Gardener's Group discussion

The change of seasons is upon us once again!

First day of Fall here has been beautiful. Worked outside cleaning up a couple of flower beds. We did have freeze warnings two nights ago but no frost happened here. I'm not ready to lose my potted annuals yet as they are really nice right now. Hydrangeas, old fashion roses, zinnias, dahlias, rosy pink asters and sedum are making a nice autumn display.

Another gorgeous fall day. I went outside this afternoon with the intention of washing the garage windows. When I realized how much stuff I was going to have to move to get at the windows my focus changed. I'm proud to report my garage is cleaned, my garbage service has been notified there will be extra items to pick up this week and I even managed to get some of the windows washed before I pooped out. I was so filthy anyway I couldn't wait to get in the shower.

Four days of wind, rain, falling leaves and gray skies. We still have not had frost which is unusual. I'm itching to get out and clean out the veg garden and cut back perennials but prefer to do it after the plants have died back. After not mowing lawn after the last week of July the grass is now growing from recent rain and I will be forced to mow in October.

Cheryl S. wrote: "Four days of wind, rain, falling leaves and gray skies. We still have not had frost which is unusual. I'm itching to get out and clean out the veg garden and cut back perennials but prefer to do ..."

Same here, next week will be in the seventies! In October! No frost freeze yet, I have not turned on my furnace yet, my hanging pots still looks great. Grass is tall from the rain. I should be putting the lawn mower away for the winter by now. It may be a repeat like last year, I put the flower garden away durring the Thanksgiving holiday. When I was a kid, we always had snow for thanksgiving holidays.

Last winter was the first winter in which I never had to use my snow blower. Just used a broom for the occasional dusting. Ten years ago we averaged around 120 inches for the winter. Last winter was only about 20 inches for the whole winter.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet
An enlightening book.

It's still hot here. September is the hottest, most humid month of the year and it hasn't cooled down yet. I wish it would. It's ok where I live in the rainforest, it's only about 78 and the plants are all still doing fine, but town is hot and sticky and the dracaenias and crotons I have outside my shop have crinkly brown leaves and are wilting in the heat.

Thankfully Autumn weather has returned! It was so flipping hot and humid again for the beginning of October. Yuck! Didn't help our drought or Autumn foliage colors any.

Mickey wrote: "Cheryl S. wrote: "Four days of wind, rain, falling leaves and gray skies. We still have not had frost which is unusual. I'm itching to get out and clean out the veg garden and cut back perennials..."

Are you in the northern part of the US?

Wild windy day today with temps in the high 70s. Unusual but enjoyable!

Cheryl S. wrote: "Mickey wrote: "Cheryl S. wrote: "Four days of wind, rain, falling leaves and gray skies. We still have not had frost which is unusual. I'm itching to get out and clean out the veg garden and cut ..."

Thumb area of Michigan... Yea, I consider it part of the northern US.

We caught the tail end of the tropical storm yesterday. We had ridiculous winds and flash flooding but it brought cooler temperatures and much-needed rain.

I picked a ton of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant today. I'll be sorry when the garden quits for the winter. I never get tired of fresh veggies.

My asters, marigolds, zinnias and mums are going strong. So are the geraniums in my window boxes. I bought a few pumpkins today for the front lawn to keep my scarecrows company. I'm hoping we will have a long Indian summer. I'm still not ready to give up on summer.

Mickey wrote: "Cheryl S. wrote: "Mickey wrote: "Cheryl S. wrote: "Four days of wind, rain, falling leaves and gray skies. We still have not had frost which is unusual. I'm itching to get out and clean out the v..."

LOL.

Sounds like it's back to reality for us starting Sat with much lower temps and the return of the wind. Today was 75 and blue skies. So nice for this time of the year. The leaves are about 75% turned at this point. I did a lot of leaf clean up today as the wind was down after the 30MPH gales from yesterday. Also cleaned a few things out of the veg garden and dug my potatoes. I have marigolds and nasturtiums planted in my veg garden and they are spectacular right now after our recent rain. Sounds like we could have frost next week so I'm enjoying these last few days of color while they last.

The rest of the week is to get the house ready for winter. Swap out the outer widow screens with glass inserts. Put some of the porch furniture in basement, covers on the other larger furniture. Put away the water hoses. Check outside lines and lights for new caulking. Cover the air conditioner and pull the breakers to it. The vegetable garden is already put to bed and trellises stored away. Still to warm to put away the lawn equipment.

