Dodged an Early Frost

 There was a wide spread Frost Advisory this morning and at 8 am it was 34F.  The frost touched the roofs and the large areas of the lawn but wasn't cold enough to get down into the landscape or anywhere near all of the stone and pavers of the gardens.

In preparation for the frost I picked a lot of my dahlia blooms leaving mostly the common Cafe' Au Lait.  I have a whole row of those, and while they are pretty, I am getting tired of them,  I won't be saving all of the tubers for next year.   There are currently no cold nights in the long range forecast so perhaps some of the many buds left behind will get a chance to open.  I didn't cover anything because, while it would be sad to see it all go in an early frost, I need it to be over sometime so I don't fuss over it anymore.

Some of the more unique varieties waited until late to bloom.  This lovely little 3" collarette is called Bumble Rumble.

With the cooler temperatures and less intense sun, the colors of the flowers have been so vibrant.  Not long ago I tried to capture the rosiness of the Strawberry Blonde Marigolds to show you.  I tried again today with my phone camera.  They are such an unusual color for a Marigold.

This Fireball is also an incredible red, but more brick than rose.  I pulled all of the Marigolds along the driveway except this one on the corner.  I just couldn't do it.

We got all of the evergreen shrubs protected from deer with wire fence today.  I also cut the hosta and dug the border height dahlias that would have been in the way.  It is still a little early to store tubers so I just stuck them in the ground in an out of the way corner that I weeded and tilled up yesterday.

Yesterday I cut the horseradish back and weeded the area well.  Below are the collarette dahlias freed of their pushy neighbor and along the strawberry cage there is a beautiful row of parsnips.

Below are the sweet potatoes who had been sneaking up on the giant horseradish that was taking up about ten square feet.

Because of the cooler temps I am also rounding up all of my freezable garden products.  I take these into the basement every winter.

I used up all of the ready compost and dumped the shorter tube.  

The tall tube is filled to the top and will still take more as it composts and drops.  I'm thinking it might be fun to try all shredded leaves in the short tube.

That little pile there represents all kitchen scraps and garden waste from April through the peas at the end of July.  It cooked all through August and September.  Each summer I try to get the peas all in the first tube then start on the second tube.  There are a lot of worms in there but I need to turn it a couple of times before winter.  It should be ready to use next spring.

All of my vegetable garden supports and covers get stored in the temporary building.  Every post, pot, pole and hoop.  

We do have a lot of mice and chipmunks that try to invade each year.  I've found that just going in there and rattling things around every couple weeks is the biggest deterrent to nesting.  Anything chewable has to go in a sealed container.  These tubs hold all of my frost covers, burlap, insect netting and shade clothes.

As things get cut out of the landscape, the remaining plants become that much more special.

Three different kinds of Heuchera and a Vinca Vine.

Southern Charm Verbascum which was a tiny little mail order plant a year ago.
These bloomed beautifully all summer and are still putting out a few blooms.

When we first edged this natural area between the big garage and the vegetable garden, I kept the native plants pushed back about three feet.  I planted ground cover and each year I carefully weeded and mulched.  Then I gave up.  It is a losing battle to try to plant anything along a natural area.  The native roots just cannot resist moving into well cared for soil.

 

This year it is full of several varieties of native Asters.

Today we began cutting the ornamental grasses out of the creek bed.  The recent rain had started to knock them over.  One year I left them standing all winter.  That was a mistake.  Not only was the damp, dead grass nearly impossible to cut in the spring, field mice made nests in many of them, feasting on the green shoots and killing several completely.

Removing the huge grasses reveals plenty of weeds in and around each clump.

Cleaning those details up will keep me busy tomorrow....

Fall is Here

Now that fall is here, the weather got on board immediately.  We had a couple gorgeous cool days in a row where the temperatures were between 55 and 60 with both breeze and sun.  I reveled in the cool breeze even when it blew in short rainstorms to drive me in the house.  We lit a campfire and sat out.  We washed the tractor and cars.  We did odd jobs in the garden and prepared for this stretch of rainy days which is now upon us.

