Fall clean-up – week #1

Fall clean-up for week #1 is almost complete (sans pulling in the hummingbird feeders). Time invested so far: about 2 hrs.

It helped that our guest in the garden was there to lend moral support.

2 of the 3 clematis in back are now trimmed back, the daylilies in one garden are trimmed back, all of the asian lilies are trimmed back, the hostas that were fading and wilting are trimmed back, the irises that never bloom (I keep hoping-lol) are trimmed back, all of the remaining hosta scapes are trimmed back (goodness knows what I will do with all those Aureomarginata seeds!), and all of the linden branches that came down in the recent storm are picked up. 2 large bags packed to the gills.

It’s starting to look lighter in the garden. Kinda sad. But hey, some scarecrow garden picks might look good in those open spaces 😉

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Today all that’s left on the agenda is pulling in the hummingbird feeders, washing them, and putting them in storage.

Next week – trim back the ‘Marque Moon’ daylilies and the all the red daylilies.

Fall clean up begins

I need to begin fall cleanup today. It usually takes six Saturdays, and I am right on the edge of running late. Saturday is the day, because compost is open until 2 pm on Saturdays in the fall.

It’s always a little sad to start this process, but I cut everything back by hand (no weed whipping – yet) and if I don’t get going, it will be bitterly cold when the last bit needs to be done. (Experience talking here) Plus, there are those few things to be transplanted, or given to neighbors. And then there’s that bag of 30 tulips.

The past few falls it stayed nice enough that some of the hosta leaves were able to turn colors before they wilted from frost.

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So I will leave those for another week. I’ll start with the asian lilies, the fading hostas, and the daylilies whose leaves are browning up.

Yup. I need to get started. No more hanging on. It’s time. We have our “guest in the garden” this weekend. He can lend moral support. In 30 minutes.

If it were April/May, I’d be all over a day to get out in the garden early, but Brrr! Who wants to leave the comfy house with cozy throws to go out and cut down the garden?

It does help that part of the garden came in the house last night – the hibiscus, shamrocks and amaryllis. They are still in the entryway acclimating before I put them in their locations for the next 6 months. Maybe I’ll enjoy them inside for just a few more minutes.

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No? Okay, here we go. Once I get going it will be fun? Or at least familiar …

First frost

We are headed to our first frost tonight – 31°. Brrr! Then we’ll be in the mid 50’s during the daytime tomorrow. I am reminded that this is the time of year we Minnesotans, as my husband says, “hardy up”.

The squirrels are chubbing up. They get the whole “hardy up” thing. One of our white squirrels came to fill up early this morning.

I am thinking that only a week and a half ago we were comfortably taking a day cruise in Duluth (MN).

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It was only during the last 10 min or so when the wind picked up that I even pulled my hood up. Today I wore my new heavy jacket to work – and was glad for it!

Tonight the hibiscus and shamrocks and amaryllis came in. They will make their home inside now until probably early May.

And our “guest in the garden”, little 9 pound Sandy, came with his fall vest when I picked him up late this afternoon. Missy said he is already getting chilled when he goes out.

A cup of hot tea to chase away the chill, a candle going indoors to cozy things up, and a weekend walk in the middle of the day when it’s warmest will be the new norm pretty soon.

Hot Tea Time

It’s getting to be hot tea time in the fall garden again. Not to worry – I have plenty in stock ☺ Lemon and raspberry and mint and matcha, english breakfast and irish breakfast, and, of course green.

The buffet is stocked and the pantry is full. It will be a while til I need to buy any more. But what a treat to sit in the garden on a cool morning with a hot cup of tea.

Looking forward to that this weekend. But maybe not until 9am or so on Saturday. We’re supposed to have a chilly 33° at 7am on Saturday. Brrrr!

Pulling the hibiscus and shamrocks in

Friday night we are supposed to have a frost. If that forecast holds, it’s time to pull in the hibiscus and shamrocks.

The shamrocks look fine, but the leaves on an entire main branch of the hibiscus turned brown a couple weeks ago. It is probably 10 years old. I put fertilizer on it in the spring, and coffee grounds to also fertilize and keep pests away. I’m hoping it is not failing. It is in a very large pot, so big that my husband and I have to carry it outside together, but I suspect it is getting root-bound. Getting a larger pot is not an option. The plant barely fits through the door now. So I think I will just watch it for now. Hopefully it will recover.

Tonight I saw something new. I heard a lot of an unfamiliar chirping out by the smaller pine. It went on and on so I went to look. I saw a male cardinal feeding a female cardinal. The female was the one chirping. They started out on separate branches but soon she sat on the branch right next to him. He would get food out of the feeder, and feed it to her. Very cool. I’ve never seen that before. I looked it up and it sounds like cardinals are monogamous. Maybe it’s the Mom and Dad that we saw going back and forth to feed the hatchlings we heard this summer. Maybe it’s a new “couple”. It seems unlikely they are breeding, as we are at the end of September, but maybe. We’ll see.

Fall planning begins

A few weekends ago I had time to sit on the patio, look at the garden areas, relax in the shade, and think. Our small pine tree, the one with the bird feeders, has become a little ecosystem. Finches and chickadees and cardinals and doves, squirrels of different colorings and even a mama squirrel comes by. Our garden had humingbirds and monarchs and bumble bees and dragonflies. All coming to feed and some stopping for quite a while. It is peaceful. I need that time, sometimes even with no phone to take pictures. Yes, that was very healthy.

During those few weeks, it seemed as if the stores were sometimes quite successful in getting fall merchandise out the door – in 92° weather! Scarecrows were showing up down the street!