I need the ground to freeze first inorder to put away the flower garden. Learned in the past, if I put mulch down too early, the ground is too warm and makes a nice home for mice and other critters. Ground freezes first then mice won't find a home for the winter chewing on the roots of my plants. Need mulch to keep on some plants that are sensitive from zero to sub zero tempratures that can kill some plants (has been rare, but would still like to preseve my butterfly bushes), I am in zone 5b. Temperatures next week in the upper sixties, so this chore will probably be done around Thanksgiving.

Settling down for the first Nor'Easter of Autumn, starting tomorrow, lasting likely until Saturday. We desperately need the rain so as long as things don't get too dicey here on the coast I'll be glad for it. More rain forecasted for next week as well.

Another glorious day! I told my cats they better spend as much time as possible in the open windows because their days of that activity are numbered.

Not a cloud in the sky, 73 degrees, mild breeze. I could live in this climate year round. My 2 little guys (cats)are exhausted from the last few days of running from window to window to window.....watching the deer and the squirrels and the birds. It's a good life:)

A sure sign of winter coming--the hummingbirds are gone. Sad to see the empty feeders and it's time to bring in the houseplants for the year. That's tomorrow.

More crazy winds today. The air is full of leaves and birds. Have been enjoying listening to the Canadian geese come honking in over my house at dusk, winging their way to the river for the night.

We are still without rain, the nor'easter broke apart and went around us, only bringing humidity. Dark as tombs again with all the cloud cover but not a drop of rain yet. We've been close to frost here on the coast, but hasn't happened yet. (It has at our northern home). The thought of entering Winter in a drought worries me.

We had .28 rain last night, which was welcome. The temps have dropped to the low 60's for highs the last few days and are forecast to be lows in the 30's later this week.
I brought in the houseplants except for two large philodendrons I need to spray for white flies (tomorrow) and dumped all the plants on the deck (mostly coleus) and dumped the dirt out of the pots too. New dirt next year.

I haven't disposed of the plants in the front because they are still blooming away and look pretty and I hate to kill things that are trying so hard. But my display of pumpkins and mums looks quite seasonal!

The trees here are at their peaks, colorwise--quite beautiful. By the weekend's end, probably mostly gone.

Highs in the 50s today with with lower temps predicted for over the week-end and frost for Sat. night. Frankly I can't wait for it to frost as I have a lot to do outside and like Jessie I can't bear to dump annuals that are blooming beautifully right now. I have a quilting retreat Friday and Sat so will be occupied with that. Once that's over I'll have to shift into high gear and get the yard ready for winter.

It's official. June, July, August and September were our only snowless months of 2013. Couple inches of the white stuff fell this morning, then it rained off and on all afternoon leaving a little snow here and there which hopefully will be gone by morning. I have a lot to do outside and I'm not excited about it being in the 40s this coming week but I'm going to have to ignore that and get the work done. This is the first time I can remember having snow before having a frost in a long time. Seemed very strange to have snow on green leaves as many of the perennials are still blooming.

I was at a quilt retreat Fri and Sat so in a way I enjoyed today as it was too nasty to work outside and I could work on my projects from the retreat without guilt.

Gardening must be really tough in that climate, Cheryl. I don't think I could live anywhere that wasn't at least warm most of the year let alone garden in it! Much admiration for you.

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "Gardening must be really tough in that climate, Cheryl. I don't think I could live anywhere that wasn't at least warm most of the year let alone garden in it! Much admiration for you."

We do not garden durring the winter. Winter is a time for relaxation and explore other things in life. Varity is the spice of life, skiing, reading with a good book, watch the snow fall. It is peaceful in a way, some nights watching the northern lights flicker in the night sky. For me the winter months will be focusing on mathematics and physics.

Now that fall is here and canning is done, I will soon focus on cooking. Halloween treats and costume parties, Thanksgiving turkeys and family get togethers, Christmas Trees and Baked hams, New Years snacks and ballroom dancing. I like the change of the seasons, playing in the dirt year round would get a little boring for me. By the end of winter I will be dreaming of flowers poking up.

Petra smells something fishy round here wrote: "Gardening must be really tough in that climate, Cheryl. I don't think I could live anywhere that wasn't at least warm most of the year let alone garden in it! Much admiration for you."

It's a challenge but I think I appreciate the growing season (such as it is) all the more because some years it's very short.

In some ways I view winter as a time to relax. I cook more, especially soup and other comfort food. I like the snow and would truly miss the change of seasons. There's more time to get together with friends, work on quilting projects, take some classes, read more books and as you all know I love to watch my grandkids play hockey.

