This Beautiful, Very Different Fall!

Howdy, Pressers! I thought I’d better get back online after over a month off 🙂

It has been a very different fall experience this year. Some of that was planned, and a large portion was not. It has been good to take the time to reflect, adjust, and plan forward.

As I have shared, in 2025 I fulfilled a bucket list item. I pretty much exhausted the opportunities that presented for propagation work with my daylilies. I researched and planned and did a boatload of daylily crosses. I also harvested every daylily pod from the work the pollinators accomplished. The result was a lot of seed. Hundreds and hundreds of seeds. I was not ready for that, and I did not enjoy what followed – a lot of time storing the seeds and then starter planting and finally transplanting them into the garden. That full experience taught me that I had exceeded my threshold for where I wanted to go with annual propagation work. I knew that volume was not going to be for me. I made a decision to cut way back this year, and I did. WAY back. The result was very good. Save one pod, all of my seeds from this year’s harvest were collected and in storage by the Autumnal Equinox. The last pod was a self-seed (pollinator created) on an Autumn Red (our oldest historic daylily in the garden). It was definitely worth harvesting, and I did that on the day after the Autumnal Equinox. All seeds are now in storage.

So, on the daylily side, the revised scope of my daylily propagation work this year was very manageable, and definitely the way forward for me. I set my goal of not spending time harvesting and storing daylily seeds when I really wanted to be out and enjoying our Minnesota fall, and I accomplished that goal.

This year I also made some pretty transformative changes to the townhome garden areas. Quite a few of my recent posts chronicled the townhome garden reno. And, by mid-September, with that done and all but the Autumn Joy sedum rootings planted, it was such a blessing to just “be” during this beautiful, and this year, unique, time.

Additionally, with the garden at the historic cemetery wrapping up its 4th year since the reno, nice and full now, with a known, established cycle of needs, my work there is also changing. The community has embraced that garden, and often when I go to weed, there is very little to do. Replacing the heaving rock with mulch was pivotal for that garden, and a large part of why weeding it so much easier, but not all. We are definitely getting unenlisted help 🙂 So my more intense work there is winding down. I expect next year I will still do the spring mulch topper, periodic weeding, and the fall cutbacks that are needed, but that garden is established now and has multiple caring, attentive, hands tending it 🙂

The Autumn Joy Sedum are very pretty right now in the historic cemetery garden

But, as I mentioned, this year, fall is unique.

In August I shared that my Mom passed. My Mom was not the person we were intensely praying for on New Year’s Eve of 2025. That was another close family member. Praise God that He is blessing that family member with healing. We are extremely grateful! So grateful!

My Mother’s passing was unexpected. My Mom was 85. Of course, I knew she was aging. But when Mom passed, my world kind of tilted, and I had to work hard to find new footing. I did find that, and it is definitely very new footing. God allowed a very different plan than what I could have ever imagined, and some of my efforts have shifted to new things. I’m not sure how much I will share about that. Still praying.

For all who have gone through loss, you know it is not linear. There are a lot of ups and downs, and they can be very unpredictable. But I am confident God’s plan is good, and I am listening and working what He shares. Another hint – Often we only get direction for our part, not the whole plan 😉 Faith.

So, back to the gardens – The townhome garden reno was very influenced by my Mom’s passing. I was already feeling a need to refresh those garden areas, spiff them up a bit, but with my Mom’s passing, and having spent so much intense time in prayer sitting looking at the garden in its old configuration, I knew it had to substantially change. Emotional triggers are real, and I did not want to encourage them come next spring. I knew I needed a new “go forward” look for where I spend so much time. And I went about it.

I had a number of ideas for dividing and transplanting. I ended up pulling out the entire path and doing a renovation of the look. I went slowly. The plan changed daily. And I love the new townhome garden look! It takes previous looks and melds them with what I like best, plus where I want to head next (focusing my future work on historic daylilies and self-seed daylilies and returning a bit more to the hostaville I had in the past).

And now we are half-way through October.

The hostas are starting to put on a show.

The shamrocks that the squirrels were having fun with are now moved closer to the house. They will stay there until we consistently have nights under 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Then they will come in for the winter.

Sandy’s corner is moving closer to cutback time.

The Autumn Red daylilies are also moving toward cutback time.

And the Sedum are wrapping up their magnificent fall color morph.

We have quite a bit of fall left, but the color show is definitely winding down.

Next year will be very different. The gardens are different. My efforts are different. And my focus is slightly different now too. But I feel good about the plan, and we will see how it goes.

I will leave you with this: My Mom knew I had earmarked some daylilies to “name” for specific people. I did not tell her I had done a daylily cross in 2025 with her in mind, and that it made a lot of seed. A lot. I also did not tell her only one seed of that cross went to seedling. That “1” message seemed to be a theme with the 2025 harvested seeds, but I knew it was probably just for me. Maybe like “slow down” lol. Maybe “It only takes one”. Anyway, that cross I made with my Mom in mind, with only one seedling from all of those seeds, is in my garden doing very well. And the pod parent was way overdue for a move. It does not escape me that I moved it to a much better place the day before my Mom passed.

