I cannot believe that it is nearing the end of October and I am watering almost daily, and it is getting warm in the afternoon! So far in October, I have only had a little over an inch of rain in my yard—not nearly enough. Even the beautyberry begins to droop if I don’t water. We need rain! While I love early mornings and evenings, it feels too much like summer mid-day. We need cooler weather and lots more rain.
In spite of the dryness (and more because I water daily) my summer annuals and perennials are thriving.
The clock vine or black-eyed Susan vine (Thunbergia alata) that hasn’t bloomed all summer, has flowers
on it. My coleus, Dragonwing begonia, new impatiens,
pentas,
and honeybells cuphea
are huge and giving me loads of color. One hibiscus out of 6 has been anointed a host for the squirrels and they decimate it more each day.
But so far they are leaving the others alone,
so I have given up on it. I continue to be impressed with my new Veronica.
It is still covered with flowers and pollinators. Same for the salvia, but I didn’t keep up with deadheading it enough or I would have more blooms. I am starting to plant for fall and gradually mixing in pansies, kale and mustard with my summer color.
I also have mums scattered here and there,
but since I treat them as short season annuals, I am not planting them. I do have to keep up with water, or the blooms won’t last long. I have dianthus
that are making a nice comeback and loaded with flowers, and the toad lilies are blooming. I kept them sheared all season so they are better behaved than normal.
The figs that looked dead until June are loaded with small figs,
and I am harvesting 2 or 3 a day. They are smaller than normal, but very sweet.
I am starting to get fall color in Japanese maples, blueberry, red twig
and regular dogwood, and even the milkweed
has a nice show of yellow foliage. You can see where the dreaded Virginia creeper is in my bushes,
since it is putting on a red show. I am finding poison ivy in beds I never had it before, and trying to control it now. Pretty soon it will turn red too.
Leaves are falling and I am moving them around beds for mulch. I need to shred some to use in the beds. So much to do, and so little time! Now if we could just have some rain!