End of August Gardening Thoughts

I wonder what they thought in San Francisco when they searched my suitcase and found a bird house...

...and five, yep five watering cans.

Do you have a better idea now why I dreaded packing up?

Long time readers of this blog know that I adore watering cans and have quite the collection.  Now the collection has grown by five.  Three of them are Haws Watering Cans.  Their website calls them the "finest watering cans used throughout the world since 1886".  I bought the copper and the cream one at the Tanton Park Flower Show.  They were a steal - £10 for the cream and £15 for the copper one.  They'd be $85 or more here.

I am still getting adjusted to having missed most of summer here in Oregon.

I came back to find out mudroom flowerbed was an explosion of color. The Black and Blue salvia dominates the bed.

I am also really pleased with my Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia) vine.  

One little $1.79 plant has become a mass of color.

My sister's morning glories are at their peak too.

Each morning the hummingbirds flit about madly - hard at work among the blossoms. 

This is also the time of year that Cone Flowers (echinacea) come into their own.

I even have some Asters going about their business.  A true sign of the fast-approaching autumn. 

I like verbena bonariensis for two reasons.  It has a habit of self-seeding in unexpected places, and the goldfinches perch on it and eat its seeds.