Author: susansdailygarden

Check!

The To Do list is getting check offs this weekend, with continued attention to decluttering.

Yesterday I wrapped up the final garden cut back – remaining hostas, and the sedum that were a casualty of the lawn maintenance leaf blowing. Every year I keep the sedum that is still standing. The bunnies and birds enjoy them throughout the winter.

Today my To Do list is focused on the nice fall weather sprint wrapping up, and snow in the forecast for this coming Tuesday.

The winter lanterns went out today,

and all the spring and summer decorations I brought in last weekend went into the storage bin. To keep everything all in one place, I also put all the seeds I harvested into that storage as well. Come January when the seeds need to go into the refrigerator (for stratifying), they will all be easily accessible and organized.

Since I only allow myself one bin for garden decorations, keeping clutter out is important. Today I tossed all garden plant information for things that are no longer in our garden, as well as information on spring bulbs that didn’t bloom in 2020. Tulips and crocus both seldom bloom here for more than a year or two. This fall, with so much going on, I didn’t plant any new tulips. Hopefully some will return next spring from my 2019 plantings.

Inside, I did my weekly “gardening” for the plants we overwinter – cleaning up the hibiscus, shamrocks and lavender plants from the die back that inevitably happens as they lose sunlight hours.

For the afternoon, I’m planning on getting all the batteries in the window candles. That is always quite a job. Once that is done, l’ll start putting them in the windows. With the days getting shorter, the window candles bring a cozy feeling.

I hope you have a good week ahead as we move more indoors and start dreaming and planning for next year’s garden!

Huge October

Happy November 1st!

Wow – where do I begin?

October was a huge month for us. Both our sons got married, and we moved into the meat of renovating the new little house up north. Every day was either filled with activities or work or coordinating for upcoming work at the house. It was a time of celebrations and transitions – a time of just being present and not even necessarily being ready to put pen to paper.

Friday night as the work week wrapped up and I looked at options for a quiet weekend moving into November, I began to formalize a project. We live in a moderately sized townhome with minimal opportunity to stow away things and abide deferred decisions. Our laundry room doubles as a workhorse of a storage room. This year it has worked even harder. Everything from extra food storage and supplies to harvested seeds have gone in there from March to September. Then with the October activities, even more items made their way back there. The cluttered state it was in was not good for me – dust catching, unpleasant to look at, and not serviceable to easily access anything. It needed some love – purging and a whole lot of organizing. So you know how it goes – from realization to starting motivation to the thick of it to pragmatism taking over. Today I can walk in there and go “Ahhhhh!” Mid yesterday, not so much. Bonus was finding a 3 wick candle I love, still in the box. Nice!

Today I need to move my attention outside and pull in all the garden decorations. We had a historic (literally record breaking) early snowstorm on Oct 21 and my garden clean-up cadence got a bit derailed. I need to wrap that up before beginning hygge indoors.

My sister put together this wreath for me last year and my mother recently gave me this plate. Going into November, with the temptation to let my energy be pulled away into things that are neither productive nor beneficial, this is a good place to stay grounded.

Hanging on to summer

Last week it felt like fall, but it was still summer. This week it feels like summer, but it is now fall. And so it will go, as the days get shorter and cooler and the gardens here slowly begin their rest. For now, though, the pollinators are still happy – our sedum are in full bloom.

And at the little house up north, five daylilies have been added to a yard absolutely devoid of any plantings. A completely blank slate front, back, and sides. Only an old lawn and a couple trees. Mind is going, but for this year, while other projects are prioritized, this humble fall planting will have to do. A little sunny corner to make a start. Next spring I’ll pull the grass, the first bit of lawn to be replaced by the start of the gardens.

Recycle?

As part of deciding to let our gardening “start” up north naturalize, I am trying to decide if we should pull the steel raised bed garden frames and use them in the garden at the new (to us) house.

There is currently no garden or landscaping at all at the new house.  It is unusual for me to consider a no garden yard, but I’m excited at the possibilities.  There are both sunny and shade covered areas so my current style of sticking mostly to hostas, daylilies and sedum is the plan.  Some grading will be needed, as there are gutters but no downspouts – another unusual idea for me – but I have read that some folks think it is better to even forego any gutters and just grade and rock away from the house.  For us, the gutters will stay, but whether or not downspouts will be part of the long-term plan is not certain.

During this interesting year, it is very hard to find contractors who are not swamped.  People are apparently keeping quite busy with home projects.  The earliest we can get a contractor out to grade and rock is mid-October.  That means … no landscaping up by the house this year.  What to do?

