iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 14h

We have so much life left in our garden—so many buds that haven’t even opened yet—thanks to careful planning to make sure we have fuel for #pollinators from #February2Frost. One late bloomer is architectural Aster ‘Jindai’. #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Chunky clusters of buds starting with a large one at the top surrounded by a fan of leaves and smaller clusters down the stem.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 16h

#MagentaMonday #PinkMon Symphoricarpos x doorenbosii ‘Candy’ (Coralberry) putting out more berries for #birds. #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosytem #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Varying shades of pink berries dangle in clusters from healthy foliage.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 18h

#NativePlants Aralia racemosa has proven to be one of our most popular natural feeders for #birds this season. Once packed with dark fruits and now nearly picked clean. Grow your own bird food! #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

An arching stem that was once packed with clusters of deep burgundy berries is nearly picked clean with only a few berries her and there left.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 18h

Kicking of #MagentaMonday #PinkMon with new blooms from another different aster we grow, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘September Ruby’. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Magenta blooms, one with a fresh yellow center and the other with a dark burgundy center.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 19h

#GardenDogs #WeAreAllZoey & I have more in common than I like to admit. Stubborn, impulsive, determined—her policing her domain, me blanking on telling myself I was done planting for the year when clearance #NativePlants came up. 72 plugs & 30 plants inbound. 🫣 #gardening #DogsOfBluesky #DogSky 🌱

A small grey and brown Cattle Dog squeezes under the low bottom of a step ladder we now put up to keep her from kicking the screen door off its tracks to chase things in the yard so she can touch still her nose to the screen for maximum sniffs.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Echinachea still kicking out fresh blooms here and there even as older stems have gone full natural #birds feeder mode already. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Sun dances off a coneflower with reflexed white rays with a hint of purple streaking and a red-gold center.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Clematis ‘Paul Farges’ started in June and is still blooming in October. 10/10, highly recommend. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Beautiful white blooms cascading down the alley fence with thick greenery providing privacy and noise buffer.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Happy Saturday! First taste of fall weather here today so rocking my cozy “I’d Rather Be In My Garden” sweatshirt. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys 🌱

Crepey large white geranium blooms with purple stripes radiating out from the center.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Thinking about all the beautiful blooms we had this year for #FlowersOnFriday like these glowing pink Rose Campion & bright purple Salvia transylvanica from June. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys 🌱

Bright magenta Rose Campion and purple hooded Salvia transylvanica surrounded by lush green foliage.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Thinking about all the beautiful blooms we had this year for #FlowersOnFriday like these Digitalis laevigata and Allium from June. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys 🌱

White and tan digitalis blooms on tall spikes and small pink balls of allium with a colorful sign that says ‘Pollinator Work Zone’.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I changed her collar over to reflect the fall leaves that are starting to turn colors but I have not granted the walkies request yet so she’s deflating like one of the inflatable car dealer dancing guys. 🙃 #WeAreAllZoey #GardenDogs #DogsOfBluesky #DogSky

A small grey and brown Cattle Dog lies oozing over the edge of her hassock bolster bed to emphasize how deflated she is by the lack of redundant walkies.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Another unusual late-blooming #NativePlant— annual Euphorbia cyathophora (Fire-on-the-Mountain). I didn’t seed this one this year so must be seed bank from previous attempt to establish it. Wonder if it will have time to turn red? #gardening #bloomscrolling #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #FantasticFoliage 🌱

Spikes of two completely different shapes, long skinny pointe and wild cutout patterns, branching from a single plant. All green still without the red color on the bracts which give it its name.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Beautiful buds of another fantastic late-blooming #NativePlants Eupatorium hyssopifolium thriving in tough dry part shade Parkway soil. Don’t accept that your garden is over for the season—if #pollinators are still buzzing about, they need blooms! #gardening #bloomscrolling #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Met the exceptionally beautiful but maligned native Lygus lineolaris (Tarnished Plant Bug) on recently on one of our many Asters. Constantly learning new things in the garden! #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #BugSky #NoSpray #invertebrates #InsectThursday #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

A small tan and black bug with patterns that looks like edges where tarnished has been rubbed off sits on a purple Aster.

Closeup of small tan and black bug with patterns that looks like edges where tarnished has been rubbed off sits on a purple Aster.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Tomorrow might kick off October but our garden is still in full color despite soaking rain today. Tons of pink, white & yellow in main bed on left. Fiery Tithonia, Amaranth & Salvia coccinea on right. #February2Frost for fall #birds & #pollinators. #gardening #bloomscrolling #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

A view of the sodden main bed with big clumps of bright pink Asters, Japanese Anemone, & Hibiscus; white Asters & silvery Salvia yangii; & yellow Lonicera sempervirens, Coreopsis ‘Gold Standard’ & Helianthus microcephalus.

