September Rains

From the front porch.

 

September has been a very rainy month this year. Historically, my birthday month in this area is quite dry, with an average of 3.8 inches of rainfall, but this year my home weather station recorded 7.45 inches! Most of it came down over two very stormy days and nights, several weeks apart. We had over three inches in one night earlier in the month, and yesterday's rainfall was over two inches! It's great for the garden--all vegetation, but specially trees, really benefit from a wet fall season.

 

The back yard on Sept 30.

The front yard, Sept 30.

The cooler night temperatures have started to bring out the fall colors: the sumac in my back yard has turned deep red, the dogwoods a lovely scarlet, and even some branches of the oaks beyond are starting to change color. I'm hoping we'll have a colorful fall season this year--last year was such disappointment for "leafers" who love the fall colors, myself included.

My veggie patch with wax bean plants.

The harvest.

After harvesting the garlic in late June, I planted some wax beans in one row of the raised bed (the English peas were still occupying the rest of the space). I nursed the plants through the July heat and drought and started harvesting the wax beans in late August. These are continuing to produce--above is this morning's harvest, enough for several meals--I had no idea wax beans would be so productive! I'll definitely grow these again next year.

Viola odorata 'Queen Charlotte'

 

My recently-planted Parma violet 'Queen Charlotte' loved the rain--I bought it for its fragrance, but I've yet to get a scent from it. It hasn't produced many flowers so far, perhaps a certain number of blossoms are needed to produce the classic scent? I'm hoping it will eventually spread to make a dainty ground cover with clouds of lovely fragrance.

 

Herb's bed and the Little Indians

 

During this season, the yellow Chrysanthemums in Herb's bed and the purple asters (Symphyotrichum laeve) in the far side of the Little Indians bed predominate, while the swamp sunflowers (Helianthus angustifolius) and the leaves of the bluestar (Amsonia hubrichtii) turning gold add to the display. Last fall I transplanted some of the swamp sunflower plants from the west side of the house to these beds and they have grown well in their new sites, though not as tall as the ones growing near the house.

 

Swamp sunflowers by the house.

 

Painting demo at Art at the Mill.

 

This past Sunday was my assigned day for a painting demonstration and sale for Art at the Mill, at the Burwell-Morgan Mill in nearby Millwood. This year, the Art at the Mill spring show was cancelled due to the Covid-19 situation. For the fall, in order to avoid large crowds, the show organizers decided to try a new format, booking one artist per day (afternoon) to do a demonstration and bring some of their art to sell. 

 The day dawned very foggy and overcast, and I was afraid that my watercolors wouldn't dry well under such conditions, but fortunately as the afternoon wore on, it cleared up and I was able to do my demo just fine. Just enough people stopped by for me to sell two works, and I had a great challenge painting my beautiful red Dahlias! 

Cathy Kuehner, a photographer who works with the Clarke County Historical Association (the show sponsors), came by and took this photo, and kindly allowed me to use it for my blog. You can visit the CCHA Facebook page here.