Check back after Columbus Day.

Got a nice email, with photos, from Sandy Morrissey, after my recent post on hummingbirds still hanging around in my garden:

“I’m happy to read that the salvia guaranitica did its trick and attracted the hummingbirds all season. For years I have kept records on when all birds appear in my yard. I pay close attention to the hummingbirds.

“My records show the hummingbirds are here through the first week of October and then are gone by the end of the second week of October. So it is not unusual for them to be in your garden now. You have two more weeks to enjoy them!

“I grow all the flowers that you do to attract hummers, plus I would add the annual Lantana, monarda (beebalm – my favorite is raspberry wine) and the native honeysuckle vine, Lonicera sempervirens to the list of top hummingbird plants.”

In many ways, September is my favorite month in the garden. The pressure’s off. There’s stuff to do if you feel like it, or you can just kick back and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The remaining annuals, like these cosmos, have crisp, bright tones this time of year.

You can also be pretty ruthless with your editing this time of year. If something doesn’t look good, just rip it out or cut it back. Powdery mildew on your peonies? Cut off all the foliage and you’re done for the year. Leggy, underperforming petunias? Sorry guys, off to the compost pile with you.

Many of the late summer bloomers, like this butterfly bush, are still going strong.

I also like the wonderful mix of seasons you see this time of year as summer turns to fall.

Summer annuals like cleome …

… sitting right next to fall seedheads, like this Queen Anne’s lace:

… and purple coneflower:

… and globe thistle:

Ah, and let’s not forget the asters, which pop into bloom every September.

These purple ones look really good with goldenrod.

Most of the herbs in my garden still look good in September, too. Do you grow nepeta (catmint)? I can’t get enough of it. It goes from May to October and nothing bothers it.

This is a single nepeta plant that’s about four years old.

I used to cut it back in July to get it to rebloom in late summer. This year, it never stopped blooming. Here’s a closeup of the blooms.

African blue basil has been another favorite this year. Nonstop blooms since May.

Other than peppers and tomatoes, I don’t bother with many vegetables. Lousy year for tomatoes (foliage dieback from the ground right up to the tops of the plants), but good year for peppers. Hot cherry peppers:

I have tons. Any good ideas on what to do with them?

I don’t know if it’s global warming or just generational confusion, but I’ve still got a couple of ruby-throated hummingbirds hanging around my garden.

For days now, they’ve been really tanking up at the two feeders. Every morning, I think they surely must have taken off for Central America by now. And then just after dawn I see them at the feeder again.

Judging by their size and speed, I’m pretty sure my two holdouts are youngsters born this year. Their parents took off weeks ago.

Here’s a file photo of a hummingbird on blue annual salvia. Sandy Morrissey gave me one of these plants (Salvia guarantica) earlier this summer and it’s been such fun to watch them feed on it.

I like just about all birds, but there’s something just irresistible about hummingbirds. I try to plant lots of things I know they like: crocosmia, butterfly bush, lobelia, lambs ears, Mexican sunflowers, nepeta and salvia.

Eight or nine years ago, I could count on hummingbirds returning to my garden on Memorial Day weekend and leaving sometime during the first week of September. Now I usually see the the first males (only the males have the ruby throat) on Derby weekend (first Saturday in May) and they seem to linger around later into September each year.

What a treat.

Tina Anton, who runs the annuals and perennials section at Down to Earth Nursery in Pomona, asked me to get the word out about a free composing class they are hosting on Saturday.

Tina, btw, is a very talented sculptor with big pieces of stone.

Here’s her press release:

“COMPOSTING DAY AT DOWN TO EARTH
ROCKLAND COUNTY DIGS COMPOSTING

“Take a composting class at Down to Earth and receive a
FREE BACKYARD HOME COMPOSTING BIN!

“Master gardeners Elaine Traynor and Debbie Krucik from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Rockland County will be teaching Rockland residents how to turn kitchen-scraps and yard greens into useful compost for the backyard. Residents can take home a free composting bin at the end of the class.
One per family; please bring proof of Rockland County residency. ( e.g. driver’s license or utility bill with your name/address)

COMPOST CLASS:
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 29
10 am – 11 am
Compost Bins will be given out at the time of the class along with free literature and resources.

