Forest Garden

Today: Rattlesnake Ridge, DH & Visitor.

It is a very nice hike through the forest. As it gets closer to the top, the trail does become more steep (or else we were more tired!). And a little geocache hunting. No, they didn't have to move anything. They are just looking from all angles!

Guest Sunflower

During our visit to Seattle yesterday, we saw that many downtown residents are quite the balcony gardeners. However, for this building in Belltown, this sunflower had the show to himself, at least as far as I could see from street level.

Welcome New Geocacher

We have a visitor this week. On her first day, she was introduced by DH to some local geocaches. Other than this one being a big bug, it seems to have been a successful first day out!

I was fascinated with this slug munching clover along the trail. Guess he reminds me of seeing goats and sheep standing on their hind feet to reach the (apparently) more tasty treats overhead.

I'll have some photos from the SAGBUTT arboretum tour later. There was lots of tree inspiration going!

Bloom Day September

It is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. You can find links to many more blooms from her site. Nicotiana and calendula make a nice accidental combination, above.

Here is one of the very, very tall sunflowers growing in the pumpkin patch.

Cosmos, also in the pumpkin patch. You can see a little of a pumpkin in the background.

This is Tip Top Alaska Nasturtium. Notice the varigated foliage. These are compact plants that can be in a variety of colors. I only ended up with this orange one this year.

Black-eyed Susans / Rudbeckia and Echinacea are still the happiest garden residents.

These are some of my flavorites. I really like this time of year (especially when we still have some of these very nice days around) and these bloomers help keep it quite bright.

Sept 20th SAGBUTT - See You There!

The Seattle Area Garden Bloggers United To Talk is planning a trip to Seattle's Washington Park Arboretum this Sunday, Sept. 20th. We're meeting for the standard 11 am guided walk which starts from the Graham Visitors Center, 2300 Arboretum Drive East, in Seattle. The tour may last 60 to 90 minutes. Then, we'll probably find a spot to chat about all things gardening & blogging.

Here's the link for the the tour information. There is also a tour at 1pm.

Thanks to the Gardeness over at Garden Muse for scoping out the options and organizing this visit! Click on the SAGBUTT label, below, to see more posts about our gatherings.

Pumpkins!

There are 4 or 5 of these large, quite orange pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. I think they are a jack-o-lantern type. The small sugar pumpkins are still green. Yes, powdery mildew has arrived.

Rouge Vif d'Etampes still working on their full color.

Looking forward to pumpkin pie!

Lemon Sunflower

So many of my sunflowers are red or partial red. This one in the pumpkin patch stands out for its yellowness. Several of them are over 6 feet (including this one), but none have large flowers this year. May just be the variety. Many are multi-branched, though. This is one from a sunflower seed mixture I purchased from a local grower.

The flowers in the pumpkin patch are the tallest, probably because they are not crowded. They were planted a little late. This is the first in the pumpkin patch to bloom, whereas the self-seeded ones have been blooming since early July.

Click on the label below, Sunflowers, to see other pics.