Summer Vibes

 Getting ready to leave my garden for an entire month is daunting. September, too - one of the busier months especially for the veggie garden and processing and preserving food. I am a bit paralyzed by the to-do list and simultaneously letting things go for now - I plan on doing a lot of catch up this autumn once I return from my stay at Sissinghurst Castle Garden as a guest gardener. The busy season has swallowed us and I feel a little disconnected, a feeling I hope is temporary. Plus, earlier this month, Blogger took down my website by mistake. It was something to do with malware, something a bot or AI probably determined. It was in error, of course, and Blogger made it right within a day or so. I'm grateful for that but let me tell you, I felt powerless and at the mercy of some AI nonsense. There's nothing I could have done to prevent it either. Oy.

With all of these ingredients it's no wonder I've felt a little disconnected. The best remedy for that is to lay into the summer vibes and take in the sunshine knowing that cooler days are on the horizon.

Nothing says summer vibes more to me than Arctostaphylos pumila and Oscar, the Agave parryi ssp. truncata. That afternoon light illuminating the trunk of the arcto is pure magic.

The Epilobium canum (syn. Zauschneria californica) have started blooming along with Phedimus spurius (syn. Sedum spruium), a combination I really enjoy, hot pink (Phedimus flowers) and orange.

From a rather cramped angle looking at a huge Veronica 'Sutherlandii' (syn. Hebe 'Sutherlandii') with that same Epilobium canum at its base. Grevillea 'Coastal Gem is the evergreen kind of spiky thing in the foreground, bottom.

Another unusual angle, me standing in some shrub looking towards our home. The Arctostaphylos 'Sentinel' in the middle, left, has had a large dead branch removed. Gratefully, it is responding with new branch growth that is completely vertical vs. the odd octopus low-growing branches it originally grew into. I know of at least two other people who have this same arcto with the same octopus growth habit.

A rather delightful surprise, Jerry from Botanica Chaotica (great blog, by the way), gave me a couple Cuphea starts last year. They both went into the veggie garden and did well for me. I took lots of cuttings which rooted then died a few months later. Earlier this summer I noticed some growth coming from beneath the wood chips of the veg garden where the original plants were and behold, they both regrew from the roots so were hardy for me this year. I love a good surprise!

Hydrangea aspera 'Plum Passion', a wonderful hydrangea with plum-colored foliage early in the season.

That plum color, so juicy! While it is a lovely shrub, it is a hydrangea and this particular one is on the thirsty side.

Tagetes 'Cinnabar', likely the only marigold I'll grow. It's tall and bright and kind of electric.

A good, solid plant is Geranium 'Rozeanne'. They are sterile so will not seed around but will bloom non-stop from spring right through to the first frost.

In the shade garden a combination with Fuchia 'Hawkshead', possibly my favorite hardy fuchsia. Beneath it and echoing the white of the flowers is variegated Trachelospermum 'Variegata' and Carex conica 'Snowline'.

Flower of birdhouse gourd. Hopefully, I'll have dozens of gourds this year as the past two years were busts on getting seeds germinated. I think I overplanted this time to make up for that fact.

Clarkia, one of our native wildflowers, given to me by Gina of Fernhaven at our spring plant sale. I show it here (and I'm sorry, I've misplaced the label with the species) because so many of the petals are chewed up. That's a good thing! I planted it for the insects, after all. Likely leafcutter bees are taking bits back to their nests and I'm all for that. I'm hoping the seeds will scatter and regrow next year.

I won this saucer planter at a Blogger's Fling over ten years ago. It hasn't been planted up for some time, so last autumn I corrected that. While probably not in the best possible position, it will do for now and I'm happy to see it out and in use once more.

I appreciate roses but grow very few, the ones I do grow tend to be species roses such as R. glauca and R. moyesii. I have a couple exceptions - this is one. Rosa 'Golden Wings', a pretty, simple flower with a buttery color. While the rose itself is probably not in the happiest spot and not that large or vigorous, I do appreciate a pretty flower and it gives me a few every year.

The Teucrium chamaedrys field in the center has filled in completely and is buzzing with native bumblebees. Hundreds of them, literally. It's such a joy and much better to see than dormant grass and dirt. The orchard and veggie garden are in the background.

My current favorite salvia, S. 'Celestial Blue' is easily 4' high and wide. It is well-visited by both insects and hummingbirds, a definite favorite.

