Seasons Changing 2
Posted on by Yael Ben-Ari

Signs Of Autumn

The Seasons Are A’ Changin’.   I can’t believe that summer is almost over.  It is Labor Day, after all.  My tomatoes are producing beautifully in my garden.  My dahlias are still blooming, but signs of Autumn are about.  The summer has gone all too quickly.

Seasons Changing
Seasons Changing

My Crocosmia Lucifer, so beautiful a month ago, is showing signs of tired and browning foliage.  The leaves on my humongous Burning Bush are showing flickers of red.  One of the grasses in my back yard, whose foliage, turns bright red in fall is beginning to show signs of red streaks.  And my Zebra Grass, which does not show it’s stripes until fall, is now showing some of it’s stripiness.

Seasons Changing 2
Seasons Changing 2

Down the block, foliage on some of my neighbors’ trees are beginning to turn red, as are some of the trees on the way to the freeway.

Confused Plants
Confused Plants

On the other hand, some of the plants in my yard seem a little confused as to the season.  The foxglove blooming by my trash bin, has nice new blooms.  Some of my strawberries are flowering again and even have small fruit.  And my walking onion recently started to show improved foliage and is now blooming again.  Will someone tell them it’s Fall.

Renovated Iris Bed and Bottle Border

Bottle Border and Bed
Bottle Border and Bed

Elsewhere in my garden, the tired irises in this bed have been dug up and are just awaiting me renovating their bed and making way for three shrubs that have waited till the heat of summer is done.  I have dug up the beds, gotten rid of the weeds and started a bottle border.

I ran out of bottles, so that will be a work in progress.  In the meantime, I plan to get some blocks to complete the bed.  We are ordering some topsoil mixed with compost to fill the bed a little fuller.  Then the irises go back in.

The stepping stones will get some weedblock fabric to go underneath.   The weed grasses have driven me crazy.

How I Made The Bottle Border (at least the start of the bottle border)

.  I marked off the line where I wanted to make the border

.  Then I dug into the soil along that line to form the start of a trench.

.  Next I soaked this with water and dug deeper into the soil along the trench line.

,  I repeated this step several times until the resulting trench was deep enough to insert the bottles.

.  Then I inserted empty wine bottles one by one, using the last bottle as a guide for the next and the bottles were touching or nearly touching.

.  After all of the bottles were inserted, I leveled the bottles so that they all reached the same height (or almost)

.  Then I backfilled the trench with the dirt that had been removed to stabilize the bottles.

.  Then I resoaked the area so that any remaining air pockets would be filled up.

.  When I have more bottles, I will finish the border and then move on to the next bed (on the other side of the stepping stones.)

I  hope to have this finished soon, along with the rest of the bed and replanting my irises and new shrubs.

Happy Labor Day!

 

 

29 Replies to “Signs Of Autumn”

    1. Snap,

      The bottle border was fun to do, and remains a work in progress. My new toy is the mosaic maker, with which I have had fun playing.

      Yael

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    1. Thanks. I hope your weekend has been wonderful as well. I am finally sitting down after going for brick oven pizza at a winery here in the willamette Valley and one more addition to my wine bottle border.

      Yael

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  4. What a fun bottle boarder. We were up in the mountains last weekend and the leaves were already in full color up high. That means only a few more weeks an fall will arrive here in the valley!!

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    1. I really love my summers and all the flowers, but I am ready to start renovating my planting beds like I have already begun doing. By the end of the month we will have a Lot more color. I do love autumn.

      Yael

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  6. Rosemary,

    Thanks and thanks for coming by. I love autumn too. Love the summer, but I am anxious to get my garden beds renovated this fall.

    Yael

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  7. Wow, putting in a bottle border is a lot of work. But how unique! Yes, my garden is showing signs of fatigue, too. And yet there are a few blossoms on my strawberry plants, too.

    Hope your weekend was wonderful.

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    1. Hi Lorrie,

      Thanks and thanks for coming by. I am really enjoying what I have of the bottle border. Little by little I will get it done.

      Yael

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    1. Daisy,

      I like your thinking. The Willamette valley is home to some wonderful wineries, and we have about 10 near our home. Little little, we are checking them out.

      Yael

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    1. Donna,

      Thanks. I do really enjoy fall and all of the colors. We don’t have nippy air yet, but the evenings are dipping down. Hope you have a great week.

      Yael

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  10. Hi Yael: Your bottle border is really neat, and I love all the wonderful photos and mosaics you included in this post–so pretty. I am very slowly transitioning into fall, although it’s going to be in the 90s for the rest of the week here–that does not help the transition! I love summer so much, hate to see it go, but autumn is quite lovely in its own right, as you bring out in your post today. Take care–have a wonderful rest of the week!

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    1. Athena,

      Thanks. I love autumn and have always loved the colors and crisp fall air. Argh, 90’s …that is what I heard on the news tonight. It was 86 today and 87 tomorrow. I forgot to water today till it was too late. Gotta do it in the morning. Gotta order the topsoil and compost mix tomorrow. Maybe this weekend I can get one bed completed. Hoping you have a wonderful week.

      Yael

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    1. Rosey,

      Thanks and thanks for coming by. Still warm (almost 80 now), but nites are in the 40’s and 50’s.

      Yael

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    1. Hi Lisa,

      Thanks. It. Is coming along, although I have divided loyalties with a quilt project I am trying to complete by next week.

      Yael

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    1. Karen,

      Thanks and thanks for coming by. I’m loving my bottle border and hope that I will accumulate some more bottles to finish it.

      Hope you are having a great week.

      Yal

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  16. I hope your labor day was a sweet one.Hard to believe that Autumn is on the way. The temperature here is still so hot! Our veggie garden is slowing down and leaves are dying back..sigh…Thank you for sharing at the Thursday Favorite Things blog hop . I hope you have a wonderful weekend. xo

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  17. great photos! i’m amazed at how fast the chill in the air is arriving…it seems like just a few weeks ago we finally were seeing things appear out of the frosty ground in the early spring. I don’t think i’m prepared for the autumn and winter yet. thank you for linking up to Fishtail Cottage’s garden party this week…seeing these photo’s will help prepare me for the inevitable! xoxo, tracie

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  18. Yup, signs of Fall here too. As much as I am enjoying the cool down. Hate to see summer go. It flew by way to fast. Not ready to be heading towards Winter. Your bottle border is so fun! Thanks for sharing with Share Your Cup.
    Hugs,
    Jann

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