Yard and Garden update September 2019

Fall is here!  Our garden season is about at an end for this year. As usual there were many many things I dreamed about doing but didn't get to.  So, I will keep dreaming about them for next year.

It rained last night and our yard was green and dripping today. It is beautiful and cool out!

I went around and took pictures of all the areas of our yard today for an overview of the yard as we end 2019 gardening season.  Here goes:

1) The front patio.
All decorated for summer, and now moving into fall.  The two large flower planters I got on end of summer sale in early September for $5 each!  I plan to move these to the back patio next year to start an herb container garden back there.

2) The front patio garden.
Only my hardy geranium is blooming now (9/29/19).  This has become one of my favorite flowers as they survive without care from me, deer and rabbits leave them alone, and I love the color of the light purple flowers.
I did some weeding of creeping charlie here yesterday but still have a ton of weeding left to do here! Hopefully I can finish it and get these beds mulched and cleaned up this fall.

That pile of creeping charlie on the concrete is what I weeded yesterday. The weeded area doesn't look too bad!

Last year (or two years ago) I planted some wild columbine and it has self seeded I guess and is taking over the left hand portion of the garden bed in this picture. I have left it since I do like the flowers on it, but we will see.
In the middle of the bed in the front in this picture is my hardy geranium with its purple flowers.
To the right is a lavender plant that I planted this year (2019). We'll see if it can survive the winter.  Maybe third time will be a charm!  I plan to cover it with leaves this year to see if that will help.
In the back of this bed is the juniper type shrub that I want to finish digging out, a spirea bush which I may or may not keep, and a ton of creeping charlie!

The other side of the bed.
This has 2 peonies (the largest one on the left is the white one), 2 spirea bushes, a large weed, another hardy geranium hidden in there, a couple other plants, and creeping charlie.

My hardy geranium flowers after the rain

3) The driveway bed.
I planted the lemon balm here a year or two ago and it has been taking over this garden. I have left it as I don't really mind! I think it is a nice groundcover for the garden and it smells so nice. Hopefully next year I can try drying its leaves for tea.
My biggest and best peony is full of seed pods now. I need to cut those off and try planting those this year. I am curious if I can manage to grow a peony from seed!
The only things blooming in this bed now is the sedum, and still a few blooms on the salvia (sage) plant. Bees love that plant for sure, and I like it for how easy it is to grow, its smell, long lasting flowers and the bees it attracts. What I don't like is how it gets huge and flops over the other plants in the garden. I need to buy plant rings next year for my two salvia plants to minimize this.

The peony seed pods.

Sedum in bloom 9/29/19

Still a few blooms on the salvia plant

4) Front yard fruit trees
These are still doing well and getting bigger every year!  I need to muster up the courage to prune them this March. The past two years I have read directions for how to do it but haven't had the courage to actually get out there and cut branches.  That will be a goal for early 2020.
I guess deer have been eating the leaves off the lower branches?  I don't know what else would be tall enough to reach those branches. As soon as Mike mows, I am going to put back up the chicken wire cylinders to stay up fall through spring.
The periwinkle I planted as a groundcover directly beneath these three trees is also doing very well. It has spread and has taken over more of the area beneath the trees.

Lower branches have had leaves eaten off.
Vinca/periwinkle is doing well beneath the trees!

5) Front yard corner tree bed
Still a mess. It will be a big job to move all the rocks which are currently covering the ground of this bed, and then pull up the black plastic.  Another goal for 2020!  But, then I can do plant some hostas and other shade plants under here and I think it will be beautiful. Most prominent is the bleeding heart up front, which has done great here, and the lungwort right under the tree which has also done very well.

6) Air conditioner bed.
So much to be done here too! I want to dig up all those ferns (which are all brown at this time of year) and move all those to the woods next spring.  The azalea I squeezed into the ferns 2 years ago is still alive. It has grown a little but not too much being that it is probably shaded by the ferns most of the year. It is just to the left of the air conditioner.  I would also like to move those hostas and daylilies that are to the right of the AC and plant things there that I like more.  And get rid of all the thistles!  Also, the "grass" in this area is actually 90% creeping charlie and 10% grass.