Lush green with some winter squash still on the vines, some blackberries, eggplants, greens, & more still producing plus bright orange Tithonia, red Salvia, pink Amaranth, white Late Boneset & seedheads galore.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This rain should be the end of the #NativePlants Lobelia siphilitica blooms but hopefully they will make good seed and spread themselves around a bit for us because I love this color as part of the late summer palette! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Prior to planting, the dense blue blooms were calling to #pollinators from the deck.

After a good run in the ground, the spikes are starting to run out of fresh flowers and will soon go to seed.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We’re now have #NativePlants Grindelia lanceolata established and blooming in three beds with pretty different conditions so this is definitely a great late-blooming workhorse. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Bright yellow blooms popping up amid tall Sedum and swirling Liatris foliage in a shady corner.

Closeup of the beautiful yellow blooms and unusually “spiky” looking buds.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

We are finally get another round of free sky water to settle in my last round of planting (🥳) so here’s a picture of gorgeous Nicotiana ‘Bronze Queen’ from drier times. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Long tubular green blooms with beautiful deep brown ends dangle in wait for hummingbirds, moths, and other long-tongued pollinators.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

#GardenDogs #WeAreAllZoey is proudly rocking her #MilkweedForMonarchs #butterflies collar in preparation for migration season & monitoring the backyard through the new “gate”. #gardening #pollinators #ecosystem #DogsOfBluesky #DogSky 🌱

A small grey and brown Cattle Dog in a blue and green color dotted with orange and black butterflies as well as other colors too while peeking under the top step of the step stool meant to keep her from kicking down the door to outside at will.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Profusion of #NativePlants Asters has me making me fall to-do list. Today was big stir of basement worm bin. They’ve been breeding like mad. Took 20# finished castings out of bottom to mulch my new roses against change in temps to come! #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Huge plumes of tiny white Symphyotrichum cordifolium arching in every direction.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Was very worried about moving this grafted rose from now too shady very tight space because depth made almost impossible to dig out intact but it’s gone from sparse to all this new growth in barely 3 weeks in new spot! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FantasticFoliage #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #SmallJoys 🌱

Beautiful healthy new growth in shades of green and burgundy coming in as a nice natural bushy form as this transplanted rose establishes in its new home. She’s a survivor!

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Roses are incredible in the way they can transform. One bloom, 24 hours apart. It’s pure magic! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Rosa ‘Mardi Gras’ fresh and unfurling in deep orange-red and bright gold-orange.

24 hours later, the same bloom in soft strawberry and butter yellow wide open for #pollinators.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

More nice weather means more time for blooms from these lovely #GothGardening Dahlias I grew from seed. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Bright red bloom and dark purple foliage.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

#NativePlants Asclepias incarnata showing beautiful burgundy foliage (& new growth from cutting it back when redesigning front corner of this bed early September) plus all the blue/purple colors of Gentiana andrewsii—max fall vibes! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Closed bottle flowers of varying age show everything from bright blue to fading purple, plus deep burgundy foliage on a large scale with some green left in the veins for contrast and a blue ceramic bird bath waiting for visitors in the Rain Garden.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This beautiful blooming Vernonia with dark purple stems and #FantasticFoliage is bringing elegance & fashion while the #MagentaMonday #PinkMon Asters behind it are giving nothing but exuberant joy! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Fluffy purple white tipped blooms and dark burgundy buds in purple stems and foliage in the foreground while the background vibrates with bright magenta energy.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

A shade-friendly late Salvia working on blooming and making exquisite architectural #FantasticFoliage in the meantime. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Thick textural dark green leaves getting increasing smaller and lighter in color leading to an origami-like fold of an impending flower spike.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Handsome male Cardinal singing to a female somewhere in another tree (with just a hint of background music thanks to the FedEx guy bumping from his truck in the background). #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #birds #BirdSky 🌱

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Went for extended walkies with #GardenDogs #WeAreAllZoey this morning and stopped to admire this impressive window melon. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #KitchenGarden #GrowFood 🌱

