Garden show and tell

I've been picking away at garden clean-up this past few weeks.

Remember my little friend who loves to "help" in the garden?

Well, he's grown into a quite a big kitty.

His original name was India but we re-named him Rollie

1. because he actually turned out to be a little boy kitten - not a girl as we first thought.
2. he loves to roll on his back to greet you - all the easier to scratch his tummy.
3. And we sometimes add Pollie because he's so fluffy that he looks like a rollie-pollie ball of fur.

As you can see, he still enjoys pouncing on unsuspecting gardeners.

I have to be careful when clipping!

Most of my flowers are through blooming but there are still a few left in the October garden.

I am amazed at this daylily - I have 3 daylily plants and this one hardly bloomed all summer. I wondered if I should even pull it out. Maybe it heard me because all of a sudden, in late September, it burst out in profuse blooms. Even now, it's still producing its cheery yellow flowers.

Do you remember the primula that I purchased last winter? A certain someone, who remained nameless, had his doubts as to whether I could keep them alive -  I took that as a challenge.

And look!

They not only survived the winter indoors, I planted them outside in the spring and they are still blooming in late October.

Ha! :)

(I'm actually amazed myself that they survived - greatly encouraged but amazed.)

My sedum is still going strong. It's aptly named "Autumn Joy"

Autumn JoyI bought a new variety this year. It's not quite as showy as my deep red sedum, but still pretty.

I also added this plant below to my perennial garden this spring, but for the life of me, I can't remember the name.

The buds/blooms are very tiny - I keep waiting for them to open but they haven't changed at all in the last week or so.

Any gardeners out there who recognize this plant? Could it be an aster that just hasn't opened?

My final show and tell item is the most spectacular fall entry.

My Burning Bush - fiery red leaves and bright orange berries.

Autumn's glory reminder.

The sun is shining again today - it's been lovely this week! Such a nice break from all the rain we've experienced this October.

I noticed a heavy frost on the grass so I'm hoping my parsley and mint survived.

My final garden chore is to gather them in and pop them in the freezer. I'm not sure how I'll use up the mint, but the parsley is great in soups and stews.

The only thing left for this year is planning and dreaming about next year's garden.

Sitting in front of the cozy fire on a winter's evening in my big comfy chair, I'll sip a cup of hot tea and browse leisurely through my garden books and the seed catalogue.

Help me not to get too ambitious, will you??

I tend to forget garden clean-up time :)

Happy Thursday!

with love,

Comments

[ellen b]

It's great that you are getting some nice weather to finish up in your garden. You still have so much pretty color. I don't know if you like Tabbouleh but it uses bunch of mint in the recipe. You can see the recipe here:
http://happywonderer.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/ina-gartens-tabbouleh/

[Sandy@Jesus and Dark Chocolate]

Love the burning bush. We have several of those, and they always look stunning this time of year. I love how you took a close up of it....looks even more beautiful
BTW, I have a yellow day lily that is also blooming now! :)

[nikkipolani]

Oh, Kathie. That Garden Amnesia is a dangerous disease. Its incubation in the perfect atmosphere of cozy fire, comfy chair, hot tea, and a garden book/seed catalog ensures that you'll get a full fledged attack. But it's inevitable, so you might as well enjoy the enjoyable first phase! BTW, I made and enjoyed immensely the raisin cake -- thanks for the recommendation.

[Niki]

Wonderful colour...sadly, we are very greyish brown over here....I need to make an effort and plant some fall colour in the coming years. Love the daylily, contrary thing!
Blessings,
Niki

[Jody]

I'm laughing at the Big Kitty picture because he looks like he's gigantic standing next to some mountain trees (parsley). Funny! Your fall flowers are beautiful. I'm so jealous.

Jody

[Josie Ray]

We had a cat who loved to join me when I was quilting. She would sit up on the sewing table right beside the machine, watching the needle with fascination and occasionally batting a stray thread. Laying a quilt on the floor and trying to baste the layers was a hoot. It was a game for us.