A magical evening...

Wildlife Botanical Gardens...

After being driven mad by my two ball chasing Bostons...Mickey and Rosie on Saturday Morning . I   got in the car  and drove to the nearest HPSO garden open, which was just a few miles east in Brush Prarie. Not a private garden but, the Wild Botanical Gardens .  "An all volunteer Not-profit Oranganization whose goal is to educate and encourage homeowers to make their gardens attractive to birds and wildlife" 

A straight gravel path plus volunteers hard at work,  all  nine demonstration gardens  too visit.

Lovely big clump of Miscanthus 'morning light' and 'golden sedum'....many plants have labels 

and lots of seating and picnic tables , which I didn't take enough photos of.

gravel paths and stone paths with plenty of buzzing and flapping of wings and bird song.

I loved this

What a lovely place to spend a few hours 

And after strolling round the different garden rooms, I come to the Compost Demonstration site

So many 

This one was my favorite, reminds me of mine.

On the way home I spotted this , I had to stop.

Not for the Petunias and Marigolds, Philip is aways telling me Mickey and Rosie look like miniture Dairy cows.

Bloomin' Agapanthus in the veg corner...

Agapanthus x' Summer night' bought from the Xera plant shop. Happily beginning to bloom . I hope you will survive through the winter. My others didn't, so I've planted you in my old  blue Terrazzo planter which formally accommodated a family of Bananas... they've all been released into the open.

Purple, bronze with a dab of yellow and maybe a pinch of pink....

It has been threatening a downpour all day, and just after I snapped this pic, it came. Lucky for this new planting. I've jumbled all the greety ones together, to make watering less of a chore. So, here they all are on the shadyside of the Acacia pravissima . And what alot of plants : from top right is Cimicifuga , ' black negligee'  Verbena bonariensis, Fillpendula rubra and a " I didn't plant you Verbascum. Below that on the right a Allium Christopii, Some sort of fern. On the left Brunnera 'Looking glass. The dab of yellow , Saruma Henryi . Bottom right a pinch of pale pinky white Dianthus and the big bronze Ligularia 'Brett -Marie- Crawford'. And if you peek between the plants you'll find Geranium 'Margaret Wison' ,  a selfseeded cosmos, dasies, parsley, and a " I like where you have appeared but  I can't remember planting you" plant . I just love this area...

This is the unknown one, lovely, but I've not a clue. Reminds me of a raspberry.

At last...

Nothing like a good soak to give the garden a little perk up.

How it all began...

Most of these few last weeks I  have happily sat reading, too hot to do any work in the garden ...sit enjoy. Today a few clouds , some rain , wind , a bit chilly. I went out to  pull out some weeds  . Always a mistake...

Over the years I've left this back South facing corner area to itself, mostly Oregon grape , a native,  but with that you also have bramble and bitter sweet nightshade , not so nice with two dogs sniffing about. So in a mad few hours , out it came. Or most of it . Which has now opened up a whole new area ..."Rosie , can you see the potential." ...

One packet of seeds....

One packet of Snapdragon seeds  tossed about a few years ago . The jolliest color combinations popping up in every available space , not always in the most tasteful vingettes ,  still , I've been enjoying them  and leave them to it.

Spanish Oat grass...

Stipa gigantea ...Spanish oat grass is what I asked for a few years ago , after seeing Fergus Garrett running his fingers through it on ' Gardeners World' .  I bought three pots to plant along the length of the walk way at the back of the house. As a sort of  living screen , here it is after three years looking just as I hoped , 

The pokers this evening