A small grey and brown Cattle Dog stands in front of a tall iron fence covered in squash foliage that continues up the side of the apartment building behind it by grabbing onto the window screens and you can see a melon dangling beneath the windows.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Japanese Anemone ‘Pamina’ are really doing a lot to carry the #MagentaMonday #PinkMon color story of this bed through into Fall. And the #pollinators can’t stop buzzing through them! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Magenta and soft pink Japanese Anemone on tall stems dance above the entire side of the Main bed.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Still enjoying all the cool bugs in our garden. This one always catches my eye because it looks like it should be in some wild jungle not my city parkway. #gardening #ecosystem #BugSky #NoSpray #invertebrates #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Graphocephala coccinea (Red-Banded Leafhopper), maybe the size of a grain of rice but so beautiful in glowing red and teal stripes.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Another day, another new aster bursting into bloom. This one is Symphyotrichum pilosum var pringlei 'Ochtendgloren' with soft pink & #SundayYellow. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Exploding fireworks of aster blooms in pink with yellow centers.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Tomato ‘Mignonne Dwarf’ has been an absolute powerhouse producer all season and it seems determined to keep going as long as the weather stays nice.🤞 #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #KitchenGarden #GrowFood #NoSpray 🌱

A very enthusiastic pair of dwarf tomato plants has pushed out an overflow of new growth covered with flowers so hopefully we can keep harvesting tomatoes.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Beautiful weather for #NativePlants #SundayYellow! This late blooming Helianthus microcephalus means even later seeds for our #birds friends as fall goes on. Mr. CMG saw 1st visit from Lincoln Sparrow on our Amaranth this week too! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Bright sunshine yellow composite blooms—small but endless.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

New Aster just dropped. I love the darker buds and paler blooms this one has—makes a lovely contrast. #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #BugSky #NoSpray #invertebrates #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Pinky-purple aster hiding the exceptionally beautiful but maligned native Lygus lineolaris (Tarnished Plant Bug).

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Still harvesting peppers & eggplants despite the cooler weather this week. 👩🏼‍🌾👩🏼‍🍳 #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #KitchenGarden #GrowFood #NoSpray 🌱

Long Japanese eggplants in glossy black, green/purple striped, and soft purple, plus a chunk eggplant in magenta/white stripe and a rainbow of sweet peppers.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Stumbled on these milk chocolate colored caps in the large raised bed just in time for #FungiFriday. #gardening #bloomscrolling #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Five wide flat matte brown rounded caps, some with slightly dark coloring and tears.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Celebrating #FlowersOnFriday with a first bloom from the incredibly scented Rosa ‘Blue Chip’ new to the garden back during my June plantings. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

A beautiful densely petalled lilac rose with a bit of roughness around the edges from last week’s rains.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It’s raining Nicotiana alata blooms. Hopefully, they kept the night-flying #moths in good stead as the flowers are mostly faded by this afternoon photo and will be refreshed overnight. #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago #pollinators #ecosystem 🌱

Extremely long tubular flowers some still showing their pretty white tips dangle high over the groundcovering yellow Solidago.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fresh from the groomers, it’s Pumpkin Spice She-A-Lotté. 🤭 #WeAreAllZoey #GardenDogs #DogsOfBluesky #DogSky

A small grey and brown Cattle Dog jauntily dressed in a pumpkin & leaves bandana stares super intensely out the patio sliders waiting for things she wants to chase to wander up on the deck.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Still obsessed with #FantasticFoliage from Salvia argentea ‘Artemis’ grown from seed this year loving the dry edge of the Main Garden. *SO FUZZZZZZYYY!* #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

Two clumps of furry silver foliage you want to pet growing ever bigger along the edge of the sidewalk in a particularly dry spot.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Just met new garden fren Sandalus niger (aka cedar beetle or cicada parasite beetle). They help control cicada populations as their larvae parasitically feed on cicada nymphs underground. #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #BugSky #NoSpray #invertebrates #InsectThursday #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

A beautiful black beetle with beautiful textured wing covers slightly open revealing lighter brown folded wings beneath and handsome short mascara brush like antennae which it says makes him a boy.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It might suddenly feel like fall this morning and I gleefully pulled out a sweater but the hibiscus is still going in the garden! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

A single stem covered with a cluster of double hibiscus blooms in soft pink, white & dark pink.

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hungry native #Bees this time of year are like your hungry uncle going through the buffet line taking everything before you get a turn. #gardening #bloomscrolling #ecosystem #BugSky #NoSpray #invertebrates #UrbsInHorto #Chicago 🌱

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City Mouse Garden @citymousegarden.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

#NativePlants Solidagos also carry a lot of weight this time of year. This one has a cool candelabra vibe! #gardening #bloomscrolling #FlowerReport #SmallJoys 🌱

Tiny yellow composite blooms open at the end of long green offshoots from a main stem.

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