Bulbs are Finally In!

I wasn't going to plant any bulbs this fall.

I know! Craziness.

I don't have any more spaces ready for tulips and daffodils, other than the slope, which tends to chew them up and spit them out.

Then my husband talked me into it. It took some real arm-twisting.

After about 1/2 a conversation I said, "Oh, alright. Alright! Okay?! I'll put some bulbs in!"

I ordered 120 smaller bulbs, early bloomers:

50 each of rock garden iris mixture & muscari mixture, plus 20 snowdrops (Galanthus Nivalis 'Flore Pleno').

Then I procrastinated. No other word for it.

 

To my dismay, after an extra long fall, it froze solid for 3 weeks, with daytime temps in the 20's.

I thought I had missed my chance, after all.

Lo and behold, the last 2 weeks have warmed up.

A reprieve! Yes!

 

I just got the last of them in today.

Scattered around the top terrace out front, and a couple small patches by my front steps.

Glad to have that done!

I'll be even more glad early next spring, when these little beauties start their show.

 

 

Flowerpots' Last Hurrah

We had some good times this summer, these flowers and I.

 

[These pictures were taken about a month ago, before hard frost had set in.]

 

 The succulent boat in front sent up alien stems with strange little blooms on them.

 

The geraniums (middle) were awash with color at several different points, despite uneven watering.

The herb container didn't do much of anything, actually.

It smelled nice for a few months.

And would you look at that asparagus fern?

Incredible! It almost makes the dead bellflowers look picturesque (or so I tell myself.)

The round blue pot in front obviously gave up quite some time ago.

These were pretty awesome while they lasted.

Now in death, they too have taken on alien life forms.

 

I might have mentioned it [twenty times] before, but the decision to get our yard done pretty much sucked the gardening life out of me there at the end of the summer.

I didn't have access to water outside for a good month and a half while the yard was graded and the sprinkler system put in. This all coincided with a decent heat wave. By the time the thought occurred to me that I could actually water these containers with a pitcher of house water, it was too late for most of the flowers.

 

I did finally get them all winterized a few weeks ago (before hard frost killed off the succulents.)

Go me!

The succulents now live inside as houseplants, where the lack of water will probably not come as a shock to their systems at all. I couldn't willfully kill off the asparagus ferns, so in the end I planted them all in my vegetable garden, bottom terrace, front and center.

They are still green, even after 2+ weeks of below freezing temperatures!

 

All the flowerpots are now tucked safely away in the shed.

I have high hopes that next year will be better all around.

We'll have a lawn that we can walk on!

That makes a pretty good starting place, I'd say.

Fall Colors

So my last post was all about how I'm ready to be done done done with the vegetable garden.

My flowerbeds, on the other hand, just continue to delight me.

 

Check out the fall colors I'm enjoying out front!

 

That lovely orange is a peony.

I know!

I don't remember it doing that before!

Maybe I had already cut it down in years past?

I feel sure I would have remembered that gorgeous color.

 

These mums provide a nice spot of pink right as I pull up to the house.

Closeup of the peony.

Snowball bush on the top terrace.

So pretty!

Add them all together, with the green from the boxwood and the deep brown of the Echinacea and wow! I could stare at it all day!

When I planted these I didn't realize how much I would enjoy them in the fall.

Plus, there is no work involved for me at this point, just enjoyment.

Makes it even better!

Garden Fatigue

 

[This was taken 3 weeks ago, but was still fairly accurate until we started ripping things out today.]

I'm done with the vegetable garden for the year.

It was not done yet, as the giant zucchini and mounds of green tomatoes on my counter can attest.

But I am done.

It happens every year about this time.

It's like Jack Frost and I have a handshake agreement somewhere around the beginning of October:

"Yep, 'bout time to wrap things up around here." 

Really, that last frost comes just in time--usually.

 

 

This year we have yet to have a killing frost, and won't for at least another week, if my phone's weather app is to be believed.

There was a part of me that felt guilty today, pulling up live tomato plants.

These could have had another 2 weeks!

On the other hand, will I care more about the garden in 2 weeks? No, I will not. 

Up came the tomatoes.

Plus, today was mild. It was not raining or windy. I had time to do it.

None of those things are guarantees in the remaining days of garden life.

 

 

[Petrified pea patch intact, as of a week ago. Keepin' it real around here.]

