A Late Summer Garden

Dear Diary,

Next to the sedum, these Helenium Canary plants attract lots of bees and butterflies.  It has the unfortunate nickname of Sneeze weed and is a native cone flower of diminutive size.  It's a hardy wonderful plant that blooms when other plants are fading and makes great cut flowers.

I've noticed that the Helenium seems to attract a different sort of bee than the sedum and I wonder if bees have their favorite feeding places like we have our favorite restaurants.  The birds will love the seed heads in a month or so.  As much as I like to remove dead flowers from the beds, like the rudbeckia which look a wreck just now, I leave some for the birds to feast on.  A tidy garden is not the most important thing for me.  Caring for my little wild ones is.


We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost.

Henry Rollins