At a certain point in August, the garden is swept up in a wave of yellow flowers. This is largely due to what I like to call the Susans, members of the genus Rudbeckia.
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Notes from a wildlife-friendly cottage garden
Sure it’s the middle of August, but now is when you want to think about planting bulbs in the fall. Online retailers are ready to take your order. I know because I just gave mine.
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I always get excited when a new butterfly makes its first appearance in the garden. This happened a few days ago. At first I thought it was a Black Swallowtail, but then realized it didn’t have a “tail” and that the color and markings were very different.
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Recently the staff at the Lurie Garden made some interesting changes to the Dark Plate, which is the partly shaded area east of the boardwalk. The Dark Plate tends to play second fiddle to the larger Light Plate that basks in full sun.
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Do you remember Impatiens (Impatiens walleriana)? It used to be my number one plant for filling containers all over the shady Back Garden, providing bountiful and vibrant color from May to September. Starting around 2011, though, the scourge of Impatiens Downy Mildew (IDM), caused gardeners everywhere to turn their backs on the stricken plants.
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Lately the Front Garden has had so many little creatures flying about that it’s almost impossible to make it to or from the front door without getting hopelessly distracted. Let’s have a review of some of the creatures who been doing the distracting.
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The Left Bank is what I call the part of our garden that sits west of the driveway. It consists of 4 parts: 1) The Lamppost Bed in the parkway; 2) the Crabapple Bed under the dripline (more or less) of the the ‘Donald Wyman’ Crabapple; 3) the area between the Crabapple Bed and the sidewalk that doesn’t have a name; and 4) the Herb Garden.
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August is normally summer’s turning point. It is usually an August day when you realize that there are more flowers fading than coming into bloom. Though this year has been a little different, with the blooms of a number of plants delayed for weeks. Let’s take a look at the state of the Front Garden on the first of August.
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Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta) is an attractive but not a showy plant. But it has great value from a wildlife perspective.
First, let’s deal with the name. “Hoary” does not mean what some of you think it means (don’t bother to deny it). It actually means appearing aged, as in white-haired or grizzled. And in fact, the stems and leaves of of Hoary Vervain are covered with little white hairs.
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