Yesterday we dumped the potato grow bags.  This is one chore that is fun if your soil is dry.  I have been robbing potatoes for months and we still got a good harvest.  This compost screen goes on top of the wheelbarrow and one person pours out the bag as the other person grabs potatoes.  Then the used soil goes into the bin and the spuds sit in the shade to dry.

You don't want to wash potatoes that you are going to store.  I just put on gloves and roll each one in my hand as I sort knocking off the worst of it.  I got a mere handful of tiny spuds that are too small even to cook.  These small potatoes will be used first.  The rest go to the basement,

It was about time that I transplanted the last three strawberry plants into a pot to get them out of the bed.  So I had to empty another carrot pot.  These are Sugarsnax.

One thing I always do before any forecasted rain is deadhead the Dahlias because any heavy blooms will bend then break with the weight, and any old blooms will make a mess with petals.  I have really been enjoying this Gitt's Crazy plant.  Hard to believe this was a single tuber with a single growth eye.  It has been pumping out multiple blooms for almost two months now.  It is right on the corner next to the walkway where I enjoy it all day.

Both coming and going....

When I know I am going to be indoors for a few days I will pick a bouquet.  I am not a patient flower arranger, but I did at least put a flower frog in this one.

Those blooms are absolute stunners in the house in different lights.  I enjoy walking past the blooms all day just as I would if I were outdoors.

Another stunner in this cooler, overcast weather is the color of the Strawberry Blonde Marigolds.  The red is very intense and much rosier in person than I was able to capture with my camera.

Today I will make some chili in the crockpot and watch football.  When the weather dries out again later this week we will start our last push to cut perennials.  When you first start it is hard to let go of summer, but as the landscape begins to take on the clean fall look the things you left behind begin to look out of place and it spurs you on to get things done.  Then we will be putting out wire cages for the evergreens and dealing with leaves.

In the garden I still have sweet potatoes, parsnips and horseradish to harvest.  All those hinge on the first frost.  Once the frost comes I will be storing Dahlias.  But today we rest.

UnGardening

 Let the petals fall where they may...

Over the years UnGardening, for me, has become less of an End of Summer Event and more of a slow ebb of the tide starting in mid-July when the spring crops begin to tire.  The garden is always on the move.

I am beginning to see more and more, after last summer having the wettest July on record, and then this year having abnormally dry June, July and August, that plants and trees are much more stressed by having too much water than not having enough.  Night time temps have still been moderate so trees are not changing because of the chill, however, last year with too much water they showed stress and began to turn early.  I can see some signs of cold damage in the aging Marigolds.  The foliage starts to darken and shrivel as if it caught a hint of frost over night.

I finally got tired of having to deadhead and clean up the Vanilla Marigolds after every rain.  This is how my UnGardening starts.  I remove the ugliest element first so I can enjoy what is left.

The other day we got out the power scythe and cut the majority of the Day Lilies along our front fence along the drive and in two of the dry creek bed systems.  The lilies will continue to try to grow until the first hard freeze, but we have to start somewhere.

The entire landscape starts to look as if it has had a fresh haircut.

It goes from wild and wooly to neat and tidy,

The last vegetable bed was the late sweet corn.  Now all there is to do in the raised bed garden is to monitor the mulching of the beds, keeping the buckwheat from growing back, and occasionally pulling weeds.  The ends of the stalks have to be twisted out by hand, breaking the roots.  It can be a hard job but then we run the stalks through the chipper and put the shredded material back down as mulch

The last garden area to remain is always the river bed with the ornamental grasses.  I will start to trim the daylilies and hosta out one by one but some of the grasses are just now starting to push forth their seed heads.  The tall grasses waving gently in the breeze make it a magical place.

Some perennials are just now reaching their prime.

Woods Purple Aster

There are a few seasonal chores to be done, like spreading Milky Spore to kill the Japanese Beetle grubs.  This is the first time I have purchased the granular product instead of the powder and it is a whole lot nicer to spread.  I spread a little over ten pounds today after the lawn being mowed and expecting rain showers to water it in.  I concentrated on the area under and around our Linden trees, which they love, and the Horse Chestnut tree where I hung my second beetle trap.  I will also hit a couple of raised beds, then the far lawn next to our neighbors because they have a big Linden tree but no longer bother to spread the Milky Spore.

