Late Summer at Chickadee Gardens

I've been so focused on other gardens and activities that I haven't posted about Chickadee Gardens for some time. It's been a very busy summer of Flings, family, projects, cats, commitments, love, loss and extreme heat. Through it all, our garden continues to give me comfort and focus, and it has the uncanny ability to point me in the right direction.

Let us pause and see what is growing at Chickadee Gardens before the summer is gone.

In the front, things are filling in. After petting a neighborhood cat, I saw the garden from his point of view and snapped a few photos. Not bad!




I do love the orange, and this year it's all the rage, don't you know? Here are just a few blooms in the orange garden:

Mimulus aurantiacus, native to the hot regions of the West Coast.

Asclepias tuberosa, butterfly weed, also native. Plus they're host plants for monarch butterflies.

Good ol' marigolds...I never used to like them but they line the veggie bed and, well, I've come to find them charming.

Agastache, or hummingbird mint. 

 This year I found these lovely cones on the Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Glauca'.

This year's "It" plant, Digiplexis is blooming its head off still.

 I really do like this vignette, the Loropelatum chinense which bounced back from the dead this spring, a Pennisetum setaceum 'Vertigo', some sedge and oxalis.

 From the hell strip looking at the front garden. The Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' is really filling in this year.

 OK, can you believe this is one sunflower plant? I bought the seedling in a 4" pot from Annie's Annuals and, well, look at the darned thing! It's called Japanese Silver, and even though there is no silver anywhere on this, I am very impressed. The birds and bees love it.

 The Verbena bonariensis blooming away.

 Solidago 'Fireworks' just coming into bloom in the yellow garden.

 It does look like fireworks!

 My little Chamaecyparis lawsoniana 'Barry's Silver' also in the yellow garden, from Xera Plants.

 Solidago 'Little Lemon'

 The crape myrtle has recovered from last year's tragedy. You can relive my horror here.

 Origanum 'Kent Beauty' volunteer.

 

 Verbascum bombyciferum 'Arctic Summer' also from Xera, also in the yellow garden.

 Crape myrtle magic.

 This is our mystery shrub, one of two. I think it's Myrica rubra, as does Paul at Xera.

 Crape myrtle in full glorious bloom.

 So I'm out taking photos and hear howling. Hmmm...someone is talking to me through the window.
 Yes, I see you, Lucy.

 Everyone hears you, too.

Memorial to a bird.

 Japanese painted ferns and oxalis.

 A friend gifted me one of those Pink Zazzle hybrid gomphrenas. It's really quite fun!

 Seed head of an unknown variety of penstemon.

 This little vignette wasn't as successful as I had hoped, but it's alive after what I recently learned was the hottest August on record in Portland. I think next year it will be all desert plants so I don't have to water it a billion times. The salvia 'black and blue' in the pots might also have to go...do they always get so touchy in such hot weather? I've grown them for years but have never had this kind of problem keeping them going.

And lastly some Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' that is so very happy here, and I really like this plant a lot. It's surrounded by some Sedum oreganum and salal, both Pacific NW natives.

I can feel the garden winding down after a brief peak. It was brutally hot, even for me, so not much activity in the way of planting, just watering enough to keep everything going. There are no more open gardens this summer, just time to enjoy the garden and the wildlife that is slowly increasing as the days get progressively shorter. We had so many hummingbirds this summer, and they continue to come to the feeders, so cleaning and filling them has become a weekly if not sometimes daily task. The black oil sunflower feeders have more and more visitors, especially the garden's namesake bird, the black-capped chickadee. They are beginning their super-binge for the cooler days ahead. Goldfinches have also returned, soon the juncos will follow. We still have many bees, the sedum keeps them happy as does the crape myrtle, which sounds alive if you stand right next to it. All of these animals are such a joy to observe and interact with, and I plan do to a lot more observing as the days continue to decline . . ..

On that note, thank you for reading and until next week, happy gardening! 

I think we should return to more Fling gardens next week...there are still so many to cover! Stay tuned.