October’s Garden

Coral vine with two bumble bees by the new blue gate-trellis.

Honestly, September got away from me.  I’m not sure where it went, but I know much of my time was spent watering plants because it hardly rained here despite rain falling all around us.

On the sunny side, because there was no rain, I was able to get several projects completed.  For example, I scraped and painted my used & rusty patio table and four chairs. I’m very pleased with the outcome considering the bad shape these were in.

I also ordered three boxwoods (Buxus sempervirens ‘Skywalker’) from Park Seed and have planted one.  I’m using one of these to screen part of my backyard from the new deck my neighbor, John, built.  The other two boxwoods will be planted by another area of the fence that needs screening. I’m still planning to put up lattice and privacy flags as the boxwoods will take awhile to get big.

This particular boxwood has a tall conical shape.

I’m also painting two gates that will eventually become trellises.

Below are two “befores” of my unpainted gate:

And here are two “afters” of the one I’ve finished:

A few weeks ago, I found a lantern by the curb on Garbage Day.  It had no glass and was rather scuffed.  I decided the lantern was a good candidate for use in the garden, and here are the results:

I used hardware cloth to replace the glass and mounted the lantern on one of my fence posts, which I painted black.  Just today, I added a black cast iron plant hook to the post.  More photos to come at a later date.

Finally, despite the fact that my garden is still in its infancy, I’m proud to say I do have a few plants in bloom this month:

Above: Butterfly weeds (Variety unknown.  These were cuttings given to me by a neighbor.)

Antique rose, Mrs. Dudley Cross, above.

Autumn aster purchased last fall at the Stephen F. Austin University plant sale.

As Bugs Bunny would say, “That’s All Folks!”  Happy blogging!