Gardening – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

Oh this weather!

The angle of the sun coming up over the trees and the subtle changes in the leaves just screams, “Fall is coming!” I don’t hate it. As a lover of sweater weather and “the chill behind the heat”, I’m here for it.

This morning I did a little walk around the yard and I noticed how one side of the steps is getting a little more Sun Love than the other side and it’s popping. One rose bush is budding all over the place and this little purple plant is blooming still while its other side of the steps counterpart is brown and sad.

This plant is part of the honeysuckle family (caprifoliaceae) of flowering plants. There are four “clades” (group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor – hey! Like genealogy) above the family name. The Genus is Scabiosa but the common name for members in the genus is Pincushion Flowers. (Wikipedia).

Thinking about honeysuckles, we had a tree in our yard and would pluck the flowers, pull the center out (like the little pincushion piece), and taste the (supposed) honey at the end. Was it really? I have no idea, I’m sure our dad told us it was!

Take a close look at the blooming and post bloom and you see the little “needles” sticking out.

“Scabiosa” makes you think of scabs right? How about Scabies? That’s because the herb’s traditional usage as a folk medicine was to treat scabies, an illness that causes a severe itching sensation. (Wikipedia)

In my need to limit my social media footprint (facebook and instagram), I’ve stopped taking daily morning pictures of my short walk from the house to our garage workout room but weekends give me time to really enjoy my yard.

In the vegetable garden, the okra Just Keeps Producing! My husband slices it length wise, mixes it with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasts it to a golden crunch.

I’m looking for at least 2 more months of backyard wandering.

I’ve talked about my yard before and the history of my home.

Over the last six months, my husband has been adding landscaping to all sides of the house. My father, not having grown up in a family without a home of their own said, “why do I want to plant something when I’ll have to take care of it”. Anything that grew wild, stayed wild and any spot with nothing, stayed that way.

We had discussed landscaping in the front of the house but I grew up with a father who didn’t plant anything remember? It all feels so permanent and “what if it looks bad, doesn’t grow, etc.”, is my school of thought.

Thankfully, my husband ignored me! We now have a variety of plants along the house including, azaleas, Joe-Pye Weed (fun name!) and Little Pye, Goldenrod, and Panicle Hydrangea. Most were purchased at our local nurseries and a few at Lowe’s.

My project this Labor Day weekend is to take pictures of, and lay out on paper, the plants and their locations. I (don’t think my husband cares) want to know what they are and what the colors are going to be. Some that have already bloomed, I forgot what they looked like!