Colors

Aptly named, the burning bush provides splashes of lush red in Autumn, and never ceases to amaze as we glimpse it in passing. These bushes serve as 150 yd. markers on our golf course; our neighbor has a huge burning bush in his yard; we have three smaller ones.

The delicate pale gray-green of the herbal sage plant is one of my favorite colors. I matched the color when I painted the master bedroom, and it is very restful, seeming a cool color in summer and warm in winter. (Now if it only had the scent of true sage, which grows in the foothills of Idaho where I grew up, it would be perfect.) The blossoms on the herbal sage are a sweet shade of lavender.

Who doesn’t love the brilliant yellows and oranges of marigolds? They seem to thrive anywhere and are touted as good companion plants, and as bug deterrents as well. What’s more, it’s simple to harvest the seeds at the end of summer for assuring another crop next year. The garden was full of them this year, and they looked fabulous next to the lavender and purple blossoms of the volunteer cosmos, both of which thrived in spite of the lack of rain. Flowers far outdistanced vegetables in production and general health this summer.

After the dry summer, we didn’t expect much in the way of colorful leaves this fall, but were granted instead some of the most beautifully muted, soft and luscious colors. The maples tried hard to provide their usual yellow and red, and all of the native trees did their best, managing to come up with sensuous golds and tans and rusts that made this Autumn very special after all.

Though I wasn’t sure if it would survive in this zone, I planted a crape myrtle on the south side of our small metal shed several years ago and placed an old window pane behind it, hoping that the sun would warm it and keep it alive year round. It’s growing slowly and really needs to be transplanted to richer soil, but just look how the shadows play against the shed and what a lovely color the leaves are!

The two dwarf azaleas that grace the railing around the back patio have leaves that darken in the fall to a rich, deep purple. One of these bushes blooms a delicious rose pink and the other a delicate shade of red orange. This profusion of color is a welcome delight in the spring.

After the official closing on our Loogootee house, the previous owner mentioned bleakly that she hoped I liked gardening as much as she did. At the time I consoled her with “Oh yes, I do like to garden,” fervently wishing she wouldn’t hold me to it. After 25 years of painstakingly tilling the soil and trying to live off our land along the Lost River, it was not my wish to do more of the same. Later I found that she had planted perennials and ground cover around the house, most of which were in some shade of pink, lavender or purple. It was a charming touch to a wonderful house. Gardening in lavender definitely has its appeal.