Tuesday, October 11, 2011

85° in October! A Walk Around Town

Beautiful double peach-colored Hibiscus flowering beside a grouping of pretty pale yellow wicker chairs. This setting is in front of a small boutique in the town center. The colors really compliment each other. A touch of purple Ageratum at the bottom anchors the garden nicely.

OCTOBER 11, 2011—As I've mentioned before on the blog, I've been walking a lot lately, 2-3 hours every day. I bring my trusty Kodak digital camera with me, and usually shoot 50-100 photos every day. These selections are from around town in the past few days. Even though it's mid-October, temperatures have been in the 70s and 90s recently, with nighttime temps in the upper 40s. The growing season is still going strong. I hope it continues for another month!

There is a small, beautiful flower garden in front of a local restaurant, including many Hibiscus plants, Ageratum, New Guinea Impatiens, Tea roses, ornamental grasses and several other annuals. The garden is in a cutout of the sidewalk, right in the town center.

Ornamental grasses and a burning bush, (Euonymus) look great together on the waterfront property.

Closeup view of the Euonymus, above. The leaves turn bright red, early in Fall, and the shrub has distinctive edgy, almost triangular shaped stems, not smooth like most shrubs.

June's Blue Cheese pumpkin looks great next to my similar colored ceramic planter of lavender Asters and the ancient stone steps that are featured at Pink Gardens. She bought me a similar pumpkin, too. My favorite variety!

I'm pretty sure I photographed this New York Aster last year, too. It's a spectacular perennial, measuring almost four-feet wide and four-feet high, of almost solid purple at this time of year. I really want one next year!

A tiny clump of mushrooms growing at the base of a huge old tree. It reminded me of those European villages that are tightly clustered at the base of the Alps.

Another Hibiscus in front of the restaurant mentioned above. It looks great next to that magenta Coleus.

A Montauk Daisy growing in front of a gourmet deli. The white picket fence behind it is a nice touch.

A nice porch arrangement at a beach house. The small Boxwoods on the right, browned from the saltwater flooding of Irene, will probably be fine next year. Many homes along the shore now have these colorful arrangements of annuals covering up their post-Irene plantings. Ornamental peppers, pumpkins, gourds, and a splendid bicolor Chrysanthemum work well with the iron planter, brick retaining wall and cedar shingles.

Gerbera daisies in a bright red, coexists with silver-green Artemesia and a variegated annual of unknown name.

7 comments:

  1. IF I HAD A BUCKET LIST, YOU'D BE ON IT.

    THE SHOTS ARE SO PERFECT. I'VE LEARNED SO MUCH FROM YOU SINCE COMING TO YOUR BLOG.IT GETS ME AWAY FROM ALL THE CRAP WE HAVE TO LOOK AT AND READ ON THE COMPUTER PLUS,NEWSPAPERS EVERYDAY.I'M A NATURALIST, ONE WHO LOVES PLANTS AND ANIMALS.ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUTDOORS.

    THANKS AGAIN FOR SHARING.

    GRANNY

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're entirely welcome, Granny. I love what I do here!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I might have seen a Smurf crawl out of one of those tiny mushrooms, lol.

    Do Blue Cheese pumpkins looks the same in side as an Orange one?

    Awesome pictures Casey!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know what, Woody? I'm not sure! Last year I left mine on the porch until the frost got it and then I just threw it away. I'll cut mine open this year later, and find out. Good question! I want to save the seeds for next year and try again to grow them. I can also ask June about the innards. She saved her seeds from last year, and we had several plants with really numerous flowers, but no little fruit ever developed. We wonder if the pumpkins could possibly have been irradiated or something before they got to the store.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have a bag of pumpkin seeds left over from a recent outing. I'm finding a bit difficult to dissect the seeds and eat the inside, otherwise the entire shell is saturated in salt.

    Have you ever tried carving out anything interesting with pumpkins for Halloween?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I haven't tried carving a pumpkin as an adult. Might be fun!

    Try this with those pumpkin seeds. Rinse them to get the salt off, then mix a little olive oil on them and bake them in the oven for about 45 minutes, Turn them over a couple of times. They'll get brittle and tasty. Then I put them in a food processor and chop them up to the consistency of large bread crumbs. I think they're delicious that way, and easier to eat than trying to deal with the shells full size.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi Everyone - hey, Casey thanks for supplying me with desktop backgrounds for the next 100 years. So beautiful. Love the hibiscus. We should hold a pumpkin contest, recent years I enjoy painting pumpkins more than carving, less messy. Your Blue Cheese pumpkin would be a perfect background for one of 'Casey's Signature Artworks'...

    ReplyDelete