The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Monthly Archives: October 2016

Friday musings

Posted on by Posted in My garden .

Some Friday thoughts.

I’ve complained many times in the past about my difficulty in eradicating Northern Sea Oats from my garden. I’ve still fighting that battle but damn, if they don’t look good right now, especially with the morning frost.

insta-oct-4

 

Geraniums offer up great fall color and I’m thinking about taking advantage of that next year. I’m not sure how yet, but it has been added to the many off season design topics to be discussed within my own head on nights I cannot sleep.

insta-oct-2

 

I kid you not. Another design item in the hopper is more moss. I wish this was from my own garden. I want this as a focal point. I want to better understand how to grow moss or create the conditions where moss will thrive.

insta-oct

 

Any idea what this is? I’ve seen many of his brethren of late and I’m thinking they’re really cool or a really bad sign. Probably both.

insta-oct-3

Ok truth? I wanted to show you some of my latest Instagram pics and came up with stories around them to fool you into believing the story was the lead and not the photos.

Fooling you isn’t the right way to put it. The stories are legit, they were just prompted by the photographs.

Never mind.

Have a great weekend and my apologies for being such a narcissist.

Frost

Posted on by Posted in Fall color, Ornamental grass .

The sight of frost this morning was jarring.

frozen-garden

 

The autumn sun so low, feeling like I could swat it if I had a running start.

frost-garden

 

While I could see winter sneakily approaching through my back woods, autumn is all like “I ain’t going anywhere yet.”

frost-garden-8

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I wish morning frost was available year round. It beautifully outlines the leaves and stems.

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northern-sea-oats-frozen

 

This is only one reason why we don’t cut down the perennials until spring.

frozen-seedhead

frozen-seedhead-2

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fall Garden

Posted on by Posted in Fall color .

We are in peak fall garden time right now:

As if we needed another reason to love on Panicum ‘Northwind’, look at that golden fall color. Phenomenal.

northwind-fall

 

Grasses. Yeah.

fall-garden-3

 

 

Hydrangea and Panicum.

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Andropogon (Big Bluestem) ‘Red October’

big-bluestem-fall

 

Schizachyrium (Little Bluestem) ‘Blue Heaven’

little-bluestem-fall

 

Pennisetum ‘Hameln’

pennisetum-fall

 

Panicum ‘Heavy Metal’, I think. Missed this one on the spreadsheet a few years back.

panicum-fall

 

Amsonia hubrichtii. Not quite in peak fall form yet.

amsonia-fall

 

Fothergilla ‘Mt. Airy’ emerging between an endless collection of you guessed it, ornamental grasses.

fothergilla-fall

 

Ninebark ‘Diablo’ showing its first signs of decay. Albeit a good decay.

ninebark-fall

 

The fall color on Geranium ‘Brookside’ is underrated.

geranium-fall

 

Red Maple ‘October Glory’ in all its … October … glory.

maple-tree-fall

maple-tree-fall-2

 

Viburnum carlesii ‘Aurora’ making the turn towards leaf drop time.

viburnum-fall

 

And finally, Phlox subulata (Moss Phlox) with a subtle yet impactful foliage change that reminds me we are in the home stretch every time I walk out of my front door.

moss-phlox-fall

QOTD: What is the most underrated fall foliage star in your garden?

 

A weekend fishing trip

Posted on by Posted in Comedy .

I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you all before and if not, I apologize in advance. I just thought it was important that you get to know a side of me that I don’t talk about very often on this blog. Revealing this side of me will hopefully serve in providing a richer blog experience for us all.

I am super masculine.

You may have sensed it as it palpably oozed off of these pages the past few years, but if you were unaware, you now know.

Getting this off of my chest allows me to take this blog in new and exciting directions. I’ll talk guy stuff like cars and engines and hunting and MMA fighting and motorcycles and meat. It will be killer and I hope you’ll ultimately agree.