Now for some pictures of Dahlias

This is Dahlietta City Lights.  It is a short plant about 18" to 24" tall.  The first year I planted it it kind of irked me because it was so different in color from any of my other dahlias.  Now I plant it on its own and enjoy the dramatic dark foliage and deeply colored blooms.  The flowers have an odd habit of popping off the stem whole as they age instead of dropping their petals.  I have no idea why or how this happens but it happens a lot.

Iceberg

Dana
I don't particularly care for the cactus flower form of Dana, but the bees love this one so I plant it in an out of the way place.

Pablo border height dahlia

Late Sweet Corn Progress

 Just a note on the second bed of sweet corn that gave me such a hassle.  Due to invisible pesties eating the first and second planting of seeds entirely, this bed was two weeks later than I intended.  As a result, it is growing in cooler temperatures, and the ears, while sweet and tender, and quite thoroughly pollinated, are.... petite.  The first couple of early ears that we picked last week were full sized but we are now picking smaller ears.

Not a bad outcome over all.  The first bed was outstanding.  We got a full four dozen from three 11 foot rows and almost all of the ears were large and perfect.  There were half a dozen late runts towards the end which I culled out as I husked and those did not get tallied into the four dozen.  That means the ears cost about fifty cents a piece which is what they are charging at the nearest farm stand. (figuring in cost of seed and fertilizer but certainly not time watering daily from the rain tank)

My husband is always interested in the economics of gardening, so I will occasionally work out the direct costs on a particular bed.  Sweet Corn is not a cost savings per se, but you can get over $20 of cucumbers from a single 5¢ seed.  I did happen to count the number of cukes picked off of the one Burpee Salad Bush plant.  Twenty two full sized fruit from a single vine.  And of course if you are saving tomato seeds, you are spending some money on seed starting mix and electricity to start your plants.  You can get a whole batch of peppers from a four pack of plants that might cost you $5. Some things you can save money on but its really more about the satisfaction of growing it, knowing what went into it, and enjoying having something picked at the peak of freshness. 

Rainy Monday

 Our county is finally off of the Abnormally Dry list on the Drought Monitor.  Yay!  I am enjoying a peaceful rainy Monday morning knowing that the bulk of my garden work is done for now.

Of course, as I've said before, when you get rain you also get rain related cleanup.  The middle of last week we got a surprise downpour of two and a quarter inches which was more rain in a few hours than we got for the month of either July or August.  What was no surprise is what it did to the Buckwheat.  I would rather not clean it up in this condition, and a few years ago this sight would have hit me in the gut.  But experience tells me it really isn't any more work to deal with it in this condition than it is standing straight up.  You just have to get on with it.

I had Buckwheat in all stages of development.  The nice short, fresh bed was also slated for cutting before it flowered.  I just hate taking such a scrumptious meal away from the pollinators.  So it was either cut it before it flowered and they found it or wait weeks for it to go to seed.  I'd rather cut it now.  I feel much less cold hearted about it at this stage.

Below is the wild and wooly bed after about 15 minutes of cutting and tidying.

Below is a bed that was cut a couple of weeks ago and covered with compost.  You can see a few seedlings coming through because the buckwheat went to seed before I cut it.  I just rake those over before they get too big.

Last year's compost is almost used up.  I've had just enough to cover every bed with a deep layer.  

It is in beautiful condition.  I just run it through the screen....

...and throw the uncomposted pieces back into the tubes on top of green material.

Hard to believe that last year this was branches and kitchen scraps and piles of garden waste.

The beds are surprisingly weed free after the crop is removed.  There are a few to pull, but not many.

I shovel a wheelbarrow full into each bed

and screed it flat with a landscape rake.

I use a hose to wash any over fill back into the bed, clean things up, and fill in the edges.

The beds are clean and ready for winter.  The earthworms and insects will have plenty to eat.

One bed still has some marigolds in it.  I cut the Buckwheat and layed it down then moved the potato grow bags onto it to help rot down the buckwheat faster,  The potatoes will stay in the soil until frost then the soil will be dumped out into the dirt locker for reuse next year.

And now some pictures of pretty things

Gitt's Crazy Dahlia

Lady Darlene Dahlia

Peaches and Dreams Dahlia

HS Date Dahlia