When I worked at Joy Creek Nursery I acquired a few Agastache 'Licorice Candy', a Van Hevelingen Nursery introduction. They were planted in the meadow garden where sadly they disappeared among more robust perennials and grasses. To my delight I discovered they weren't dead after all, they came back to life after I cleared out some thuggish grasses. It's unbelievable to me that they are still alive after at least six or seven years.

Speaking of the meadow garden, here's Amsonia hubrichtii foliage with a few seed spikes of Digitalis ferruginea. The meadow garden continues to be a source of delight.

When Roger Gossler and friends recently visited I was happy to show him this, our Quercus hypoleucoides that he sold me from Gossler Farms just after we moved here.

Calluna vulgaris 'Spring Cream' has never looked better. Here it is paired with Echinacea 'White Swan', a seedling at that.

Another blooming heather is Calluna vulgaris 'Firefly' with its gaudy yellowish foliage and hot pink flowers. 

Here it is in a wider view. The gaudy color combination really stands out and adds a pop of color to this otherwise very green scene.

In the meadow garden with a cardoon and a bird resting on the tripod.

Now for a bit of the challenging bits: This is Anementhele lessoniana, New Zealand wind grass. It's gorgeous, yes. I have had a few in the garden for many years with no issue. A few friends even asked if I had any problems with volunteers. At the time I wished for volunteer plants - I never had any. Fast forward to now, some 10 years of having this plant, it has indeed put forth dozens, if not hundreds, of volunteers. I hadn't noticed until this spring when I was cutting everything back for the season. It crept in while I wasn't looking. I realized that I'd need to get it under control so took out more than 2/3 of what was here. Now, what remains has just flowered which is gorgeous, but I promptly removed all the flowers. Over the next couple of years I will continue to remove the plants until they are gone. It wasn't a problem until it was. While technically not an invasive species, it is definitely a thug several years in.

The Acanthus mollis dillema. It's gorgeous until it isn't. Every summer, no matter how much irrigation it receives, it does this and goes dormant. If you've ever grown it then you know there is no "digging it out" - once it's there it's there and will always regenerate from even the smallest bit of root.

Euphobia maculata, an Eastern U.S. native is a serious headache here. In the raised beds area of our veggie garden it has taken over despite the many hours I've spent digging it out. It looooves the gravel so my solution is to put wood chips down instead of gravel. I've wanted to do this regardless of the euphorbia as so many other weeds love this area, so it's something we'll tackle later this autumn.

I am hoping to get some input from you, dear readers, on whether or not I should remove the two rather large hebes in the center island here. When I planted them they were little 4" pots and the Arctostaphylos on either side were also quite small. Now it's nearly impossible to get around this. But the hebes are cool and healthy, maybe a bit of mystery around an impenetrable island is intriguing? Do chime in.

Closing out this post with a sweet Anna's hummingbird enjoying a bit of salvia nectar.

It's been a fairly typical summer regarding weather, though we have had a few mighty downpours, an unusual event but very welcome. Those super heat waves never really came, just hot for several days but not anything of note. We also have had wildfire smoke but we have the benefit of the marine influence up the Columbia River, mitigating what could have been unbearable conditions. While summer vibes have been fun, I must also share we lost a couple of hens last week. Not summer vibe-ish, but definitely a reality of a small farm. There are challenges and lots of hard work every single day, and now with four cats in our household it's pretty overwhelming at times. But we're lucky and wouldn't change it for the world. Those summer vibes just feel extra sweet.

Also, we've had a lot of visitors to the garden this summer, a group of note is the Willamette Valley Hardy Plant Group with Roger Gossler, Marian and friends. It was such a joyful visit, we loved having you all over, thank you for making the trek from Eugene! And to everyone else who has visited, it's wonderful to share the garden with you, those who appreciate such things.

Mark your calendars for Saturday October 3 for our Dirty Diggers of Lovewood autumn plant sale. While I will have just come off the plane from being gone a month, I plan on being there with goodies to sell. And also please note while I am away in September I will have limited access to my online life. If I don't respond to a comment right away, it's me, not you. I do plan on publishing posts while I'm away, but interaction with you will likely be limited.

That's a wrap for this week at Chickadee Gardens. As always thank you so much for reading and commenting, we do love hearing from you all! Happy gardening.