This past weekend I flexed my manliness muscles in a big way with three days of fishing in Long Beach Island, NJ. The ultimate boys weekend. Fish guts, bait, beer, potato chips, football, farting and fist bumps.

Luckily for you, I captured the debauchery on camera so you could feel like you were right there with us.

Cheers.

Right off the bat, I made sure to capture my exploits on Instagram. Wait, what? Fishermen don’t drink local craft beers and then flaunt it on Instagram using the X-Pro II filter?

fishing-8

 

Oh, the goal is to catch more than one fish? So I shouldn’t be proud of the lone bluefish I caught? You can’t imagine the fight this one put up. Epic.

fishing-7

 

Is it safe to assume the same goes for my father as well? Isn’t the expectation of more than one fish caught over three days a wee bit high?

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Next thing you’ll tell me is that selfies on the beach are a no-no as well. That beard looks solid though, doesn’t it? Did you say neck beard?

fishing-5

 

It took me a while to set up this vignette on the tackle holder thing. I like how the ruggedness of the knife is offset by the soft curvature of the shell.

fishing

 

I’m still not sure what the purpose of this “weight” thing is but it sure looks cool with an ocean backdrop in this shot.

fishing-4

 

I love the way the tree branches frame the entryway to the ocean  … I mean, let’s cast our rigs f’ers.

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I had no idea shasta daisies could grow in the sand. I’d plant more to soften the edges of the decking.

fishing-2

So what are your first impressions? Excited about the new blog direction?

Early morning garden photos

Posted on by Posted in Fall color, My garden .

After a morning of panic because my son slept through two alarms and then awe at his ability to shower, shave, get dressed and eat breakfast in 7 minutes and then seeing him off to the high school bus after ensuring there were no clowns hanging at the edge of the woods with Snickers bars, I grabbed my camera and took the following photos.

Hope you enjoy.

front-bed-fall

 

fog-front-bed-flame

 

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foggy-morning-panicum

 

indian-panicum-grass

 

spider-web

 

panicum-fog

 

bee-balm-webs

 

andropogon-grass-fog

 

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The grasses take the lead role

Posted on by Posted in Garden memoir, My garden, Ornamental grass .

A few thoughts for today:

  • Doesn’t this picture make you a little bit sad?

blue-fortune-agastache

I cut back this one Agastache to the ground a few weeks back because it was dried to a crisp and did it ever put on nice new growth in no time. And then just this week this one bloom appeared. It feels so bittersweet since the real cold weather is just around the corner.

Valiant effort little guy.

  • Is there a better name than Flame Grass for this one?

flame-grass

True story: An unknown civilian called me over to their car in front of my home the other day. I assumed they were going to ask for directions but then realized, no one does that any more with Google and GPS right? I prepared for the worst and even prepared for an evil clown to emerge only to have them ask, “What is that bush over there? It is stunning.”

“Sir, that is Miscanthus purpurascens or Flame Grass for you common folk.”

  • A close 2nd to the “best looking ornamental grass right now” is Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium).

little-blustem

Tremendous coloration, especially when back lit by the late afternoon sun.

  • This combination of Blue Grama Grass (Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’) and an Anemone I have no memory of ever planting has been fun. I couldn’t recreate this effect if I tried.

blonde-anemone

It is better to be lucky than good.

  • The Obedient plant (Physostegia ‘Vivid’) has easily quadrupled in size in the past two years and is a unique bloom color this time of year.

amsonia-obedient

  • And finally, I would be super appreciative if you could read my latest post over at Medium.com: How losing my wallet made my life easier. This may sound crazy, but the content and style of this article is one that I’m strongly considering for a book. If you do check it out, I would love for you to click on the little heart at the bottom of the story. That greatly helps me with getting others to read it as well. And as always, let me know what you think, good or bad. I need the feedback, desperately.
  • I lied, one more. I hopefully fixed the issue with the subscription pop-up but need your confirmation that it is in fact working again. Let me know in the comments section if you have a minute.

Thank you and have a hell of a day.