I don't think I could ever live in a cold climate again. There are seasons in the tropics, but they are much more subtle. I like the idea of snow, but I grew up with it enough to know that, at least in Wales, the blue-sky, brisk days with crisp snow on the ground were few and far between. It was mostly grey and cold and miserable and the snow was dirty brown slush. Maybe it is different where you all are.

I love Love LOVE snow! It is so beautiful here on the coast (where snow is more rare in the last decade or so unfortunately) and in the area of our northwestern home when it snows. I do love Winter but can't see much point in it if it doesn't snow LOL! Autumn and Winter are my favorite seasons - it used to snow during both when I was a little girl. We've had our first hard frost up at our northwestern NJ home this morning and a little snow too! I wish we were up there on vaca this week but won't be until next. Hopefully I'll catch a glimpse o snow then, the forecast has the temps cold enough for sure. I loathe hot and humid weather, it doesn't mesh well with my health issues at all and I end up hibernating indoors more during the warm months of the year than during the cold! I can always get warm when it's cold (unless I'm sick with an infection, then that's another issue entirely) but I cannot always get relief from how ill the hot and humid weather makes me. If I could live in perpetual Autumn, Winter and early Spring, I would gladly!

We have finally had hard frost the last three nights and now we are having wind chill. I've had a busy week with one thing and another but tomorrow no matter what the weather I have to work outside. Like Jo I detest heat and humidity. It makes me feel like I'm trying to work stuck in molasses.

Paid a visit to the local thrift shop today looking for a comfortable warm jacket to wear when I work outside (my old one is trashed). Spent $10.50 and came home with a black down jacket, a tomato red down vest and a pair of black leather Thinsulate lined gloves all in excellent condition. Very timely as the doorknob on the closet where I keep my coats jammed last evening and I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to get the door open as all the screws are on the inside. Also I keep the cat food in there in a plastic container and had to make a special trip to the vet to get more food as the cats were going nuts about their empty dish. Man, how something so simple can completely mess of your day.

November has arrived a couple of days early. Yesterday was snow, sleet and rain and today has been fog and mist. Had to have lights on in the house both days--so dark and dreary.

Learned something new today--the reason the leaves are staying on the trees so late in the year is because they have a very high sugar content due to the weather we had last spring. It's very unusual for us to have any fall color left at this time of year and the grass is greener than it was in the middle of the summer. I was out and about yesterday and just couldn't get over how beautiful it was especially as it was our first sunny day in over a week.

Cheryl S. wrote: "Learned something new today--the reason the leaves are staying on the trees so late in the year is because they have a very high sugar content due to the weather we had last spring. It's very unus..."

Same here, it is November and the trees here in Michigan are still hanging on to the leaves. Even had a severe thunder storm with strong winds during Holloween and the leaves still hung on. Grass is green also but is not growing that fast. I have never mowed the lawn in November before.

ditto here. Many many leaves still hanging on; it's beautiful actually. But since I like to pay to have them removed only once it's holding up production and the yard is covered, and so is the roof. It's been cloudy here and generally dank for the last few days (mostly) but I hope the sun comes out eventually. It's depressing.

Most of the trees in my yard were finally bare on Monday so I mulched with my mower and things are looking much better. Good thing I did it as we are getting some snow tonight. Don't think it's going to amount to much, I think the heavy stuff is going south of us. I do have a couple of small jobs left to do outside and if they don't get done that's okay too.

Ended up with about 3 inches of the cake frosting variety of snow. Really beautiful this morning. Even though it was below freezing and not melting the sun was out and the snow coated all the trees etc. My red bark dogwood was especially pretty.

That sounds lovely. All it did here today was rain, slowly, not hard, but ALL DAY LONG. And still is. And the remaining leaves are coming down as fast as the rain--it's raining leaves actually as well as water. It was in the 60's today, but will be colder the rest of the week.

The leave removal guy will probably not show tomorrow, since it will be too wet to do anything. I will hope for Friday.

I took the Halloween decorations off my perpetual "Christmas" tree on the front porch and added the Thanksgiving turkeys. Soon enough Christmas. Amazing how fast the year is going.

I finally decided on who to sign up with as Prescription Medicare provider. My choice for the supplemental medical policy was dictated by the fact that until my husband turns 65, next summer, I have to remain using my previous employer's coverage (luckily, competitive in price) since he is my dependent and if I leave, he's cut off from his insurance. I'll probably stick with them anyway if they remain competitive in price. But what a pain in the ass.

But at least we don't have to deal with Obamacare, thank the good Lord. And expensive as all this is, it's still so much less than we are/have been paying out of our pocket for health insurance thru my old employer. Wonderful coverage as far as coverage was concerned, but still fabulously expensive. We are looking forward to DH hitting 65 because it will cost us less than half as much. A relief.

