I love rocks and older brick for edging. When I can get rocks from someone’s garden, I get rocks because I like their patina better.

This weekend somebody I know was offering rocks because she is moving a big garden bed and won’t need the rocks anymore. So I think I bought a total of 50 rocks from her and they are all placed. I needed to edge one side of one of a new perennial bed, and another bed had seen some sinking of the soil where I had laid other stones and needed building up. I am super pleased with the results and at two dollars a decent size rock I don’t think you can go wrong!

I have been trimming and weeding and planting. I planted my fall pots and gave the annual salvia to a friend to put in the back of a cutting bed of hers to live out their lives. The salvia had definitely outgrown my pots. I planted the pots with fall annuals and perennials. Later on when fall settles in, I will add bulbs to these pots as well, and a couple of others.

Although I have lots of pots I fill with annual herbs and chili peppers and what not for the warm weather seasons, I also have all weather pots which are like big anchor pots and I am gradually going back to how I always dealt with pots like that before and that is I put in a lot of perennials and just a couple of annuals here and there. These pots have herbs and hostas, even yarrow, bee balm and echinacea. On our deck I have a big all weather pot that has a hydrangea in it. I refresh the soil some every year and trim the hydrangea back and that’s about it. The pots planted for fall will fill in and take me through to when everything dies back and I load them up with Christmas greenery.

Soon my bulbs will start to arrive when the weather cools down. Right now we have had a few days of rain often on but the garden could really stand more rain. I harvested my first round of chili peppers and I am making hot sauce this year. And my garden also contributed to a nice fresh salsa I made over the weekend!

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Next up is the impending arrival of three more fig trees. I am not quite sure where they are all going to fit but I will get them in and hopefully they will grow and be really happy! The figs are from Off The Beaten Path Nursery in Lancaster, PA. I already have a Chicago Hardy and Hardy Dark Berry. I am adding three others that can take the cold, but am planting them in more sheltered areas. I will be planting St. Rita, Teramo, and Unk Sicilian Dark. And next spring I will hopefully be able to get lingonberry plants from this grower.

In other news I am starting to look at things that will come inside for the winter like my banana tree, my little citrus trees, the tropical hibiscus, and more. New this year is an avocado tree that was gifted to me and I started two little grapefruit trees from seed and I will be bringing them inside as well. I had a grapefruit tree that lived 20 to 25 years that I grew from seed and last year I managed to kill it. Of course its lifespan in a pot is about 25 years so I think it was ready to bid me adieu. But citrus trees make really beautiful house plants so I’m trying again!

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In other news I am getting a second flush of flowers from some really pretty echinacea and the turtle head is popping. Roses are getting ready to bloom again as well. Late blooming hostas that have a wonderfully fragrant flowers have bloomed, and the garlic chives flowers have beautiful fluffy white flowers!

Life in the garden just keeps on trucking.

Happy gardening!

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