I have already ordered 9 distinctly different daylilies for the new house (couldn’t resist, and I want them in the ground this fall …).  They are all ones I don’t have in our current gardens.  My pending decision?  I’m thinking of pulling the raised bed garden frames from the overgrown – ahem “naturalized” – gardens up north in September, and starting a border garden along the back edge of the lawn at the new house.  Last year we also bought recycled tin (from an old barn roof) for projects up north, and I could continue the metal vibe in the new house garden next spring if I still like it.

So, being true to us, potentially reusing the unneeded frames, testing on a smaller scale before going wider, and using the recycled tin if we like the metal look down the road are all wins.  Now we’ll see exactly how much work it is to implement.  Maybe there could even be a “take 2” on the hugelkulture test?

All just on paper right now.  Implementation is a month out.  Lots of time to consider all options.

Meanwhile, here, the Rainforest Sunrise hostas (some of my faves) are starting to get their scapes, a lovely red with purple flowers.  Out front they are overcrowded.  They need to come out of there this fall and be divided.  Maybe go in the corner of the yard at the new house, where it gets afternoon shade?

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It begins – take 2

Two years ago we bought some land in far northern Minnesota.  It was on the bucket list and we were ready.  We thought we’d do a slow build and then move up there for retirement.

Well … our grown children have increasingly become uncomfortable with that idea – too far away from them, too far out of the nearest town …  Indeed – it is a location for the more hardy.  Our trail cams consistently show bears, wolves, coyotes, bobcats, besides deer and rabbits.  I recently put up a bird feeder and left seed in it upon our departure.  Bad idea.  The bears discovered it, took it, bent the shepherd’s hook way over, took the solar light on the other hook, and then kept visiting for a few days to see if more fun might reappear.  No sir-ee!  That’s a quick lesson in “Don’t do that!”

Here’s them seeing if maybe something closer in to the camper might have appeared.  (The bird feeder was farther out.)  Yah.  No.

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The garden I tried to grow up there quickly got overrun by those famous northern ferns.  Thousands and thousands of ferns on the property – literally, and they are tall and grow fast!  Nix the garden.  Some of it survived – asclepias, some iris, asparagus … but it is now naturalized, and will stay that way.  Maybe in late fall we will try to remove the metal frames from the raised bed hugelkulture experiment we did.  Maybe.  Right now – no way.  Too overgrown.

We are working on a plan B for retirement – still up north, but in a city.  It is consistent with our continual downsizing plan – an older home with a very small footprint.  Outside it has an old lawn (my favorite – low maintenance) and absolutely no landscaping or garden.

So the fun begins.

Right on the edge of crisp

August is one of those months – the daylilies wrap up, but the hostas are super full.  The days are shortening, but the morning air is right on the edge of crisp – perfect!  The crickets sing and the monarchs start showing up much more, but the robins are scarce again.  The feeling starts to turn the corner into fall, but with plenty of warm days still on the horizon.

I have noticed once again I don’t have a lot of mid to late August blooms in the garden.  I need to do something  about that.  I have also noticed I have plenty of weeding and trimming to do in the garden after a couple very busy past weekends, and I need to do something about that.

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A few weeks ago I accepted a more challenging role at work, and at the same time we started to really think about how we want to downsize again and work on some more bucket list items.  This whole year and all its events have brought priorities into sharper focus.  So my thoughts are turning again to simplifying the things we can so we are able to amplify the things that nurture us.  It is once again a time of both weeding out and filling in.

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Division – of the good kind

The last red daylily of the 2020 season in our garden bloomed yesterday.

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Other daylilies have already wrapped up or are wrapping up.

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Our attention remains on their beauty, both this year and in future years, and also turns to the potential of the gardens around us.  It is time to start planning to “dig and divide” – a good thing.

Friday a fellow gardener and I walked the association with the purpose of planning the plantings for the final projects this year.  In that discussion, the topic came up of what divisions from our garden will go to other gardens.  My friend has a saying,  “We garden for others”.   There is wisdom in that perspective.  Gardening  fills our mind and gives us hundreds of happy hours each year, and part of that is because it gets us thinking of what others may enjoy.

This year we are dividing some of our “Blue Mouse Ears” from the garden here and giving them new homes when we rehab the Welcome Garden.  Another hosta, an “Elegans” is being divided and going into a neighboring homeowner’s garden.  Our garden stays fit and trim, our association’s landscaper does the heavy lifting of digging and dividing 😊, and if I make room, I get the opportunity to consider what new (ahem daylily) additions make sense to introduce next year 😊😊.