7) Front yard road rock bed.
Nothing blooming here at this time in fall. My peony I planted here has not grown at all.  This is my second attempt to try to plant a peony here. I guess I will have to see how the other plants look here, and may need to replace this peony.  I can also do some dividing of the hostas here and move some over to the front yard corner bed above once I get rid of the rocks there.

8) Retaining wall garden bed.
The shrubs have really grown and the cherry tree has also been doing excellently!  I will have to widen the chicken wire cylinder next year as it is already outgrowing it. The lamium I planted for a groundcover beneath it is spreading nicely, and the creeping phlox on the edges is also still going strong.

Hopefully that creeping phlox that is lining the front edge will spread eventually to make a nice groundcover.

Up front left is my second salvia plant which is doing its flopping thing into the yeard.

Here is my summersweet bush on the right accompanied by the volunteer dalily which I need to move, a few patches of creeping phox, irises lining the back wall, and many invading thistles.

Not many blooms now, but an occasional spirea bloom (on the left) and a weigela bloom (on the right).

The hibiscus at the garage end of the retaining wall.  It is still going strong!  I need to weed out those thistles and creeping charlie and remulch.

9) Garage garden bed.
Never got around to moving these daylilies. I kept an eye on the milkweed and never did see any monarch cocoons on them this year so I am going to pull them out next year.
Goals for 2020: do another round of thistle weeding. Start moving these daylilies to other spots in the yard - probably lining the edge of the woods once I remove the buckthorn.  Decide what I want to plant here instead!  Start digging up the creeping charlie and decide what to put in its place. I have been thinking of a thyme lawn here or a chamomile lawn (in my dreams). As much as I think the chamomile would smell so nice, if I can get thyme established it seems hardier and more likely to grow thick and keep out the return of the creeping charlie.

10) Back stairs sunroom garden bed.
I have kept the weeds down for the most part here this year, although now the creeping charlie is invading again. The two old spirea bushes are still around - not my favorite. I have planted three periwinkle plants here to start a groundcover. And I have planted three thyme plants here between the stepping stones to start a groundcover there.  They haven't spread yet but are still alive so that counts for something.

11) The dog run garden.
Only thing blooming back here now is a raspberry bush with one red raspberry which I ate.  I planted a peony here last month which is in the spot where a dead spirea was that I dug out (right next to the upside down dog bowl). Still three large spirea shrubs here along the patio.

The raspberry bush is along the fence to the right of the gate and it has thrived here.

The blurry raspberry which was tasty. I like that this bush has raspberries still appearing at the end of September!

12) The back shed area and edge of the woods.
We have so much buckthorn to cut down along the edge of the woods. I would love to weed this area and haul out all the trash from the previous owner and fix this shed up. It needs rotted wood replaced and needs to be repainted. Then maybe we can put in a firepit and stone patio back here (possibly).
As it is, I keep pulling the garlic mustard that appears here but I know this will be a forever job as long as the neighbor's portion of the woods edge remains full of it (which it is!).

Those stakes mark two reblooming lilac plants I planted. They are so far still alive but still very tiny - I don't think they grew more than an inch this year. Maybe too shady.
That shed needs work.  And so many weeds!

A buckthorn forest!

13) The garden!
The garden is looking very wild because I have yet to try to prune or move that raspberry thicket. And they are growing like crazy!  But apart from the overgrown raspberries and lilac tree, everything else is looking great. We have had a very productive year with tomatoes and cucumbers. And I have some lovely squash on the vine now. I don't know if it is ripe yet so I have been leaving them there.

Some more buckthorn forest on the left lining the edge of the woods.

Up front outside of the garden fence is my mint from Grandma's garden. Just beyond the fence is my rhubard. To the left is the asparagus.

Squash! Coming to the end of the season so the vines are dying back.

The end of my tomatoes. We had an excellent crop this year!

The strawberry patch with the asparagus and rhubarb

What I harvested today: lots of tomatoes and two cucumbers

14) The back back yard and woods
So much clearing to do in the woods, and somehow need to figure out how to keep flowing water from melting snow from digging a channel back here. And also need to figure out how to get grass to grow!