Registration is suggested.
To register call Jane @
Down to Earth, 845-354-8500

“Down to Earth is a full service garden center located in Pomona NY on Rt. 45 – ¼ mile from exit 12 on the Palisades Pkwy.

“If you want more information on the compost bins or composting process please call Donna Cooke, Community Horticulture Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension at: 845-429-7085 x.108.

Down to Earth, 1040 route 45, Pomona, NY 10970 845-354-8500.”

Thanks Tina. Sounds like a good deal. And check out the mums and other fall container plants while you’re there.

Last night’s NewsCenter Now television show on RNN featured a home and garden segment with me giving a tour of some good gas stations in the area.

Here’s a link to the video on our Web site.

And a link to the article on the same topic in yesterday’s paper. And a link to an earlier blog post.

Jack McGrath, a retiree with loads of energy, tends some two dozen gardens for the town of North Salem. He’s got quite an eye for color.

I wrote an article for today’s paper on Jack and his gardens. And here’s an earlier blog post with more photos.

Some local gas stations have surprisingly good gardens.

I’ve got an article in today’s paper that highlights a few gas stations in the Lower Hudson Valley with particularly nice gardens and landscaping. It was a fun story to do.

Also, tune in to RNN TV from 5 to 7 tonight for a video tour of the gardens with me on NewsCenter Now.

And here’s an earlier blog post with lots of photos of Jim Foley and Miguel Suaza’s Croton Exxon that I shot earlier this summer. They’ve got my favorite gas station garden.

Here are a few shots of their station by Ricky Flores. They have fantastic hibiscus plants with huge red flowers in August and September.

Jim Foley in one of the beds.

And a few photos by Mark Vergari of the Brewster Citgo station on Route 6. This is the owner, Anwar Yousef, with his great Russian sage.

More of the beds at the Citgo.

And check out the containers at the Mobil station on Route 100 in Somers (rest of the photos are by Mark).

Here are Juliette Sussmann, who owns the Mobil station with her husband, Paul, and their longtime manager, Eli Espinoza.

Sunflowers at the BP station on North Broadway in North White Plains.

Another well-tended station that I saw but ran out of room for in the story: the Shell station at the corner of Routes 22 and 172 in Bedford, near Exit 4 of I-684. Check it out if you’re in the area.

I’ve been seeing really big and beautiful sunflowers this year. Really tall ones.

Here are a few I shot this morning at the community garden at Lenoir Preserve in Yonkers.

Mary Ann Cozier called us at the paper a few weeks ago to tell us about the giant ones in her Yonkers yard, much bigger than in years past. One of my editors suggested she send us a photo or two.

So here’s Mary Ann with her sunflowers.

In an accompanying letter, she says she’s had hummingbirds, goldfinch and cardinals on the flowers this summer.

“Even my dog eats the seeds,” she writes. “They were grown from last year’s seeds.”

Thanks Mary Ann.

Looking for a fun activity for tomorrow? Check out the annual Herb Fair at John Jay Homestead in Katonah. It runs from 11 am to 2 pm Thursday the 20th and it’s free.

Here’s a Download: of me and the volunteer gardeners that ran last Friday on Hudson Valley NewsCenter Now on RNN.

Every Thursday, volunteers from the New York Unit of the Herb Society of America come to the garden to weed, water, deadhead and harvest the herbs.

I also wrote an article for the paper on herb gardens in fall, with a sidebar on everything going on tomorrow at the fair and a box on harvesting herbs.

Here are some very nice photos that Liz Orozco shot (that’s her work on the video, too). An overall shot of the herb garden.

Here’s Betsy Rolls, with tansy. I grow this – it’s a natural bug repellent. It even smells like bug spray. People used to grow it up close to their houses to keep bugs out.

Purple chili peppers.

Butterfly weed, with a monarch.

Very cool-looking amaranth.

And purple hyacinth bean. Jefferson grew this at Monticello.