But now fall is definitely here. Our linden is shedding yellow leaves, one or two at a time, but there is a growing pile on the lawn. I have gotten out my boxes of tea for hot beverages. The sweatshirts that sat in the closet over the summer are starting to come out.

In the garden, the daylilies and hostas are all done blooming.

The sedum are in full bloom.

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But our little tomato plant, although looking quite tired, is still bearing fruit. It had five waves of blooms!

Now my mind is beginning to consider plant moves – like the sedum that didn’t get much sun this year because the ‘Aureomarginata’ hostas have gotten so big.

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Poor thing! It needs much more spacious accommodations.

Some things have been fading, too, like the beautiful pink asian lilies that are getting crowded by hostas and sedum out front. We have had them for probably a dozen years. I don’t want to lose them, if possible.

It’s not quite scarecrow picks in the ground time at our house yet, but I’m thinking … What do I want to move around so next year is even better?

Fall was also starting on the north shore when we were there last week. One of the days we were up there we took a gondola ride. Check out the start of fall color!

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Chickadees and tree sap

A few weeks ago I noticed the chickadees were eating out of the hummingbird feeder.

I thought that odd, so I looked it up. I found it is not uncommon for chickadees to do that. It is similar to their eating pine sap. Sure enough, when I watched, I saw them eating pine sap.

We really enjoy the chickadees and are hoping they stick around through the four seasons now that we have the seed feeders available for them.

The hummingbirds have moved through, but we have left the feeders up for a few more days. This weekend we’ll take them down, clean them, and put them in storage until next spring. Until then, enjoy, chickadees!

The day awakens

We’ve had an almost full moon the past few days. Those nights are pretty neat, with the moon shining brightly on everything sleeping. Sometimes I wake up early, and take a peek at what’s going on outside. Often I will see one of the neighborhood bunnies eating seed that has been dropped under the feeders. This morning was like that.

I looked out front and saw the moon was still lighting up the sleepy scene below. Inside, I turned on the least bright lights and read a bit. (I landed in Genesis a week ago and have kind of hung out there.) After a while I checked outside again. The moon was red, just on the horizon. As close to a moon set as we see with roofs obstructing the full view.

Soon the night gave way to sunrise.

Sunrises on the north shore, when it wasn’t cloudy, were beautiful. This was the view out our window as we had our morning coffee.

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Sing to me

Two Saturdays ago I spent time in the garden without my phone. I watched a mama squirrel eating cautiously at the back bird feeder. Two young checkadees were flitting about the small pine tree. Three young finches were all trying to get on the front bird feeder together. A young cardinal was picking away under the pine tree. And the monarchs had been around all week and were flitting by. It was awesome just to take it all in. Our guest in the garden was half-snoozing on my lap. It was good.

Then a large crow flew in, silently, and started looking around the greenspace. Soon two more large crows and a third came. They were noisy, cawing back and forth. And another came. Three sat in one tree, one in another, and one struted across the lawn, all large and in charge. By now the song birds had stopped singing and were flying away from the pine, and the squirrel had stopped eating and just sat crouched on a branch. I was so inclined to shoo the crows away, but knew that would further disrupt the previously peaceful scene so I waited and watched. It didn’t take long. Apparently finding nothing worth their energy, within a few minutes the crows left. And then the squirrel left. I watched as it ran off. It was on edge.

I went in to look at the time. I got my phone and went back outside with Sandy. Soon the birds started coming back, more than before. Then one squirrel and then two.

I thought to myself, there’s a lesson here. Things were peaceful, good. The birds were singing. And, as so often happens, something had to come in and stir things up. But, if you don’t take the bait and make things worse, if you just sit there for a while, things calm down.

We just spent some relaxing time on the north shore of Minnesota. Lake Superior, as always, awes and inspires us. A bit further inland we enjoyed the more remote areas. More to come on all of that in future blogs this week.

Not without a bloom

When I started our gardens here, I wanted to create a place where one set of blooming plants rolled into the next. Crocus to daffodils to hyacinth to tulips to asian lilies to irises to … It was a great idea but my husband was not crazy about the look, especially as things died off and we were left with a few … sunflowers! It was also busy, and it looked like a giant mess as the siberian irises gradually took over a large part of the garden. So I dug them out and gave them to my mother-in-law who had space, along with, regrettably, some daylilies that I had put in front and didn’t look so good there. Then I started to build the gardens we have today.

Along the way I also discovered that no matter how many crocus, daffodils, and hyacinth I planted here, they would only come back one, maybe two years. Believe me, I planted hundreds, en masse, and they just don’t thrive here. Some don’t even come in one time! So, I decided tulips are enough. Some stay (I have one patch of purple tulips that has come back 14 years)

and some come back every year as greens (not too exciting). Once again this fall I bought a bag of tulips, and have already picked out the spot for them.

After the tulips come the clematis (from the original garden). Then come the asian lilies (some original, some newer) and then the hostas, the weigelia (original) and the ninebarks (newer). Then come the daylilies for months, followed by the sedum, with the hostas blooming throughout. Continuously blooming are the shamrocks and the hibiscus.

They bloom even when they are brought in mid-October, and go well into December.

In January I head off to the garden store and get a watch ’em grow garden, which blooms into March, and somewhere in Feb the amaryllis blooms. In late Feb the hibiscus starts up again along with a little bit on the shamrocks. And then in April, as the hibiscus and shamrocks are lightly blooming, we are moving outside again.

This progression has run through my mind lately. Yes, I am sad the daylilies are done and the hostas are wrapping up, but truly we are never long without blooms in our “garden”.