Looks like it's time to start October. :-) Deanna - I love 'Alma Potschke' and wish I had planted it sooner. I'm trying to figure a way to add more. I did frame them with a 'Little Lime' Hydrangea and a Hardy Hibiscus which hide the 'bare knees', trying to blend it into the rest of the bed. It is taller than everything else there at this time. I expect both shrubs to grow taller and I have roses that should be taller in later seasons. The larger grass looks great with it and I'm wondering if I should have planted that closer. Any way you use it, it is an enjoyable plant. Vigorous, needs little attention beyond cutting back in spring. Very sturdy. I may try to buy another one looking for a more pink version. As for sedum, I've always grown it. If you are trying to have a low maintenance garden, it's hard to beat sedum. They bloom late, but they look fresh and clean all season and provide a large flower head even when they are green. They stay in one place and gradually spread. Mine will split and flop if they get too large. I've tried putting a peony ring on them to prevent that and it works. But at that point I will usually divide them. This year I experimented. Someone suggested deadheading the sedum to prevent the flopping. So I did that to just one plant. I also was hoping by doing that, to extend the bloom to give the bees a longer time to harvest them. It was a smaller plant anyway and I wasn't expecting it to flop, which it didn't. But I won't deadhead them again. It produces smaller flower heads and I really like the large heads that contrast with so many smaller flowers in my bed. And actually it barely extended the bloom. It bloomed less than a week after those I didn't deadhead. I love the rosy color when they are at their peak, but I don't really enjoy the rusty color they turn after that. But the plant has so many great attributes, that I can live with that, especially at a time of year when the season is winding down. As for the alyssum, in areas where I want to have a lot of alyssum, I don't mulch. And I used about 4 packets of seed about four years ago and I got a LOT of reseeding every year until this spring. I think the dry winter with no snow cover may have been the reason. But I'm planning on getting some packets of seed now and just scatter them where I want them this fall. I think I will wait until it is too cold for them to sprout. Another experiment. I don't see why they shouldn't sprout next spring, since they naturally drop seed that sprouts for me in the spring any way. Great observation about the pots. I love solid color pots too because as you said they are a better complement to the plants. Sometimes a little texture. Sue's blue pots are great. Love the very saturated blue colors. Since they are ceramic I imagine they all have to be brought inside for the winter? I would have a ton more pots like that if they could stay in place all year. I have a few, but I've also been buying more weather resistant that can stay out all season.

Claire, so nice to see the snowdrops! I love watching the seasons change, but we haven’t gotten anywhere close to seeing bulbs sprouting yet. Deanna, it is the dog, not necessarily my own motivation that gets me out into the woods and fields regardless of the weather. But once I am out there I really enjoy it. Most days we do three walks as he is fairly high energy, so we are out for more than an hour most days. He has learned to pause when my cell phone camera or my pruners are in use. I don’t usually have my real camera with me. Today our breaks will be quite short with temperatures in the single digits into the teens and 40 mph winds. The dog is too small to retain much body heat, even with a jacket when the wind chills are like this, and in the woods where we typically go when it is breezy, it will be too dangerous with such strong winds bringing down branches.

