August is A Great Time to Find End of Season Bargains

We've had a hot summer, which has worn some of us out with watering, but if you watered like I have, your gardens look amazing.  I have to say that I'm very impressed with the way mine looks.

Now that I've had a chance to rest from watering thanks to the recent rain, I've been planning a moon garden.  A moon garden is a garden that consists of plants and trees that have white flowers, and white or grey foliage.  Often times these gardens include flowers that open at night, such as jasmine and moon flowers.

I was able to pick up several items from Ted Hosmer's Nursery, in Henrietta, NY for very reasonable prices. I purchased some shade plants: white bleeding hearts, , and a variegated hosta, one rhododendron and one Japanese dogwood tree, plus one plant for my part sun/part shade woodland garden.  I''ll show photos next year, when everything is in bloom.  The point is that I got off to a great start on my moon garden.  I hope to add to it in the fall when I will be bartering on Craigslist (white coneflowers and anything else I can think of  for my red day lilies).  I also have some shrubs that I plan on moving into the moon garden: a white hydrangea and a Daphne "Carol Makie", which I bought two years ago (end of season sale) at Van Putte's Garden Center in Greece, NY.


Here's a photo of my Daphne "Carol Makie" taken in the spring of this year.

Stop and Cut The Roses

Gardening is a great hobby, I know, because it's my passion.  Only my garden calls me before breakfast, in the dark, in the rain, and I go, and I bend, dig, weed, plant, water (especially this summer) and wack pests, like the greedy Japanese beetles that love to devour my roses.

The one thing we gardeners need to remember is that after the runs to our favorite garden centers, after the trades and buys and sells on Craigslist, we need to remember to stop, and cut the roses, and the daisies and the hydrangeas--you get the picture. 

So, with that in mind, I am sharing some photos of the flowers that I've cut from my garden, starting with with I've cut this week.