Fall is upon us...

"Sweet summer is gone; they have laid her away, 

The last sad hours that were touched with her grace,

In the hush where the ghosts of the dead flowers play;

The sleep that is sweet of her slumbering space..."

 - Archibald Lampman

after a long dry growing season the last bits of colour fade away...

the first leaves from the sugar maples begin to carpet the garden...

the crimson tones of the virginia creeper (parthenocissus quinquefolia), the sedum 'Autumn Joy', and the staghorn sumac (rhus typhina) herald the coming winter with a final blast of colour... 

beautiful colours abound, yet I can't help but feel sad... the winter has become a cold and desolate concept to me since I began gardening... the long wait until spring always seems unbearable to endure...

The Apogee of Bloom...

September is often the peak of a garden, and despite this years low rainfall, my garden has not disappointed me...

the obedient plant (physostegia virginiana 'white crown') blooms under the tallest staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) in the memorial garden...

the scarlet runner beans (phaseolus coccineus) have been profusely blooming since late June .. each flower turns into an edible bean pod best eaten young... 

scarlet runner beans are ornamental vines that are not native to Ontario, but are treated as annuals for their easy growing, and edible nature... mine are clambering up hemp string tied to a bird feeder pole...

the new stiff goldenrod (solidago rigida) has done very well here... the leaves are a lot different than the typical goldenrod (solidago canadensis)...

while the flower clusters are similar in size, the flowers themselves are much bigger...

the brown eyed susan (rudbeckia hirta) grown from seed is a spectacular addition to my garden!

each flower shows a variation in shape... 

the hops have done much better here then in years past despite doughty conditions... 

indian grass (sorghastrum nutans) 

flowering indian grass...

a pleasing mix of indian grass and goldenrod...

the black eyed susan vine (thumbergia alata) that i grew from seed had covered the dead oak sapling...

I had to deadhead most of the purple coneflower (echinacea purpurea) flower heads early and disposed of them in the garbage... they were infested by what I think is the Sunflower moth (homoeosoma electellum)... the central cone became blackened and rotten and inside there is a 1/4" larvae .. the front xeriscape garden was hit last year with this pest, but this year they attacked both gardens...

a couple coneflowers were spared...

despite the drought, most of these native species are as lush as ever...

the flower of the rose of sharon (hibiscus syriacus)...

despite it's resistance to clematis wilt, native virgins bower (clematis virginiana) has partially succumbed to it... it also seems like its being attacked by powdery mildew, and I am thinking that the neighbours are accidentally over water it from their side of the fence...

the transplanted hostas are not doing well... far too much sun and I will have to move them next year...

the ever cheerful black eyed susans (rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’)

a spider awaits its prey...

tall tickseed (Coreopsis tripteris)

the transplanted staghorn sumacs (Rhus typhina) are taking to their new home and task of pushing out the invasive buckthorns behind them... the virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) is finally clambering up the chinese honeysuckle...

Pushed to the Limits...

After several months of below average precipitation, this July is already shaping up to be another brutally hot one. At this time most plants are pushed to their limits, and it now pays to have invested in drought tolerant native plants, not only for their beauty, but their ability to weather the storm, or in this case lack thereof...

Of course this doesn't leave room for disruptions from invasive species which further push their limits, often past their ability to survive. So sometimes a native gardener needs to step in to help!

the invasive Japanese beetles (popillia japonica) have wrecked havoc once more - the virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) and the wild grape are among the most severely damaged...

the beetles "skeletonize" the leaves and only the veins and outer shape remain... 

like last year I tried to collect them into a soapy bucket, but really I would have to be doing this every day several times as there are just so many!

typically gardening books say to let them drown slowly, but instead I will stomp on them...

supposedly the rotting corpses of the beetles are a deterrent to the rest of the "flock"...

but within the hour the ants had begun to dismantle them piece by piece and take them to their nests...

the flies arrived shortly after to scavenge the rest... 

The Evil Twin...

After many hours of work pulling out the bell shaped flowers, I decided to research a little further found here: http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2007/07/26/campanula-rapunculoides-the-evil-twin/ that the flowers could also be something much worse... they could be the non-native and invasive creeping bellflower (campanula rapunculoides)... the Ontario Wildflowers database listed them as native, but I think that they are mistaken...

In order to ascertain the identity of these misbehaving flowers I needed to find a way to differentiate between the similar species so I found this:

http://www.examiner.com/article/adenophora-and-its-evil-twin-revisited

"gardeners can identify their plants by taking a flower and gently pulling off the petals, leaving the style standing in the center. You will be left holding the base of the flower with a bumpy appendage (the ovary) in the middle and the style sticking straight up out of the center. VERY CAREFULLY peel off the outside of the bumpy appendage, leaving the style standing. If underneath, all you see is a flat base to which the style is attached, then you have a Campanula. If, however, you see, after the peeling, another bulb-like appendage surrounding the style, then you have an Adenophora."

So I went to work dissecting some flowers:

dome shape at bottom of stamen...

dome removed...

is this flat or bulb like?

nature is beautify close up...

Lady Bells or what?...

I was starting to rethink the identification of this plant... I was told by some old people that it was a foxglove digitalis... so I have tried to pull it out over the years so the dogs or wandering babies don't eat it and die...

This year I decided not to care about dogs and babies and let it grow in... after seeing its true form, I didn't think it was in fact a digitalis species... 

I was going to call upon more minds to help identify it but I just decided to search the shape of the flower, a bell, and found this: http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=241

It a creeping bell flower and its an Ontario native wildflower! Woooooooo!

But then I realized nature is twisted! It could also be the almost identical, and aptly named Adenophora confusa or lady bells... Damn...

So without thinking I got drastic and I spent a couple hours pulling the lady bells out of the garden... digging up the rhizomes and network of tubers is very labour intensive... and I know I didn't get it all because I had to be carefull digging so close to all the other plants, especially the sugar maple sapling... if I wanted it gone it would be next to impossible as its quite pervasive, spreading mostly through theses rhizomes...

The Summer Solstice

It's the first Day of Summer 2012, and the birds are singing!!

"Great Spirit, Creator of All, we come to celebrate with our hearts, with our souls as we experience and inhale deeply this alignment of the Eternal Flame of Above with the souls of all.
We pray that as our Mother Earth aligns with Father Sun that our collective shift to change our worlds fill with the Eternal Flame of Love to grant us the gift of wisdom as we await the harvest of our working days."

the honey bees working their magic on the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) pollen...

a lady bug hunts for aphids on the tall tickseed (Coreopsis tripteris)...

as the summer sun begins to shine,

the scarlet runner beans begin to take off for the sky...

Pests!

worms eating the sumacs!

aphids eating the wildflowers!

earwigs and slugs eating the veggies!!

BUGS BUGS EVERYWHERE!!