{"id":105153,"date":"2024-10-08T17:58:43","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T21:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=105153"},"modified":"2024-10-08T18:51:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T22:51:54","slug":"soaking-it-all-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=105153","title":{"rendered":"soaking it all in"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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spiders have owned the garden since mid-September which means I stick to the perimeter path. Doing some quick research, I found that the spiders of autumn arrive huge seemingly overnight because they have been unobtrusively eating insects all summer and growing in size. Their plans for fall are to mate, lay eggs and die. And I respect that.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even though I’m the main instigator, this late-season crescendo of growth astonishes me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The garden has adopted a late-season agenda of its own. Aster horizontalis just might be the last to bloom, a boon to all the pollinators hanging around and looking for what’s next on the menu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the late-flowering unknown species salvia from Szechuan via nursery Flowers by the Sea, now closed. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While the garden has morphed into a late-season mosh pit, there has been one summer-long standout that still rises above and coolly surveys the garden’s autumnal slugfest: Verbascum roripifolium, sown spring 2023. A verbascum that flowers in a towering cloud, not a spire, and has been described by plant nurseries variously as an annual, biennial. Three of the five sown spring 2023 bloomed gloriously summer 2023, never to return. Two plants out of five sown in spring 2023 did not bloom the first year, kept basal growth in winter, and have been in bloom all spring\/summer\/fall 2024, which makes them…what? A little long in the tooth for a biennial. Short-lived perennial? It must be this confusion as to its lifespan and handling that costs this wonderful plant more popularity. And because it’s as kinetic as a Calder mobile, photography is worthless for advertising its charms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Verbascum roripifolium snagged by Eryngium pandanifolium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Verbascum roripifolium — If only it reseeded like other mulleins!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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other standouts include the 8-foot beanstalk quality growth on Persicaria orientalis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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notes for next year: stake the dahlias!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Twynings After Eight is a keeper, medium stature, clean leaves, moody charms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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the bog sage gains depth of color as the days and nights get cooler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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like a late-night party spun out of control, I confess I am looking forward to this mass of growth getting knocked back by winter and watching it all start up again next spring. I did remove that phormium a couple days ago, replacing it with smaller Astelia chathamica<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Unlike last year, when I selectively cut back stuff as it got battered by winter storms, I’ll be closing the door on this garden as it exists now, leaving it to wildlife and the elements, until I see it again in spring. Next post will be coming from Long Beach, where a mess awaits me there as surely as one will await me in Oregon in spring — thank goodness small gardens make small messes! I’ve always been drawn to the Japanese fairy tale The Boy Who Drew Cats<\/em>, with the life-saving instruction “Avoid large spaces, keep to the small,” and that admonition has served me on many levels. (Except in spider season, when wider pathways in the garden would be a welcome luxury.) The monster in the story is a giant rat that rules an abandoned temple where an outcast boy takes shelter one dark stormy night. Having been ostracized for preferring drawing to “serious” pursuits, the boy reflexively covers the temple walls with drawings of cats to soothe himself to sleep. When the fearsome and murderous rodent appears in the night to dispatch the sleeping boy…well, once again the power of art saves a child. Just as the power of gardens has saved me time and time again. Take care, AGO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though I’m the main instigator, this late-season crescendo of growth astonishes me. While the garden has morphed into a late-season mosh pit, there has been one summer-long standout that still rises above and coolly surveys the garden’s autumnal slugfest: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[550,5119,36],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rm1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105153"}],"version-history":[{"count":133,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105294,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105153\/revisions\/105294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}