Saturday Early Morning Garden Blogging Vol. 18.41 A Fall Collection from Central NYS

Starting with “across the ocean”, here’s a photo for all you tomato lovers. Lots of red, orange red, orange and yellow here. This is from a friend in Sweden who grows lots of Tomatoes and Sunflowers. She’s also a seed saver.

And one of her beautiful Sunflowers from this summer….it looks so soft and fluffy.

A couple weeks ago, I took a walk to the nearby community garden. From the looks of so many of the garden plots, it was a tough season for most. Some gardens looked abandoned. We had a low level drought and too many days at 90 or near so. I am guessing that trying to water the gardens farthest from the water sources was just too hard for many gardeners. I did see this lovely green squash on the vine in one plot. Looks like an Acorn winter squash.

Not far from the community gardens is one of my favorite flower gardens. This tree actually has Christmas ornaments on it year round! Not sure if the berries will last until December. Hungry birds and squirrels will enjoy a colorful meal.

Going east from my street is our fun main thoroughfare. It is split by the stream that runs through the neighborhood. A gardening organization keeps up the gardens where there are turnaround cut throughs. We have famous birdhouses. (I did another blog on those last year.) The church birdhouse is across the street from the Episcopal Church and has a matching red door. This garden was particularly nice this year in spite of the hot and dry conditions.

This poor birdhouse needs a serious pruning! What is that vine???

Some of the garden plots along this street have beautiful Hibiscus flowers. This one was about as big as a restaurant sized salad plate. You really have to see these flowers in person. They are utterly spectacular.

Some of the streamside gardens have perennials, including decorative Grasses, Coneflowers (Echinacea), and Brown-Eyed Susans. The rock details are a nice touch.

These flowers were holding up nicely in spite of the lack of rain. And being next to the street would have added reflecting heat.

One more! You can see these are quite good sized gardens for the organization to maintain.

Back at my house, my 9×12 foot vegetable garden patch struggled in the heat and dry conditions even with regular watering. I did get Green Beans (along the fence), Lacinto Kale and and Dwarf Collards, Swiss Chard. Between the Green Beans and Kale/Collards is a row of yellow Carrots. They were small but very tasty and the carrot tops were nice in stir frys with other greens. On the right is a zucchini. I got about six. I think next year I will plan one or two in large pots in a sunnier location. On the left is a tall dill herb. I had more that you can’t see in this photo.

Also in the vegetable garden but out of view to the right, I had several Anise Hyssop. It apparently is NOT related to regular Hyssop but both are in the Mint family. Pollinator’s LOVE Anise Hyssop. Deer HATE it according to comments online. It produces lots of tiny black seeds that I’m saving to plant in areas that the Deer like to check out for a “buffet” meal. Not if I can help it! Oh, and those seeds can even go into cookies. I saw a recipe for anise seed shortbread cookies. YUM!

And when I need a break on a nice, sunny day, here is where I go to sit on a decorative bench. I will have to take a photo of that next time. This is the pond in the park across the street. It’s actually part of a county flood control basin. The stream that splits the street where the birdhouses and gardens are located comes through the pond at both ends. Very often in the Spring and Fall, you will see some interesting migrating ducks. I have spotted a Northern Shoveler and Ring Necked ducks.

That’s it for now! Thanks for visiting. We’re here every Saturday.Tell us what’s going on this Fall in your garden or gardens in your neighborhood. And, as always, we LOVE photos!