In a Vase on Monday: Daisy, Daisy…

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What amazing weather we are having this September! Almost all month it has been warm and sunny (albeit with some very chilly nights) and until today (some welcome light rain) I have been enjoying some pottering about. My garlic is planted. (The first time I have grown it). And some Salvia cuttings have been taken. (Another first for me). The tomatoes are over, runner beans almost finished too, but the zucchini… Well, I have kept a tab on my five plants all summer and they have produced 187 zucchini so far! Yes, 187! 😄 Will they make it to 200? Possibly, as four plants are still producing! (We have a freezer full of soup 🤪).

The Michaelmas Daisies are the highlight in my flower garden at the moment, so the perfect choice for my vase this week. The butterflies and bees (and the gardener) are in their element. 🦋🐝👩🏼‍🌾

The deep pink aster is Alma Poetschke. The blue at the front (looks lilac in the photo) is my new favourite ‘Marie Ballard’. Then there is an Ashvi, September Ruby, Lovely Pink, Mönch, and a few other unnamed ones.

Oh, but wait… something else has crept into the vase. Salvia azurea. Such a beautiful true blue. Makes me realise that the asters are not actually as blue as I thought.

Planted this spring it was a teeny weeny sickly looking thing. Yet it has done so well!

I am hoping it will survive the winter here.

 

Thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this meme, which has turned my Mondays around. 😀

There are still a few asters to open yet, so October will be colourful too.

And here is a bonus vase, picked mid-week…

Hope you can enjoy the last few days of September in your gardens. 🌻

 

In a Vase on Monday: Autumn Joy

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Yes, it is autumn. The light is softer, but disappears rapidly in the evenings, the nights are chilly, the mornings damp with heavy dews, and there are cobwebs everywhere! But the air is clear and the temperatures pleasant and it is my favourite time of year. 😃

I am joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden with an assortment of vases today, two of which have the Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ (Herbstfreude) in them. Maybe not as spectacular ingredients as a summer vase, but special nonetheless.

First of all, Autumn Joy with some asters:

At the back is a lovely big blousy blue one called Aster novi belgii ‘Marie Ballard’…

The deep pink one is my treasured ‘Alma Poetschke’…

I also used a couple of other asters whose labels are currently buried beneath the plants! The grass at the back is Eragrostis.

The second vase is somewhat simpler:

…Autumn Joy with some Miscanthus Red Chief, Persicaria Orangefield (but pink!), Gaura, Pennisetum and a Fizzy White Cosmos.

And a third vase is actually more summery, but what joy at finding these flowers in autumn:

…the very last Moon Daisies, Knapweed, Clover and Queen Anne’s Lace which I dashed out to pick on Saturday before they were mown away! Behind that vase you can see below another of the many sunflowers (an ‘Earth Walker’) being floated. 😃

A chill wind and grey skies meant the photos had to be taken indoors today, but I am certain the sun will return in a day or two and I will be out in the garden as much as possible for the rest of the week. 😃

Are you also noticing the change in the season?

 

Wishing you all a sunny week and happy gardening!

 

The Bird Bath

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When I planned the Oval Bed a couple of years ago I imagined a birdbath in the centre of the ‘keyhole’. Something natural, made of local stone. Either light granite, which is common here on the edge of the Bavarian Forest, or limestone which is typical for areas along the River Danube.

Well, the bed took shape and was planted up. I initially wanted to call it The Bird Bath Bed, but without a bird bath that seemed inappropriate! 🙃Here it is in late May 2020.

And so the search for a bird bath began. Spring 2020 was perhaps not the best time to make any progress, but in the summer a few stone masons were visited, online shops were studied, but nothing seemed right.

I mentioned this to friends this spring, and not long after our friend Kurt offered me a huge lump of limestone, typical for the region where we used to live. I hesitated. It would mean chiselling out a dip in it for the water. But when my Man of Many Talents visited him soon after, Kurt had already made the shallow dip in the top surface of the stone!

So the stone sat in our yard for a long time, and the Oval Bed filled out in the spring and summer. Here it is in June of this year…

But then, yesterday, the forks were mounted on the tractor,  the stone was gently lifted, and everso everso carefully it was finally transported…

… round to the garden behind the house.

My Man of Many Talents had already measured it up and dug a hole exactly the right size and depth just where I wanted it.

It was slowly lowered in…

… and then with a bit of shovelling around we got it straight and filled in the edges with stones and soil. I quickly tidied up  the edges of the keyhole for the final photos.

The late afternoon light was perfect.

I am very happy with it. A big heartfelt THANK YOU to Kurt!

Today I ceremoniously poured some water into the indentation and now I am waiting for the birds to discover it. 🙂