The Lazy Composter

While I do miss the autumn leaves that I grew up with on the east coast and the feeling of distinct seasons, there’s a lot of color popping in my garden.  The Tithonia, or mexican sunflower I planted from seed in the summer is just blooming now.  Here is one just opening:

Yowza!  I’m noticing a lot of yellows and oranges happening now.

There’s an Asclepias, or milkweed that’s blooming now:

This is a variety that I got from a Chinese medicinal herb seller at the acupuncture college.  I’m most familiar with Asclepias Tuberosa, also known as butterfly weed, because it’s a host plant for Monarch butterflies.  I have quite a few of them in my garden, so think they’re fine with this variety.  You can see a golden colored aphid colony around the stems, which is kind of a beautiful color itself, even though I’m ready to lose it.

You can see the ants doing their symbiotic aphid dance in this picture:

Asclepias Tuberosa is also known medicinally as pleurisy root.

On the yellow end of the spectrum, there’s the humble calendula:

Then there are the roses in my front yard.  Hybrids, there are yellow and red ones:

I like to bring them inside and put them on my cluttered file cabinet, some beauty in my work space:

On the porch there’s a climbing purple and white flower.  I don’t remember what it’s called, but I do remember who brought it over from their yard.  Can anyone tell me what it is?

Then moving back to purple,  there’s the princess tree:

Which is pretty leggy, but has a nice spray of flowers curving over the herb spiral.

One thing I do notice, while I don’t notice colors so much here that go with the discrete seasons, is the unique quality of light that autumn brings: