My bee balm, which I cut to the ground in July, has rebloomed (red) below and left of the large patch of orange Mexican sunflowers. Salvia is blooming between the spirea bushes in the foreground.

Just to the right of this patch of Mexican sunflowers is my book-reading Augustine, and just in front of him some asters are blooming.

Since August, butterflies have been and are still flitting about in the garden, resting on their namesake bushes, as well as the Mexican sunflowers. 

Inside the courtyard on the opposite side of the eastern garden wall, I snapped a photo of my sunflowers while standing on a chair to catch these two monarchs. In the background you can see the western wall of my garden with the weeping cedar Atlas and the zinnias beneath. 

Autumn Joy sedum is just now beginning to turn mauve, bookending the zinnias on the western wall. I cut these more than half way back in early June to avoid them getting too gangly and splitting by this time otherwise. 

From the very back of the garden (the south end), seasonal changes can be detected in the limelight hydrangea's various shades in its blooms. I've cut several for drying. Behind it in this photo is another patch of Mexican sunflowers. I love them because they last well into October, and they attract butterflies.

Standing at the back of the southern wall of my garden and looking north, the garden flag is central to a swath of hostas blooming in front of it.

Outside the southernmost wall of my garden is the maple tree we planted to disguise our utility pole on the alley. Our home's utility lines are buried, and though neighbors' lines do not run along the street front, they are connected in back for an unsightly appearance in various directions. I suspect the power company will be paying another visit soon, but this prune job didn't turn out so badly since I was able to supervise it. 😉You can see the beginnings of color change on the top right side.

Against a blue sky, I snapped the photo below, standing next to that tree, looking up at the Mexican sunflowers. The tree top centered behind the blooms in the background is our sassafras across the street, on our riverbank.

A little surprise happened one day while I was shooting a similar photo, standing in the courtyard. I noticed petals all over the brick wall (the wall is 6'). Angling my camera downward a bit, I was able to capture the evidence of [most likely] squirrels having had a Mexican sunflower buffet. You can see the beheaded stems in the picture too.

It's mid-September, and I am still harvesting lavender, yielding weekly bouquets similar to the one below.

I am also still feeding the hummers, although their activity has definitely slowed down. They're likely migrating southward, so I'll leave my feeders out another couple weeks for those on their journey. I keep the birdbath water clean and changed every couple of days. I continue watering my containers and front porch fern. Although I have yet to replace the fern with pumpkins, I did change my wreaths, hinting at the transitions coming.

The annuals in front are still blooming, although most of the red geraniums did not survive the wet summer and/or gnawing voles.

Noticeable late summer changes include garden spiders hard at work. Early morning dew is caught in one of several webs on a landscape boxwood, below.

Other noticeable details in the garden are the berries and seed pods on the plants. Pictured in the collage below (clockwise, starting top L): nandina berries, holly berries, Japanese maple seed pods, and lantana berries. The colors will keep turning to their rich, fall shades as the days go on.

The angle of the sun is changing dramatically, leaving me savoring every bit of light I can capture, whether it's an early evening sunset (below)....

.....or early morning sunrise. We are still walking early to beat the heat, and the added perk is in seeing glorious sunrises like the one pictured below.

Our state capitol building can be seen from our home, but the shot below was taken just two blocks down, at sunrise.

A neighbor's flag at sunrise, on the river's edge.

I hope you enjoyed the beauty in the details of my September garden, and are inspired to see the beauty in yours and others' too. As this post is published, we are awaiting the remnant rains from Hurricane Florence to arrive here in WV. It has already caused much devastation in North Carolina. Please pray for all those affected.

I'm joining Pam at Everyday Living for her last garden party of the season. Be sure to go there to see the beauty in all the gardens participating.

Gardens Galore

If you'd like to catch other garden posts of mine, you can start with this link, or browse my menu and/or labels (my garden). Thanks for your visit. I'm always open to your comments and questions.

Rita C. at Panoply

(A special thanks to Christine of the blog Rustic & Refined, Dishing It and Digging It Link Party #219  and to Kari of Me and My Captain with Celebrate Your Story #147  and to Pam of Everyday Living Gardens Galore Roundup for featuring this post!)

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