Rained all day here also. Leaves are starting to come down. I am debating with myself to bag the leaves with my lawn mower for the compost pile OR let the lawn go this year and just finish prepping the flowers for winter. It will take a day just to prune the roses ( A thorny issue for me and the clippings go into a different compost pile ).

In the mid 30s here. A little of the snow has melted and the roads are good. The leaves are finally coming off of my big lilac and it looks quite odd having them on top of the snow.

It's cold here tonite, in the lowest 30's. Leaves are still coming down. I hope that leaf guy comes tomorrow; it was too wet today, although it was a beautiful day with the blue skies but windy and very chilly.

I visited a local cemetery here to do some cleanup work, one I've been going to for years. It had been since Spring. In the interim, it has been fixed up, a new fence put in, new gravel parking area, all the grave markers cleaned (nothing for me to do there); a 6' in diameter tree stump removed, new signage, etc. Very pleasant surprise. All I could find to do was remove a bunch of branches that had blown down and replant some American flags on graves that had been blown over. This cemetery dates from the mid 1800's but is till occasionally used.

MissJessie wrote: "It's cold here tonite, in the lowest 30's. Leaves are still coming down. I hope that leaf guy comes tomorrow; it was too wet today, although it was a beautiful day with the blue skies but windy and..."

What a neat thing for you to do.

Rained during the night and washed the rest of the snow away. Today was low steel wool clouds and wind gusts of 35MPH. Actual temps not so cold but the winds were icy.

Learned today a good friend living in Austin, Tx had significant damage to her home in the recent flooding there. She can't say enough good about the Red Cross, ROTC and National Guardsmen who have come to her assistance. Comforting to know she is getting the help she needs.

I read in the newspaper that a creek in Austin went up 11 feet in 15 minutes. I know that flash floods are common in that area but still, zeesh. Hard to imagine.

I hope your friend had flood insurance? And it's wonderful about the aid she is getting.

There has been a lot of rain here, like monsoon rain. It got me through my (showerproof) jacket right down to my undies the other day when I was trying to get a ride up the mountain. My vehicle's transmission has gone so I have to rely on rides. Getting into town is no problem, but trying to get a ride out is terrible. Hitching rides around here is quite safe and since we don't have a bus service and taxis are outrageously expensive, everyone does it.

The floods have got my newly-repainted shop floor all stained up. I've had to revarnish the bottom shelves as well. But the rains have cooled down the island and it's just nice and 82ish and breezy again.

My new seedlings, tomato and pepper got washed away though :-(

It's Petra, btw :-D

Are you suffering from an identity crisis Petra :)

MissJessie wrote: "I read in the newspaper that a creek in Austin went up 11 feet in 15 minutes. I know that flash floods are common in that area but still, zeesh. Hard to imagine.

I hope your friend had flood insu..."

I don't know about insurance but her helpers from the different organizations donated money so she could fly home to Minnesota as her 13 year old granddaughter passed away from cancer the same night as the storm. Her family knew this loss was coming but I just couldn't believe it all happened the same day.

MissJessie wrote: "Are you suffering from an identity crisis Petra :)"

Small protest
1) Petra Smells something fishy around here
2) Don't let the bastards grind you down.

I've been quite involved in the protests against the deletions and censorship issues of GR. Even if only in a small way. I wrote a review of Off-Topic from the point of view of my goldfish and then saw this avatar. It went so well together, rude goldfish under my heel...

I suppose I should just have answered you 'yes', MissJessie.

Yup Petra I read them all and know what Illegitimi Non Carborundum means.

I too have had comments about the situation. Though not as many as you.

And BTW the bastards don't get me down :) I moved on to Library Thing mostly.

I found LibraryThing too dry and I didn't like Tim's smug remarks that seemed echoed by some of the LT members who seemed to think that GR was a lower form of (intellectual) life. However I think it is a totally amazing book cataloging site. I have no intention of leaving GR but I'm not reading, liking or posting reviews here. Just chatting. Nice people and nice groups (like you and this one) here.

My Latin is too rusty. I don't know what Petra's new name means. However, I've stopped giving stars, writing reviews etc. The only place I comment on what I think of a book is on this site. I'm very glad to hear you're sticking with this group as I would miss all the interesting comments from everyone.

Me too Cheryl. There are three groups I participate in, this one mostly. And I would miss is very much.

But I don't review anymore here and I quite librarianing some time ago. I still enter books into my catalogue, out of habit mostly. But that's it.

Pity.