OhWhatAWednesday – Autumn Joy Sedum

I can’t help but wonder when my garden will be truly done for the year. We are surprisingly still picking dahlias, a variety of sedums look great, and then there are the grasses. Gotta love the grasses. They’ll add texture to the garden all winter.

Today, we’ll talk about Autumn Joy Sedum. Here is how it looks right now, with a full head of autumn-feeling coppery color.

This plant is a staple in Chicagoland gardens with good reason. It’s easy to grow, tolerates sun or shade, takes no care at all, and looks good just about always. It’s so easy to propagate that you can take a stem in the spring, put it in the ground, and have a pretty good chance of it rooting. Yet it is totally non-invasive. You can not ask for more. A perfect plant for the Work Less category.

Many plants that bloom in the fall don’t look like much for the rest of the year. Not Autumn Joy. It comes up early, lush and green. The new petals are just above the ground before I even cut last year’s growth off. It is distinctive enough that I don’t pull it as a weed. That’s a really good thing for me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve lost more plants to my weeding than anything.

I have it in full sun, mostly sun, and even just a little sun. It asks nothing of me as it continues mounding up during spring and early summer. Really, it needs absolutely no attention. Before you know it, the mounds aren’t mounds anymore and the blossoms are forming. They are green at first, then start to blush a soft pink.

It just keeps on getting better, with the colors turning more pink each day through September. Here you can see they have reached a full pink and are just starting to turn coppery.

I don’t want to shock you, so if you are faint of heart, don’t press the Continue button to see more. Continue reading OhWhatAWednesday – Autumn Joy Sedum

Pumpkin-a-day #24 – Keeping It Simple

Halloween is only a few days away. If you haven’t carved your pumpkin yet, you may be feeling anxious. Let’s get past that by using the templates here. These templates are cute and easy, so go for it today. Stop overthinking it and just have some fun!

Pumpkin Face templates

Two more things to share with you:

First, way back on Day Scarecrow-a-day #18, I posted the scarecrows that are in my yard. Since then, someone has made one of mine look even better by repositioning his hands.

Second, we had a pumpkin contest at work today! I’ll post a group of pictures and the results tomorrow or Saturday.

Pumpkin-a-day #23 – Time To Relax

Ahhh…time to relax.

Pumpkin-a-day #22 – Lets Go To BHG.com

The Better Homes and Gardens website has lots of fun Halloween ideas. I’m guessing you are anxious to go there to see these pumpkins and more. So without further ado, here is the website.

http://www.bhg.com/holidays/halloween/pumpkin-carving/cool-halloween-pumpkins/

Pumpkin-a-day #21 – Barnyard animals

These farmers at Door County Nature Works have an unusual barnyard full of farm animals.
The faces are worth focusing in on.

And what a cute group of creatures.

Fooled you – The alpaca is real!!

Scarecrow-a-day #24 – My Mike

Yes, I’m officially done posting Scarecrows.
Ok, I’m not.
I just had to put in these shots of Mike.

Pumpkin-a-day #20- My Pumpkins And A Fisheye Lense

This is what a fisheye lense can do for you. Pretty cool. Actually, this is what a fisheye lense did for Kevin, not me.

He and I made the green pumpkin last year. And if you’ve been a regular visitor you know that I already posted a picture of the lighted pumpkin on Day 5.

Both of mine have my own touches, and were inspired by others. Even real art works this way. You don’t think Michealangelo was the first person to paint angels do you?

Some thought provoking quotes from Michealangelo…

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

My thanks to my friend Regine, who gave me the idea of adding quotes to the blog.

Pumpkin-a-day #19 – Card Playing Pumpkins

Continuing with Door County as a source of creative pumpkins, these three gents were playing cards outside of an Egg Harbor store. The wives were undoubtably inside the store shopping.

Pumpkin-a-day #18 – Geek Squad

Double Delights (Egg Harbor, Wisconsin) is the home of this Geek Squad.

OhWhatA Wednesday – It Has STILL Got To Be The Dahlias

This weekly series on what looks great in my garden on Wednesday really will have more variety as time goes on. For now though, the Dahlias are at their finest and I just have to give them their due. Here is a look at the main Dahlia garden, looking ever-so-full of flowers. It is now mid-October and it looks even better than it did at the beginning of the month.

I’m not trying to convince you that you want Dahlias. Ok, maybe I am.

They start blooming in July/August and go all the way to frost. You do have a certain amount of control between size and quantity. Removing some of the buds will give you larger flowers. Conversely, leaving all of the buds on will give you more flowers, and they will potentially be smaller. Look how many blooms are on the Kiara Pompadour to the right.
Many Dahlias are aptly known as ‘dinner-plate’ Dahlias and quite literally are that large. The Ben Huston on the left is even as big as our house! Ok, maybe it isn’t as big as it looks, but they can be really big.

One very common dinner-plate Dahlia is Kelvin Floodlight, whose picture you see at the right. Mike’s mentor Frank recommends Kelvin as a perfect Dahlia for the beginning Dahlia grower. It will be big, it will perform, it can probably even be found at Home Depot as a tuber in the Spring. Frank’s biggest selling point for this plant – “You can’t kill it with a lawnmower.”