Hurrah! I'm Posting Tonight! :-)

No, I don't have my new camera yet.

But a wonderful friend/neighbor allowed me to borrow hers! She has a Canon, so the buttons looked very similar to my old one, but it was enough different that my photos didn't always turn out to be the clearest. However, I'm not going to complain!!! So you can't either! :-)

You get to see every picture I took tonight - and then some! Click on any of them... some of them enlarge Very Nicely!

Yes, this is a Poinsettia. I put it outdoors this Spring, thinking it would surely die. But no. It looks wonderful. I may just try the month-long regimen of dark/light again this Fall. If I don't have red "flowers" for Christmas, out it goes!

(On the left of the poinsettia are my new 'Ed Brown' daylily and baby spider plants...yes, they rooted off the mother plant seen in the top right of this photo. I cannot tell a lie. I find it hard to throw plants away. I'd seen this idea of letting the babies be a groundcover somewhere... so here they are. On the right of the poinsettia are a hosta and a poison ivy plant. There have been a number of these PI pests growing in and around the flower beds this year. Hmmmm.)

My neighbors' fungi. Pretty neat, huh?

This is a renegade impatien. Do you think it hopped the fence between our yards?

These two photos are of Liriope Spicata. Both plants do love to spread themselves around.

They are described as invasive, but until this year (I planted them 6 years ago), they're just filling in their spaces very nicely. Next year I will share. lol. Let me know if you want some! One of these varieties has the lavendar flowers, as seen below. But most of my plants have pink flowers, as seen in this second photo.

Oh! I can hardly wait to show you the tricyrtis that are blooming!

First we have 'Taipei Silk' on the left and 'Moonlight Treasure' on the right. Both new plants.











Here we have 'Tojen' (new plant) on the left and 'Blue Wonder' on the right. I really have trouble when I photograph BW. The real-life blue color doesn't always show true in photos. There was a bright sunset light tonight... perhaps that was the problem?

You can see how bright the setting sun was in this photo. I tried to photograph my new phlox, "Mattie" this evening. It's getting ready to bloom, even though it's not very tall. That should change next year. :-)

This might give you an idea that there's still a lot of color here. 'Rosy Returns' daylily has never quit blooming, while the other yellow "in-front" clumps are reblooming.

Here we have gaillardia 'Fanfare' in the three stages of bloom. New, old, and fuzz. :-)

Looking down towards part of the front beds, you'll see several impatiens. They are ALL volunteers this year. They re-seeded last year, too. Can you believe it??

For Mother's Day, our Church passed out glad bulbs. This is one that is now blooming.

Here's 'Diamond Edge' Sedum in the front beds.

Now, for a change in venue.

I've been reworking some steps between the South side of the house and the Woodland Walk.

This photo was taken November 29, 2008.

Perhaps you can tell, on the left, there were two large jutting pieces of ground edged in Windsor Blocks. If you look discerningly, you can see that there is no room between the blocks and the trees for a lawnmower. I put those jutting stepways in the ground about two years prior to this photo, I think. At any rate, it was inconvenient. Nothing grew in the one you can see.So this spring, I dug that farthest jutting piece of ground out, purchased more Windsor blocks, created a series of steps, lined them with fabric liner, placed homemade stepping stones on them and filled in around them with pea gravel. The job is unfinished in the photo below, which was taken June 21, 2009. Perhaps you can see that there will eventually be room for a lawnmower?

This photo was taken this evening, August 23, 2009. I dug a series of 4x4" tumbled blocks into the ground next to the steps. The extra dirt is slightly mounded to level the area. One wheel of the lawnmower can ride the blocks and we'll be able to mow whatever might grow in this area, all the way up to the South side of the house. I'm not yet finished with the "landscaping, but... there you go.

The view looking back towards the Raised Bed Gardens might give you another perspective of the steps. What do you think?? (I can see that if someone doesn't care for steps, they'll just walk down the little "runway." lol.)

Perhaps you can tell I've also been working on the trail through the Woodland Walk, too?

If you scroll up a bit, you can see a poor little gate standing all by itself. Hopefully within the month of September or so, I'll get another project begun. I'll keep you "posted!"

Nothing Shady here but the shade and the night time outdoors. :-)