Was it a good year for gardening? Nah. It was hot, it was humid, and oh, stuff happened. It rained constantly, was always raining. Three straight months of complaining, oh my god, the complaining. Please shut up with the complaining.
(Whispers: sorry, that was me.)
Plants don’t sweat, wear bras, have trouble sleeping, when it is hot, humid, and constantly raining, so while it wasn’t a good year for gardening, it was a good year for the garden.
Small woodland sunflower (Helianthus microcephalus). Prolific, long flowering, beloved by bees. Native.
Pink turtlehead (chelone). Good cut flower, though they look a little deranged if you look at them closely.
Seedheads of Japanese forest peony
Pulmonaria ‘Shrimp on the Barbie’, Autumn fern, a bit of hellebore
Bottle Gentians; after three years the bumblebees realized these are delicious
Lespedeza ‘Gibraltar’
Lespedeza ‘Gibraltar’ — I was planning to expand the boundary of this part of the garden to echo the shape of a path. Gibraltar is lending a helping hand by spilling outward three feet, which is going to make that process a lot easier. Thanks, Gibraltar.
Calico aster – I think
Black-eyed susans. My all time favorite.
Mixed border – black eyed susans, anenome, echinacea ‘sombrero’, and other odds and ends.
Rose of Sharon ‘Purple pillar’. Great performer.
Sweet autumn clematis, invasive in warmer zones, it has never seeded around for me, so it stays for now. Needs a taller trellis.
NY ironweed and black-eyed susans.
Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’
I wanted to expand that side of the cutting garden out about three feet and Gibralter is doing it for me by falling out of bed.