Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Oct. 10th, 2025 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmith posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gardeningThese photos of the Coles County Community Garden came from October 9, 2025. Begin the trip with Charleston Food Forest Part 1 Right Side and Charleston Food Forest Part 2 Left Side. Continue with Seeds.
The entrance to the Coles County Community Garden leads to the greenhouse.
This is the welcome sign.
These two sheds stand to the left of the greenhouse.
The flower garden extends toward the parking lot, between the shed and the greenhouse. Goldenrod and blanketflower are blooming. The seedheads of blanketflower are very sharp, but I managed to collect some. I also got a lot of (much softer) seeds from Mexican hats, which came off the core very easily.
To the right are the raised beds. Sadly most hold only weeds, and the makeshift fences make it hard to reach anything inside.
A bee feeds on a blanketflower. I saw a lot of bees, but not manyw anted to pose for me.
The tall purple sedum has gone to seed. I broke off a bunch of ripe seedheads to see if I can grow some. Once I separate the seeds from the stems, the volume will shrink considerably.
Behind the greenhouse is one several large clusters of purple aster. Currently in full bloom, these won't set seed for a while yet. They are in every wildlife garden around town, but I have yet to get any to grow in my yard. I keep trying, though.
Here's a back view of the flower garden, looking toward the shed at the parking lot. In the foreground are more asters, and farther back are zinnias.
A garden spider has spun a web between the plants. They love tall plants that give them room to spin their webs.
The spider quickly scrambled off the web to hide among the plants.
Paths through the flower garden provide access. There are some wildflowers including milkweed on the left and several rows of zinnias on the right. I gathered a little milkweed seed and a great deal of zinnia seed -- and that was just walking around the outside and occasionally reaching in for a scarcer color, I barely touched the two middle rows. Most of the zinnias are blooming some shade of pink to red or purple; yellow, orange, and white are less common in this patch.
This is the flower garden looking toward one of the sheds. Zinnias are in the foreground, asters farther back, and those tall brown seedheads against the wall are purple coneflower.
This is the view from beside the shed, looking across the flower garden. In the foreground is a big clump of purple asters, and then the zinnias. It looks nearly wild, but the pollinators love it.
The entrance to the Coles County Community Garden leads to the greenhouse.
This is the welcome sign.
These two sheds stand to the left of the greenhouse.
The flower garden extends toward the parking lot, between the shed and the greenhouse. Goldenrod and blanketflower are blooming. The seedheads of blanketflower are very sharp, but I managed to collect some. I also got a lot of (much softer) seeds from Mexican hats, which came off the core very easily.
To the right are the raised beds. Sadly most hold only weeds, and the makeshift fences make it hard to reach anything inside.
A bee feeds on a blanketflower. I saw a lot of bees, but not manyw anted to pose for me.
The tall purple sedum has gone to seed. I broke off a bunch of ripe seedheads to see if I can grow some. Once I separate the seeds from the stems, the volume will shrink considerably.
Behind the greenhouse is one several large clusters of purple aster. Currently in full bloom, these won't set seed for a while yet. They are in every wildlife garden around town, but I have yet to get any to grow in my yard. I keep trying, though.
Here's a back view of the flower garden, looking toward the shed at the parking lot. In the foreground are more asters, and farther back are zinnias.
A garden spider has spun a web between the plants. They love tall plants that give them room to spin their webs.
The spider quickly scrambled off the web to hide among the plants.
Paths through the flower garden provide access. There are some wildflowers including milkweed on the left and several rows of zinnias on the right. I gathered a little milkweed seed and a great deal of zinnia seed -- and that was just walking around the outside and occasionally reaching in for a scarcer color, I barely touched the two middle rows. Most of the zinnias are blooming some shade of pink to red or purple; yellow, orange, and white are less common in this patch.
This is the flower garden looking toward one of the sheds. Zinnias are in the foreground, asters farther back, and those tall brown seedheads against the wall are purple coneflower.
This is the view from beside the shed, looking across the flower garden. In the foreground is a big clump of purple asters, and then the zinnias. It looks nearly wild, but the pollinators love it.
