Hybrid – harvesting seeds

Where do I separate daylily seeds from pods?

Outside on the Traeger of course 😉

Well, most recently, that is.

Because if I don’t, the pod will sit on our clutter hot spot, the dining room table, for maybe days, and then I will deliberate – Save the pod? Or just the seeds? Is this thought related to save the clothes tags until you wash up the clothes the first time? Should I save the pod until the seeds germinate? Oh, the things I do!

Discipline, GF!

Separate the seeds from the pod, gather the seeds, put them in the envelope that is already labeled, put the envelope back in the safe storage space (not the dining room table ;)), where they will be joined by siblings until all seeds are gathered, and put the pod (which you, on purpose, out of discipline, left outside on the Treager) in an enticing place in the garden, to be eaten by – whatever eats empty seed pods. Bugs?

Clutter prevention 101, or is it 2 by 2? Or 19 by 19? Because that’s how many viable Purple D’Oro seed pods we got this year.

And now there are 5

Plus 1

Because a plus 1 is fun. Right?

OK, I will stop 😊

First look

One of my favorite times of the day is the first look outside at the gardens in the morning. The sun catching the colors. The dew still on the leaves and pine branches. So beautiful!

Summer in the garden is incredible, but fall is still pretty doggone good.

This morning I ventured outside and what did I see? A ripened South Seas seed pod! I suspect I would have more seeds had I gone out yesterday, as one chamber was already empty, but 4 is still good. Thank you pollinators! I stand in awe of your skills! Enjoy the Autumn Joy sedum!

All the leaves here are gone, but the sky’s not totally grey!

It’s been a pretty nice few days here – cool at night, but high 40s/low 50s during the day, and some sun! Tonight we got a nice walk in, and then started chicken going on the grill. Yum! And if you make a bunch, there’s leftovers 😁

They sunsets, although chilly, have also been nice.

20181028_175908_HDR-1 20181028_175804-1

Our Guest in the (cut back) Garden is also here tonight.

If he’s really good (and I have a feeling he will be) he might get some cut up chicken 😍

Daylilies all cut back

Today it was 40° fahrenheit by 9am in our area so I got going right away on the fall clean-up. All of the daylilies are now cut back. I included the daylilies out back – the new ‘Hush Little Baby’ daylilies, the ‘Purple D’Oro’ daylilies, the last ‘Just Plum Happy’ daylily and the red daylilies, along with the ‘Marque Moon’ daylilies out front.

20181013_125023 20181013_100148-1

Sad to see them all go, but they were ready.

Also sadly, either the wind or some bird or squirrel broke off the last daylily buds I had found a week or so ago. I’ll try putting them in water, but I doubt they will bloom. But, on a more cheerful note, I did find some seed pods from Dad’s hostas that I saved as well.

20181013_140305-1

I also trimmed two of the three ninebarks, the weigelia, and the alpine currant.

Then I bagged it all up and got it over to compost.

All that clean-up means that next weekend all I have on the schedule is the remaining hostas, two clematis, and one ninebark. Sad to wrap up, but awesome that things are on schedule.

I still haven’t decided if I will cut back the sedum. They may stay. More on that in another post.

Now I can relax. It’s too windy to use the little fire pit tonight, so I probably won’t bother getting propane, and there’s a lot of activity (birds, squirrels) in the small pine tree, so I will rake the seeds later in the day or tomorrow.

20181013_134022-1

20181013_141728_HDR-1 20181013_141540-1

(Check out the dark-eyed junko on the ground in the two pics above. )

One of our white squirrels stopped by while I was getting lunch ready. I tried to get a pic but she was being camera shy today.

All in all, it was a good morning. Now I deserve a cup of coffee and a good book 😍

20181013_125042

Fall Garden Clean-up week 3

Today (Friday) we saw the sun!!! After weeks of cloudiness, rain, and even snow for a bit yesterday, we got a beautiful afternoon.

Still, it was 32° fahrenheit at 9 am, and the forecast is calling for near or below freezing night temperatures for the near future. There still may be some sporadic warmer days, but winter coat, hat, gloves and warm shoes are here now for at least 5 months.

Time to get back to the fall garden clean-up. Soon I will be too comfortable indoors and will not want to be trimming plants outdoors. Gotta keep the momentum going. Spring is a mess if I leave plants un-trimmed.

Everything that needed to be transplanted or planted was done last Sunday. That’s good. Next on the list was all the ‘Marque Moon’ and all the red daylilies, but the ninebarks took a hit from the frost last night so I think I’ll do those first. I’d prefer not to cut them back after the leaves dry.

I also need to cut back the alpine currant (another gift from Dad 😍). And I need to rake up the seeds and shells under the bird feeder. Those will go to trash not compost because there are a lot of black oil sunflower shells.

There are still seed pods on the ‘Marque Moon’ and ‘Purple D’Oro’ daylilies. I pulled some tonight that had opened, but I think I will have to leave the ones that haven’t opened. So if I do get to trimming back the ‘Marque Moon’ daylilies, a few flower stalks will remain. I don’t think I will have that issue with the red daylilies. They didn’t form many seed pods this year.

One of the Aureomarginata hostas is gorgeous right now.

I want to keep that until it fully fades. We don’t always get color on the hostas but the past few years have been nice.

Equally pretty is our lawn right now. It looks like a quilt of leaves.

20181012_181230

I love that look! Too bad it comes with the cold of October. This year seems even earlier.

We did have a return arrival this week. The dark-eyed junkos are back. Not a good sign as far as being a bit early, but we do really enjoy them. I will try to get pics. They seem to be skittish right now so it may take a bit of stealthiness – lol! Laughing because I am far from stealthy!

I did get another fall candle yesterday. I tried it today. AWESOME! Way better than I expected! It is Melaleuka’s Warm Spiced Latte. Made the house smell so good tonight! Small pleasures to ease back indoors.

Lastly, I need to get propane for our little outdoor firepit tomorrow. I’ll write about that another day.

It did cross my mind that it would be fun to have our Guest in the Garden come for the weekend. He got a new sweater from my Mom ☺ But I don’t think he’d enjoy the cold. Hey, I won’t enjoy it if it’s almost freezing. But compost closes at 2pm, and there will be a lot to bring there this week.