 

 I enjoy vegetable gardening, and I marvel at it. It's amazing how those tiny seeds, sown in the warming soil of May can produce many handfuls and bucketfuls of delicious things to eat in just 2 or 3 short months. Also, I'm grateful that our family is not solely dependent on what I grow for our yearly food.

 

Even as late as August, I'm usually still gung-ho, despite the heat.

30 more tomatoes? Bring it on! Homemade tomato sauce all winter! Hooray!

Zucchini bread, yum.

All of it. Awesome.

 

[From 2 days ago: dessicated pea patch gone. Everything else the same.]

 

Then along comes September, and my enthusiasm begins to wane. I see another round of ripening tomatoes on the vines and my eyes start to glaze over.

I stop watering.

Completely.

I have already pinched off the growing tips of all the vines, in hopes that what is on them will ripen up before frost. That's kind of how I feel, too.

Pinched back.

Ready to take care of what I've got without a bunch of new stuff cropping up.

 

 This year I've had it especially bad, due to the marathon backyard work project that's been going on. I haven't set foot in my backyard in 2 months.

To even get to the garden, you have to make a trek out the front door and all the way down on the side wall. There's a somewhat dry spot where you can step to climb up onto the garden wall, then finally make your way over to what you're hoping to pick.

Then you get to carry it with you as you do the whole thing in reverse.

Heaven help you if one of the kids has to use the restroom RIGHT NOW!

(Run fast darling, but whatever you do, don't fall off the wall and crush the grass seedlings!)

 

[Everyone look at me! Ha! That's about right.]

 

I've talked with friends who are big into extending the season.

They start planting peas and beets and all those cold-weather veggies again in July or August, for harvesting in the fall and early winter.

I admire their energy.

I just...I can't do that right now. I don't have it in me.

I may not be ready for winter, but ready to winterize?

Yes, I am.

 

[This year's potato harvest, with the last of the carrots.]

One More Eyesore Gone

So if you turned your back to the lovely terraced flowerbeds in front, this is what you used to see:

 

An eyesore of a flowerbed with many problems:

1. It was too narrow, so all the shrubs lay directly beneath the overhang of the house.

No water = unhealthy shrubs

 

2. Chock-full of grass and weeds

 

3. The water faucet leaked right here all the time, causing a muddy mess on the end near the stairs.

 

 

It was time to DO something about this bed.

I had pretty much ignored it for the past 3 years, other than to prune the spirea on the corner.

  

First things first: I ripped out all the dead, ugly bushes.

The spirea on the corner stayed, as did the euonymous under the window.

After we got the bricks pulled up, and the bed widened a bit, it was time to add soil, compost, and give a good tilling.

 

Then came the fun part--adding the new plants!

 [These pictures were taken October 20.]

 

 I put in an Oakleaf Hydrangea 'Ruby Slippers' between the 2 existing shrubs.

 

To help soak up the extra water from the leaky faucet, I planted a hosta 'Guacamole' (apple green with darker streaks) by the front steps. It's supposed to reach up to 36" high.

Close by is a fern, Polystichyum munitum 'Western Sword.' I was impressed that it's supposed to be evergreen and naturalize well.

 

 

To either side of the hydrangea, in the back, I added 2 Astilbe chinensis 'Visions,' in a raspberry pink shade. Also filling in around the shrubs are two heucheras, 'Sweet Tart' and 'Lime Marmalade'; a second fern: Polystichum 'Soft Shield'; and one more hosta: 'Aureo Marginata' (deep green with yellow margins.)

 

The final step was to add bark to everything.

I'm so pleased with the change.

 

 

Apparently there was a big hailstorm while we were on vacation, that threw down 1" hailstones. Some of the hosta leaves were shredded, but they both seem to be bouncing back.

Now if I can just keep it watered through August!

(We're looking at a solid month of 95+ temperatures.)

Story of My Life

Still life with lupines and gravel bucket.

 

Yup, this about sums it up right now.

There's construction and there's patches of beauty.

I can appreciate both, for different reasons.

The Garden is Finished!

Last blocks laid and terraces filled with dirt and compost.

 

It has all been rototilled in and my seedlings planted out.

 

 

A lot of hard work, right there, but so great!

I get to plant squash and pumpkins this year because there will be room for it to roam!

Woohoo!