Dee, you bought the Julia Child rose? Wow, that’s great, it will be all ready to just start growing in the spring. So many orders have been delayed, you won’t have to wait for it to be delivered to get it in the ground. And that’s two nice roses still on your shrubs! I have a couple of buds left and I’m still amazed at how good the foliage on Julia Child and Beverly look. Petunias are really hardy annuals I guess. Too bad those never got out of their container this year…lol. But if you leave them there and pile some mulch around it they might survive the winter. Or you could stick them in the middle of a compost pile. I decided to leave my dahlia tubers in the ground. If they live they live. I dug out a grouping that was in a container and decided to put those in the middle of the compost bin. They’ll make it or they won’t. We got out and did some work today. It was freezing this morning, colder than freezing! 22F on the back porch. Normally we’d be out there early trying to get things done, but today we waited until 12n, when it was 40F by that time. Full sun, blue skies. It was very pleasant working out there. I wasn’t thrilled with the harvest from our tomatoes last year, so I decided to make more of an effort, so today, we started a lasagna bed where they are going next year. My DH cut up some cardboard and we laid that down, then he shoveled out half the compost bin and we layered that with a trash barrel full of chopped up leaves, and topped it all off with more compost. Should be much better soil there next year. I had to move a Lily bulb. The last time I had to dig one up, I had already cut the dead stems off. This time I left about 3ft of the stem on it. It was much easier to dig it up and move it that way. We are now working on getting the large annual pots emptied and put away. I left mine out last winter and two very nice 22” clay pots were all busted up. And I have some other material that is like paper mâché, cardboard, something. It’s very sturdy and has lasted many years, I just don’t know what material it is. Last year I left the pot full over winter and it developed some vertical cracks on a couple of sides. They're still useable but, this year I’m putting them away. I still have perennials in them that grew pretty large and I’m trying to find a place for them. Nepeta, Sedum and a Penstemon in one and a Phlox paniculata in the other one. I had one pot of Black Pearl Sedum waiting to be planted and we got that planted and an Oriental poppy moved out of the way of the tomatoes. And that’s that. I’m ready to stop for the day. Tomorrow morning I should be able to finish up all the outdoor pots and get them put away. DH hasn’t stopped yet. He just keeps going and going. He’s already mowed the lawn today, Set up a fire pit for company tomorrow. Broke down half of the compost pile, helped me and now he’s putting the tomato cages away in the eaves of the garage and finding a place to put a tall wooden trellis for the winter. He already tried to clean out the front gutters this morning but the leaves had enough water in them to freeze and he couldn’t get them out. Monday is supposed to be 60F, so we’ll have to wait for then. We are almost done for the season! There's barely a leaf left on trees and shrubs. We’re having company tomorrow in the backyard with a fire pit for Hannukah. My daughter already made the Brisket and DH will make the latkes tomorrow. I am really looking forward to it. When we first started getting together in the yard, I was not happy about it, but we got a fire pit and we are all enjoying it much more now that we have that. Even when it's been mid 40s, on days when the sun is out and there's not a lot of wind, it's very comfortable and such a nice change to be outdoors in the fresh air this time of year. And I hate to leave this long post on a Photo Thread with no photos [g] ....so.... My poor broken clay pots. I didn't enjoy them this year in this condition and I'm probably going to just break them up after i empty them. Pennisetum That's Babs on the left, and her brother Fritz on the right. They are such fun company! They love running through the leaves.

Marie, I love your Merry Bells. I just bought one of those and I’m looking forward to next year with it. It’s already past bloom right now and not in the ground yet. Sorry to hear about your Redbud. I had the same trouble with my Japanese Maple ‘Bloodgood’ this year for the first time. It has leafed out but a LOT of dead branches up there in the canopy. I’m going to try to keep it watered well this season which is not easy if we are not getting rain. How do you irrigate your garden? Love your Calycanthus. I added one a few years ago and it was small, it was still getting established and the rabbits ate it down to the ground over the winter. It has come back up and is about 8” high now, but I wonder what the point is if the rabbits will repeat that next year. Thanks for reminding us of Claire! The forum hasn’t been the same without her. I miss her ocean views and her birds, her kind thoughtful posts and her consistent participation. Deanna, Your Sagae looks great, compared to mine, that the rabbits have nibbled around a number of the leaves. Is ‘Blue Moon’ a woodland Phlox or Phlox paniculata? Poor Azalea! I feel like that is going to be my story with the rabbits and my Calycanthus. That ‘pot ghetto’ doesn’t look so bad. I had mine down to zero last year, but I’ve done a lot of transplanting and moving around this spring and I have one started again. Soon to have a LOT more added to it. [g] I’m so sorry that you are having trouble with posting to Houzz. Not in the least surprising, but sad, because there seems to be no hope of them straightening themselves out to offer a better experience. I continue to think they are short staffed and I won’t be surprised if we go to post one day and it doesn’t exist any more. I seem to be able to post and post photos without any issues. It’s only when I need to do a search of the forums that I start getting frustrated. Or try to use the messaging function. And my notifications on comments is hit or miss. But I use my laptop - an Apple. I know some people use a tablet. If you have one, it might work to post from there. I haven’t been posting in part because I’ve been too busy. I was able to hire someone to help in the garden and I have been able to tackle some projects that have been on the back burner for awhile. And I’ve been ripping apart some of my beds, so they haven’t really been great for photos. We are also in the process of getting some of our fencing replaced and I’m going to need to move a LOT of plants that will be in the way, that I don’t want to get trampled in the process. Which is not a bad thing, because it is along a border that needs a complete renovation any way. I’m almost finished with my front bed, except for a new vegetable area that I’m stuck on. I have to do something to protect it from rabbits and the ideas I had to do that are just not working out. But something will work out, it’s just time consuming and not the fun part of gardening. In the mean time I have opted to grow more vegetables in containers this year. My raised beds in the back are just not doing the job any more. Not enough sun, tree roots, and 9 year old wooden beds. That’s about it from here. I would take a few photos but it’s very windy here today. A nice breeze to sit out and enjoy the day but not great for photos. I’ll take some and start a June thread this week. Hope everyone is enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!!