Fall Sketches and Harvest

Crabapple Branch, colored pencil on cream Stonehenge paper, 14" x 11"

 

 Even when staying busy in my garden, I try to devote some time to my artwork. Above is a colored pencil piece I'm working on. It's not finished yet--the colored pencils need to be burnished, and I think that adding a bird to the branch might provide a focal point. Perhaps adding a cedar waxwing, or another small native that likes to snack on crabapples.

Sassafras Leaf, watercolor, 12" x 9"

This sassafras leaf just starting to turn was painted at Lynne Frailing's workshop in Bath County back in September. I drove down to spend the night at the Sycamore Bend Cottage on Amanda's farm so that I could make it to the workshop in Warm Springs the next morning on time. We had a lot of fun with the material Lynne brought in for us to paint, but I didn't have time to finish the leaf during the workshop--I finished it later here at home. It's still a very loose painting, not exactly polished--really just a sketch.

Magnolia Seedpod, pencil with watercolor pencils, 5" x 7"

 

The weather has been so glorious recently, that I've been stopping by Blandy Farm/Virginia State Arboretum frequently to take walks and sketch. On this occasion, I came across a group of magnificent Magnolias, both the M. grandiflora seen above, but some other more exotic varieties, including one called Veitch's Magnolia. This one has some very unusual seedpods, irregularly long and thin, with very pronounced aril bumps. Unfortunately, by the following week when I went back there, this deciduous magnolia was completely bare! I guess I can do a sketch from my photo, or wait until next year!

Veitch's Magnolia

 I started harvesting my Jerusalem artichokes (AKA sunchokes) and fingerling potatoes last week, and enjoying cooking these home-grown veggies. My sunchokes, part of the sunflower family, never had a chance to bloom--the deer kept eating the buds until I finally moved the grow-bag into my fenced enclosure. I'll definitely grow both of these again next season, they are delicious!

Jerusalem artichokes from my garden.

Fingerling potatoes.

As the colder weather approaches, I'll be spending more time in my studio. I've so many new projects to look forward to!

Fall Flowers

Swamp sunflowers (Helianthemum angustifolium) by the house.

 

As my birthday comes around once more, the season is marked by some of my favorite fall flowers. First to bloom are the swamp sunflowers, with their cheerful, airy scapes, then the chrysanthemums and the asters. The smooth blue aster (Symphyotrichum laeve) blooms earlier--the flower spikes tend to be tall and slender, but this year, mine were eaten back by deer, and thus pruned, they barely peek out from under the Amsonia behind them.

 

Symphyotrichum laeve with yellowing leaves of Amsonia hubrichtii.

Colchicum 'Waterlily'

The Colchicum 'Waterlily' flowers were spectacular, if short-lived--three gorgeous flowers emerged on leafless stalks. The leaves will sprout in the spring, grow, and then disappear. No signs of the saffron I planted in a wire cage in the back bed this year--Herb caught sight of a squirrel digging up the bulbs I had planted in pots and despite covering those with wire cloches, there's yet a flower to appear. Maybe the squirrels have already eaten all the blooming-size bulbs.

 

Red  'Double Knockout' rose

After a very wet September, the roses are re-blooming. The red 'Double knockout' roses in front look particularly lovely with the amber foliage of the dogwood. My Chrysanthemums were mostly a disaster this year--the plants burned so much during the summer drought, that very few buds were left intact, and the foliage all browned out. To console myself I bought a new pink mum at a garden center, and an ornamental kale. The two complement each other perfectly!

Pink mum with ornamental kale.

The aromatic asters (Symphyotrichum oblongiflolium) usually open a couple of weeks after the swamp sunflowers and last until well into November. In the two weeks since I started writing this post, the asters have opened just as the sunflowers begin to fade.

 

Aromatic aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium)

Close-up of the aromatic asters

October dawns on the front garden.

Despite the warm days, in the past two weeks the dogwood tree in front has gone from amber to burnished red, and most of the potted plants that I grow outside are beginning to die back. The cherry tree is turning gold. My pot-grown red Dahlia finally produced a few blooms--well worth the wait!

 

Red Dahlia

 

The weather has been so warm recently, and many of the summer-flowering plants I put in this year didn't start blooming until recently. The Calendula 'Neon', eaten back by the deer until I protected it, didn't produce many blooms until a few weeks ago; the perennial red Salvia planted this year is only now covered with blooming spikes. A shame that these will soon be cut down by the first frost, just as they're looking their best!

 

Calendula 'Neon' grown from seed.

Beautyberry 'Early Amethyst' (Callicarpa dichotoma)

 

Today the air is crisp and much cooler, it feels like the first really autumnal day. The frosts will arrive soon, and usher in the closing chapter of another season in my garden.

A Giant Falls

The remains of a giant oak after the storm.

 

I'm reminded of the old philosophical question,"If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?" The top of one of the four old oaks in our back yard snapped off yesterday during a horrific thunderstorm. I was so busy closing windows and mopping up the water that was coming in, that I never noticed the moment when the tree fell, or if it made any noise! With the sound of the howling storm, neither did Herb. After more than an inch of rain falling horizontally and our aluminum garden bench sliding again from one side of the deck to the other, hail began to fall--pea shooter size and up, pelted everything until the deck was white with hailstones.

It wasn't until after the storm had passed and I went out on the deck to pick up the potted plants that had been knocked and scattered around that I looked up and saw the tree trunk--what a sight!

 

The oak tree last fall

 

This was the tallest of the four oak trees in the strip of woods at the back of our property. The birds loved to perch on it, woodpeckers and perhaps owls nested in the cavities in the trunk. To see the trunk sheared off like that was quite a shock! I had expected the tree to eventually lose its top, but more gradually, big branch by branch. We had several large branches come down from another of the oaks back there last winter, and it was shocking to see that tree lose about fifteen feet of its top branches in one fell swoop. Having this one lose the entire top in one storm was mind-boggling!

 

Top half of the oak tree.

Even more amazing was that fortunately, it fell towards the back slope instead of into my garden. This morning I went out to survey the damage, and found the top half of the oak tree just a few feet from the remaining trunk. You can clearly see how the wind twisted and sheared the trunk where it had been hollowed out. As it fell, it must have struck the dead hickory tree that had been there for several years and brought it down too.

Fallen oak trunk and dead hickory trunk.

Perhaps it was the dead hickory that checked the descent of the oak, helping both massive trunks to stay within this area. I was afraid that the trees might be blocking the drainage ditch at the back, but again fortunately, the trunks seem to have fallen at such an angle that they didn't block the drainage.

Upper part of the oak tree.

The drainage ditch.

I'm so grateful that the damage wasn't worse, and that we won't have to pay someone to cut and clear out a big tree from our yard. Back there, the dead trunks can rot in place undisturbed without causing any problems for us or the neighborhood. As the wood rots, it will feed fungi and other organisms to enrich the soil.

Strangely shaped puff ball fungi.

Speaking of fungi, I came across this strange vase-shaped fungi that I think is a puffball fungus while I was poking about in the woods. There are so many different species of puffball fungi that I can't venture a guess as to which it might be. I also came across some reindeer moss flourishing back there and some lovely wood asters (now Symphyotrichum genus).

Reindeer moss (Cladonia rangiferina)

Wood asters (Symphyotrichum cordifolium)

With the big oak gone, there will be a lot more sunshine in that part of the woods, and there are several other smaller trees that will eventually fill in the space. Nature is ever-evolving, but it will take me some time to get used to the change of backdrop to my garden.