The townhouse garden is all cut back and tucked in for the winter.  It was a late finish this year.  Between adding extra activities to our lives (time up north, going on our townhome association board) and fully enjoying all of the garden’s fall color, I finally finished up the cutback Sunday and the bulb planting yesterday.  I was planting tulips and crocus in the snow!

The two 5′ hostas are now in other people’s gardens, and in each place are 9 yellow tulips and a dozen purple and white crocus bulbs.  In the spring I will layer with daylily seedlings and see how they progress.

The fall color wrapped up about 3 weeks ago up north, and has now wrapped up at the townhouse.  Our beautiful fall colors are no longer our natural decorations, but they were gorgeous and we enjoyed them tremendously!  Soon we will have layers of the white fluffy stuff that stay for a few (5 at least!) months.

Starting our journey with the land up north this year really changed me.  We have spent time up north for 20 years, and camping for many years before that, but something about managing and spend time on our own land changed me.  It was partially the simplicity of hauling in our water, living in the small footprint of a 280 square foot camper, and having an outhouse, but it was more than that.  We’ve done that, even primitive camped.  It was deciding how to manage the slice of woods for which we are now responsible – how much wood to harvest, how much to clear, how much of the land to leave alone, how quickly things grew, how our little garden got overtaken, how the trailcams showed us deer and bear and wolves and coyotes that move through the land, how the area I thought I would develop into a wooded garden became a fern forest with an abundance of toads, and how wildflowers were everywhere.  It made me stand in awe.  Unlike in our townhouse garden, the horseflies bit hard and the wood ticks showed up in groups on the screen tent fly.  But the vast beauty of uncultured, natural “gardens” got ahold of my “simpler” self.  I gave up time in the townhouse garden in favor of time walking the land.  Each now has its place, but they are very, very different.

Back at the townhouse I did not end up harvesting the hosta seeds this fall.  Realistically, I know we have plenty of hostas.  I am giving them away.  Up north, the deer would just eat the seedlings.  My seedling focus will be on daylilies next spring.

I did dig out the irises that never bloomed at the townhouse, and planted them up north to see how they do.  Beyond that, up north we’ll see if the asclepias, the asparagus, the coneflowers, and the malva zebrina hollyhocks we planted make it through the winter.  The hugelkulture gardens in raised bed forms turned into weed patches because we are not up north all the time, so we’ll see what survives.  I will say I wish I had the money back from the raised bed frames and bags and bags of dirt.  I would not do that again.  That little garden area seems really out of place in its surroundings.  Lesson learned.

Our old hibiscus ended up with dozens and dozens of buds in August, and is still blooming profusely indoors.  It was over 5′ wide when we brought it inside, and it barely made it through the door.  As the blooms on a stem fade, I am trimming it.  It is lovely and just keeps on going.

I also saved the gladiola bulbs that I had in a large pot this year.  They required chicken wire protection, but were beautiful!

For next year, I’m thinking I will continue to simplify, enjoying the established townhouse garden, seeing if I can get new daylily seedlings to grow, and continuing to enjoy the up north natural beauty.

Now energy turns to indoors at the townhouse – getting garden decorations stored, cleaning up the shamrock plants for the winter indoors, and then on to dispersing all kinds of items that we are no longer using in the house, getting them on to new homes.  Our townhome is also small.  We constantly need to work at keeping things cleared and as simple as possible.

Maybe this weekend we will be at a state where I can pull out the candles and put them in the windows.  They are our only “outdoor” “holiday” lights, and I’m looking forward to having them up again.

And over the winter there will be time walking in the snowy woods up north, where the outdoor lights are solar, and probably covered til spring.