So another garden we saw that Friday was the Hillwood Estate, which has 25 acres of grounds (plus a mansion and some other buildings) in the Northwest part of DC. It belonged to Marjorie Post for much of the last century. Marjorie owned General Foods, so she had a decent amount of disposable income. She left Hillwood as a public garden and museum, which was very nice of her.
Well, things in the garden here are really starting to simmer down, which means it’s time to get serious about posting on this year’s adventures. Let’s start with the 2017 Garden Bloggers Fling, which was held at the end of June in the DC-area.
It’s the middle of October already. I’m already starting to mourn the passing of autumn, which is rough because I’m still not over the passing of summer. Anyway, at the risk of being repetitive, I’m posting some pictures taken earlier in the month.
OK, so remember that last post, where I was griping about how my bulbs hadn’t arrived yet? Well, never mind.
At the beginning of September, before we left for Japan, I ordered bulbs from John Scheepers. Partly this was out of fear that upon return I would be in a jet lagged haze, causing me to forget this essential chore. Also, I didn’t want the bulbs to arrive late in the season.
People have told me that I was crazy to plant Japanese Anemones (Anemone x hybrida), that I was opening my garden to an uncontrollable thug. But I did it anyway.
We haven’t seen a Monarch since last weekend, but today there were several Painted Lady butterflies fluttering around the Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia) and the various Rudbeckias.
The Sidewalk Border was the second border that I added to the garden. We moved into our house in July, 2003. Next day I went to work on the Driveway Border. The following spring I started digging up turf along the sidewalk for the Sidewalk Border.
On Saturday we flew back to Chicago from Japan. It was a 12 hour flight, during which I did not sleep at all. Nevertheless, I was fairly alert on the drive home from the airport, focused mainly on what we would find upon returning to the garden. My anxiety gradually rose as I took in the effects of Chicago’s record September heat wave and the abnormally dry conditions.
gardeninacity 