A WALK AROUND THE YARD, AUTUMN EDITION ~~ PARTING SHOT

A WALK AROUND THE YARD, AUTUMN EDITION

Back in the summer when everything was in full bloom, I liked to take a walk around the yard and photograph all the pretty flowers. By now they are almost all gone, save for a few die-hards that are refusing to give up.

The Gallardia plant is very resilient!

Seed heads are abundant this time of year, and that's a good thing. They provide needed nourishment for the birds, and the seeds that don't get eaten fall off the seed head onto the ground, reseeding the plant again for next Spring. This is the way we get a lot of volunteer plants in our yard. It's a win-win situation, food for the birds and free plants for us! Click here on the link to read an interesting article about this process.

Gallardia seed head

Some plants produce seed, but do not reseed themselves. They still provide food for the birds, and beautiful color for us to enjoy. Another win-win situation!

Dwarf Japanese Barberry seeds

One of the most stunning plants in the autumn and winter landscape, at least in our yard, is the Pyracantha bush (<--link), also called Firethorn. I believe that we always had a pyracantha bush in our yard in Lumberton. I have seen pictures of huge pyracanta bushes outside the house we lived in when I was a small child. My mother had a couple of them at our house on 14th Street. Linda and I planted one at our house on 17th Street, because it is a prerequisite when you live in the South to have one in your yard. When we moved to Yakima, we planned to have a pyracantha hedge along the back of our property, but the bushes we planted kept dying on us over the cold winters. A friend gave us a bush that was growing in the wild, and we finally got one that we bought to survive. So now we have two. When the berries are fully ripe in the winter, they are a brilliant red.

Pyracantha berries in their Autumn garb

Take a look at the Gallardia seed head above, and then look at this picture below of a Rudbekia (Black-Eyed Susan) seed head. The flowers from these plants are very similar, but when you focus down onto the seed heads, you can see that they are different. These seed heads seem to be more compact with many more seeds than the Gallardia has.

Rudbekia seed head

This picture below shows some dried up Golden Currant berries. The seeds for this plant are located  inside the berries. These berries provide food for the birds, and if I have the energy to pick them off of the stems, (a very tedious task), I can make jam out of the berries.

Golden Currant berries

Although the brown seed heads and Golden Currant berries add textural interest to the landscape, they do not add much in the way of color. That is taken care of by some of our other plants that still have their leaves. In the past couple of weeks the color on the Drinking Gourd hosta has intensified into a beautiful deep yellow/gold. This close-up of a leaf below shows the seersucker look that this particular hosta leaf possesses. The cupped form of the leaf entraps rainwater and is often used by birds for drinking or taking a bath.

Drinking Gourd hosta

Close-up of Drinking Gourd hosta leaf

The top picture above of the hosta was taken last Friday. I took this picture below this morning. The increasingly cooler temperatures have changed the color of this hosta in just a few days.

Drinking Gourd hosta today

The little Dwarf Japanese Barberry bush that we have in our front yard is absolutely gorgeous this time of year, with green and yellow foliage and bright red berries.

Dwarf Japanese Barberry

Our Catalpa tree in the back yard has survived another year of dropping a lot of its leaves during the summer. This time of year it also drops leaves, but that is a normal thing. It looks like we will be having a raking party soon!

Catalpa leaves in back yard

PARTING SHOT

Since the temperatures are starting to consistently drop, Summer Girl has taken to her favorite spot for the next few months...except for when she is inside sitting on my lap and trying to bite me!

Snug as a bug in a rug

That's all for this week, my friends. Check back again next week to see what's up around these parts!