Unplanned September Garden

When I look at my Garden Layouts blog post I laugh. They are mostly different now. When I created them, I wanted the same thing each year. What I have discovered is that I like the surprises my garden has is store. There are certain flowers I always want around, but there are other things I have moved around.

I plant a lot of Mums in September. Mums only bloom for 4 - 6 weeks depending on how bloomed they are when you get them. If you buy them in full bloom you might only get two weeks from them. Because of that I tend to have a September Garden and an October Garden for my main garden. The October Garden will feature dark orange and dark red Mums. The September Garden features yellow Mums and Asters.

This Year

Last Year

I switched the Asters and Mums because the Asters don't last that long. Yellow is my favorite color and it's nice to have yellow Mums in the front on my birthday. The light purple Asters are 'Daydream' Asters and my favorite. Last year's 'Magic' Asters were pretty but I am still drawn to the 'Daydream'.

The decorations light up. They are in the front this year thanks to an extension cord I got last year for the Halloween decoration. That comes out in mid-October on our Anniversary. Not long after that, I get the cabbage. But for now, I start collecting Mums.

This year I have had a lot of unplanned things happen in the garden since the beginning. At first, it was frustrating. As I look around now, I smile at the unplanned. I am leaving space in my garden for these unplanned flowers in the future. It's not that I will plan to get something for this space. I'm just going to leave it open in case I get any more surprises.

Like the peppers. We get peppers for my parent's each year for their anniversary. But I have never gotten them before. The purple beaconed and when Zach asked for one, I couldn't resist. The Mums behind are the First Day of School Mums. They look like they will bloom pink based on the buds. I had no idea what the color would be when planted. I did the same thing last year and got pink too. Ironic how I didn't plan on the same color each year but it just happened.

I didn't plan on getting an extra Mum for myself on my birthday but I had gotten yellow earlier in the day when I couldn't find a mostly unbloomed dark red at one nursery. I ended up getting it later when Zach got his Mums. I like the Dark Red because it will go pretty far into October and the dark red looks great with the yellow Mums and orange and red Mums. It's a good thing I had a place for the yellow Mums from that morning!

It's one of the beautiful things about annuals, your garden changes each year. Perennials look the same each year. I have planted some of them this year too. Including "Walker's Low" Catmint and "Autumn Joy" Sedum. Articles in Fine Gardening inspired them. I thought September would be predictable for my garden. Apparently, I was wrong. GOOD!

Sedum 'Autumn Joy' It's a little darker pink now. It will get bigger. It's an excellent Fall blooming Perennial