slideshow: appreciating september's offerings
WITH THE FIRST COLD NIGHTS (we hit 41 degrees F Monday!) I’m suddenly invigorated–and overtaken by two impulses: to nest and get cozy (including tossing out loads of things), and to edit the garden (additions and subtractions both lie ahead). While plotting my plans, look what beauties I noticed through my camera lens in the almost-fall landscape:
September Garden Slideshow
CLICK ON THE first thumbnail to start the show, and toggle from slide to slide using the arrow keys on your keyboard or the arrows beside the captions. Note for best viewing: If you “zoom in” too much in your browser, or are on a very small screen, or both, you’ll cut off the bottom line of the captions (and much of the vertical photos themselves as well). Zoom out!
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- September! Yes, there are still some bloomers that pick this time to show off — or continue on doing so. This 3-foot-wide bowl of Phormium and Coleus ‘India Frills’ and Alternanthera rubiginosa has been at it for months.
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- So has the silverleaf sunflower, Helianthus argophyllus.
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- The panicle hydrangeas, H. paniculata types, looked great — all fresh and white — in July and August, and are now fading to pinks and buff tones.
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- The giant bush clover, a herbaceous perennial of maybe 5 feet tall by 6 feet wide or more, always opens in the first week of September.
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- Anemone ‘September Charm’ is into Week 6 of flowering, and the bumblebees are delighted at its generosity.
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- This hairy beast, the Small Tolype Moth, hung out by day all week last week on the side of my barn.
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- I didn’t know what these giant insects were…but I think I know what they were doing! Then an expert friend let me know: giant craneflies, genus Tipula. One of those insects everyone mistake for a giant mosquito.
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- Likewise I cannot yet ID this spider, but what a handsome creature. Nature is infinitely intricate in its creations.
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- It’s daddy longlegs time, and they were having a convention here the other day (Democrat or Republican, I know not). They’re not true spiders, by the way.
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- Another place the harvestmen (the other name for daddy longlegs) like: the potted fig tree.
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- Another crop is ripening, and as delicious as they are, I’m not sure how we’ll lower the giant pot into the cellar for winter. Uh-oh.
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- Not so much fun, but interesting, anyhow: fall webworms (in this case in the hollies). A lot of readers have written in to say they have them too.
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- I finally remembered to photograph the underside of the big orange outcrop of fungi in the far lawn, the one I saw last year. The fact that the gills run all the way down the stems helps confirm it’s Omphalotus, as I suspected.
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- In 2011, I only shot this photo of the tops of the so-called Jack-o-lantern mushroom, so I could only guess at its I.D. till I looked beneath (previous photo).
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- Some interesting-looking things probably aren’t good news, but I leave them be. These are blister galls of some species or other. Sort of oddly beautiful.
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- Also not pretty: My very small crop of apples this year is being eaten by the chipmunks, who sit in my lawn chairs and go at it. (Then leave me the cores, of course, adding insult to injury.)
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- A friend grew this ‘Pink Accordion’ tomato, an heirloom that is big, handsome and delicious.
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- I’ll ferment and then save the ‘Pink Accordion’ seeds just as I’m doing these from a yellow variety in this jar.
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- My beloved hybrid ‘Juliet’ tomatoes (like small plum types) are coming on strong, and becoming sauce galore.
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- Oops! The Chinese red noodle beans went too far for eating, but aren’t they hilarious?
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- I had my first crop of 3 Root Grex beets from Dr. Alan Kapuler of Peace Seeds in Oregon. Tasty and beautiful.
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- And then, of course, the frog friends are being inspiring as ever. Can you see the second set of eyes playing peek-a-boo on the edge of this water trough?
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- A really little guy jumped out of the water trough into the lap of a nearby Buddha. See him by the broken strand of prayer beads?
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- And this sweetheart is shacked up with a moth in one of my fancy-leaf begonias — which will soon have to come inside if cooler nights continue. Happy almost-fall, dear friends.
NOTE TO SELF: It helps to go slow, to really look around. Even here, in my rural life, I have to remind myself: Stop! Look! Listen! (Maybe I should label this slideshow–with every bug, bloom, and blight–my September gratitude list, the way I did the one a month ago?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidippus_audax
Common jumping spider.
please maybe jump somewhere else…
What is the brown prickly thing on the hairy moth’s back?
Hi, Lucy. I don’t know for certain what the “Mohawk” on it back is, but based on how other other moths and caterpillars works, I suspect it’s something that evolved to discourage predators from taking a bite. Often unusual coloration, texture, hairiness, etc. are all about staying alive!
Hi, Terry. It was too big and too long-legged for the jumping spiders, and I think it must be an orb weaver of some kind or maybe an Argiope but hmmmm….not like any in books here or on BugGuide.net or anywhere I usually check.
Fascinating!
Beautiful slideshow as usual. Thank you for sharing <3
You know, my potted fig overwinters in Brooklyn without any protection – are you sure you need to winter-protect yours? It would save some back-ache :-)
Hi, Marie. Sorry about the spiders. I actually love them, though most people I know don’t! :) Well, I am 2 Zones colder than Brooklyn, so I think I either have to take it into the cellar or who knows what? What a feat this will be!
Oh, and I meant to say, wonderful photos! The spiders made me a bit twitchy…
Once again, I love your pictures. That silver leaf sunflower is stunning, I’d like to grow some. And a lot of people don’t realize this but chipmunks are actually quite arrogant. The proof is how they eat YOUR apples while sitting in YOUR lawn chairs, then don’t clean up after themselves. Next time they’ll leave a note that says, “So, long, sucker”.
I read that if you take a broom or a rake, and break open the fall webworms’ nests, then birds will come in and take the exposed caterpillars. We also wondered why does it seem that there are so many more spiders — and bigger spiders — in the late summer and fall? My husband says one factor is that nesting seasons is past, and the birds that in spring feed their babies on insects and spiders, have graduated to their seed and fruit diet, leaving many more spiders to mature and grow. We get bright green and yellow garden spiders and find them beautiful.
The beautifully hairy moth is the Tolype Moth, a native in the family Lasiogampidae, and feeds on many broad leaf trees and shrubs. Linda Horn
Loved the pictures. thanks for creating such a great site. We are also in to cooler weather now, so it is nesting time. Now I can return to quilting as the garden and preserving is done – maybe!!
Happy almost-fall to you, too, Margaret. The pictures are wonderful….as usual.
:)
Hi Margaret- as much as I love viewing your exquisite garden pictures the time has come for a confession… I’m desperately in love with your gorgeous cat….he’s the most beautiful tuxedo I’ve ever seen( and the expression in those fabulous eyes shows he agrees with me…) Soooo….any chance of a Jack slideshow…? Please give him a scritch under the chin from me – Jack the DC for President I say….
Thanks, Lee. I must do that. Good idea. He is so handsome. :)
Margaret, thanks for the timing of this slide show. I just bought a house in Claverack (we’re neighbors!), and didn’t know the name of a plant that just began blooming lovely purple flowers in my new yard. Your photo of the giant bush clover gave me my answer!
Here in Iowa we call the orb spider in your slideshow a barn spider. A real beaut has been hanging out for a month on a web slung between an arbor vitae and our porch rail, fascinating and horrifying the neighborhood kids who can’t understand why we don’t kill the monster. It’s a learning opportunity for them.
Hi Margaret,
Beautiful slideshow. Can you say more about the fermenting tomato seeds..is that a way to save the seed? And what is the actual name of the big bush clover..gorgeous!