moontrail

It was sunny nearly the whole day. And while it was still daylight a while ago, I did a photoshoot of calendula out in the wildflower bed. :) Now it's dark and a full moon has been rising. It looks hazy behind the thin clouds. Meanwhile, Moontrail the unicorn hangs happily in the sky as a constellation.

Within the garden









Leaving the garden and Creation Museum

Moontrail the unicorn will soon be taking off to be a constellation in the night sky for the cold season. Before she does this, however, she'll be spending Thanksgiving Day with Stargazer the unicorn.

She'll likely come down to earth for periods at a time during the winter to be with him.

It was brought to my attention that some foxgloves are short-lived perennials. So I checked it out on the Internet and learned that Strawberry Foxglove is indeed a perennial while the common foxglove is biennial. I have a patch of the common foxglove and a single Strawberry Foxglove growing in the main garden. Since the latter bloomed, perhaps at least one of the seeds dropped from the flowerhead will successfully become a new plant.

We're having a nice Indian summer here and by 10:00 this morning it was warm enough to work some out in the main garden. The sky was blue and the sun bright, and I started with picking some weeds out of the strawberry patch and noted the 'Bouquet' dill growing among it. It had been awhile since I'd weeded and there were many of them, but most not very big. I pulled out the dead pumpkin vine and dug up the rose bush and 'Moonshine' yarrow. Although the rose bush produced pretty pink blooms in the spring, it had been an eye sore for most of the year and I just didn't like it anymore. It grew by the butterfly house and that's where I now just want to grow borage which has popped up there and a simple wildflower or two that will probably come up in that area next year. Something I'll mention here is that the common yarrow I've grown is still a green ferny carpet while the 'Moonshine' yarrow had browned up. Oh, it probably would have come back, but I just didn't want that plant anymore, either. And by the way, the common yarrow patch still has some white blooms hanging on.

The patch of common foxglove looks really healthy and green and they are a good size. Of course, this herb is a biennial so they should sail through the winter and then reward me with a lovely mass of flowers come spring. The one Strawberry foxglove that's growing alongside that patch is also doing well still. However, it bloomed for me this year and so its life cycle should end once it gets cold enough. Meanwhile the young dogwood tree in a nearby corner has a few red leaves hanging on and the corkscrew willow has dropped yellow leaves into the garden. At one point during my gardening day, a blue jay squawked. It was perched on a honeysuckle branch.

As I was pulling or digging, I discovered that wild onion has popped up here and there. I like the smell of the stuff. I also enjoyed the smell of dill as I weeded among it and there's a soft ferny carpet of the common variety on the other side of the garden. The autumn season has turned bits of the dill leaves to colors of red, plum, and bronze. Some even looked pink! The 'Bells of Ireland' are dried and browned up and the seed of it by now must be scattered into the soil. Meanwhile, the 'Jewel of Africa' nasturtium flowers are still bright and fresh and there's quite a few left. I noticed that a lot of those blooms are a bright goldish yellow. Next year I don't want any nasturtiums growing where they're at now in the main garden. Instead I want to grow pumpkins in their place. If you remember the leek that I grew this year, it's still out there and it's green.

As for the wildflower garden behind the unattached garage, it's adorned with colors of purple, white, orange, yellow, and blue from cosmos, calendula and centaura. Then add to that the faded pink blooms of 'Cherry Rose' nasturtium which were attracting the honeybees. I dug up some mallow out of that bed.

And in the little garden in front of the greenhouse, there's an aloe plant that I've never brought in and the Texas terragon is still crowned with bright orange-yellow flowers. Meanwhile, the prickly pear sports a reddish fruit. And now I want to share that a new columbine has come up from seed in the fairy garden. I'm assuming that the seed has dropped from one of the yellow flowers of the columbine that's already there, and not from a columbine seed I've sown previously. But it would be lovely to see a columbine with blooms of a different color growing by that yellow-flowering one.

On a final note, it was after 4:30 in the afternoon when I came in from gardening for the day. It had cooled down a little and there was some cloud coverage. :)

I've snipped three bright orange pumpkins from the vine. :)

I heated up some milk in a cup with honey and it tasted good.

Things are interesting for Moontrail the unicorn right now. She's looking forward to flying over the farms and orchids this month to check out the pumpkin patches and fall festivals that will be happening below. When she does this she'll have her fairy friends in tow so that she'll remain invisible while flying overhead.

Meanwhile, Moontrail and Stargazer the stallion unicorn are becoming better friends and today they even had a nice picnic together. Interestingly, Stargazer doesn't have wings like Moontrail does so he won't be along for her flight trip over the farms and orchids. (Some unicorns have wings and some don't). However, they plan to do some walking around together during at least one of these autumn festivals. Of course, the fairies will be in tow to keep them both invisible to the humans. :)

Tonight a bright full moon shines over my pumpkin patch in the main garden. Meanwhile, the two pie pumpkins I bought last month sit quietly in the fairy garden behind a little gnome who is sitting on her own little pumpkin.

Two pie pumpkins were purchased this evening to be added to the fairy garden- one being smaller than the other. :)

Moontrail the unicorn will like this. And so will the fairies who like to sit on pumpkins and hang out.