Now, do not think I am saying my Mom is in those daylilies. I definitely do not believe people become plants.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. Hebrews 9: 27-28

I don’t even talk to my Mom. I pray to God and thank Him for my Mom.

I am excited, however, to see the first blooms from that daylily cross I made with Mom in mind.

And so, as I consider the past few months, what always comes to mind is that God has His plan, and it may be very different from our plan. We can accept that He is in control and watch and cooperate with His work. And we have the opportunity to choose wisely. If God tells us to do things, we can do that confidently, absolutely with love, but also boldly. He will provide.

For now, for this fall season, I am giving myself a lot of grace. Enjoying friendships, old and new. And enjoying the beauty of our Minnesota nature.

This is a picture I took, up by our land in Northern Minnesota. I finally got back up there. It was hard because the last time I was up there was when our sweet dog Darby was still with us. No, we are not getting another dog. I have a plethora of grand-dogs and friends with dogs. And God is saying No to us having another dog. He’s got things for us to do. He’ll let us know bit by bit 🙂

Be Blessed!

Look up!

The daylilies are all done blooming. I miss the morning discoveries. I am reminding myself to look up – to the joy of the gorgeous sky, even on, no wait, especially on, cloudy days.

Better stuff

I say no to some very “good” stuff, so I can make time for better stuff. Sometimes there isn’t a choice, but when there is – think. Time is finite. Use your voice. Make that choice. And then … Rejoice!

Here’s some Rejoice in the Garden time

Walk around the garden. Maybe sit right in the middle of the garden

A Tale of Three Gardens

There is something about an early morning walk in the garden that stirs the soul, makes the mind relax, evokes thankfulness. Wait, define garden.

Sunday morning, after having been up to the land that is now designated “camping”, I thought, “Why do I enjoy an early morning walk there, but not through our extended neighborhood in town?” I used to. So off I went, sans dog who declined the opportunity.

Once I got going, I decided to take an old route. That route is a tad bittersweet. It is past an area that used to be a beautiful long garden on an edge of one of the park areas. The original homeowner who was adjacent to the park area had petitioned the city to plant a beautiful garden there and invested quite a bit of time and energy. It was a delight to many, and I was one. When the original owner of that beautiful garden moved, the new homeowner did not have the same love for gardening. It began to return to a wilder look. For a while I spent time on the weekends trying to maintain it. In the end, although my mind wanted to save it, my body could not. Working away from the home during the weekdays, and having other weekend responsibilities, it was just too big of a project. I took time to heal my body after pushing it way too hard, nature marched on, and eventually I altered my walking path to avoid that garden. I remembered its prior beauty and had a hard time watching it return to wild. That was quite a few years ago.

This morning I decided to walk by that area. It has returned to it’s natural state. It is a different look. Not bad, just different. Whatever thrives, dominates. And the weeds and lilac bushes won.

Enter garden one – on our “camping” land. It is many years past my experience with the park garden. My perception has changed because my personal gardening experiences have broadened. Evidenced by tens of thousands of ferns that thrive and dominate the “camping” land, there is not much chance of keeping a cultivated garden without daily care. Goodness knows I tried! But I have made peace with that. We cut the living area back in May – September so I don’t (hopefully) get a tick born illness (again) and we enjoy the natural state. We bought it in a natural state, I tried to tame a small portion to exercise my hobby, and I lost. That trial.

Enter garden two – Back to the townhouse neighborhood. “Goodness!”, I thought on my Sunday morning walk, “Our lawns, our trees are looking mature this year.” Two weeks ago many of the trees were still budding. The cherry trees were blooming and a delightful treat. Now they are wrapping up and the maples and lindens are starting to shine. I cannot claim working on those. They are the work of hired professionals on behalf of the association. But I enjoy them immensely. A different kind of enjoyment than the “camping” land.

The gardens at our townhouse are also thriving. The hostas, daylilies and sedum are my daily effort, and are continuously cultivated. The large amount of rain we had this week, along with warm temperatures for a few days in a row made the garden flourish. Literally things tripled in a matter of a week. Including the carpet of maple seedlings, which I will also “cultivate” – right into compost.

It’s all good.

I would like to move more of the townhouse garden to garden three but … we have deer … bedding in the back yard … at the tiny little house we plan to retire to … some time … to be determined. Maybe it’s good that they don’t seem to like a little area where I hid a Rainforest Sunrise hosta? It is 9′ x 7′ there. Is that nature’s way of reining in my gardening endeavors for the future? Out front of that little house I lovingly planted sedum this spring. Morning one after planting, I looked outside to see if the deer had feasted overnight. “Success!” I tentatively claimed. Morning two? Yah. Not “Success!” And the same with the five daylilies we planted there. They will all have to move to the 9′ x 7′ area.

So that is the tale of my three “gardens”. I’m learning with each new experience. One could say I’m actually down to two gardens now. Except for the iris and daffodils that are naturalizing at the “camping” land, the rest remains wild.

I wonder sometimes – when we move to the little house, will the daily maintained gardens at the townhouse remain in a tended state? I hope they will. Time will tell. Time a little ways out yet. We just welcomed our first grandbaby. Gotta hang around the townhouse neighborhood for a little while yet.

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.