The last garden chore of the season is always pulling in all the garden decorations – the spinners, the funny little statues, things like that.  I bring them inside and let them get acclimated to the indoor temperature, and then I put them away in a tote for the winter.  That is now done.  Everything always fits in one bin – as long as I simultaneously put the winter lanterns out on one of the shepherd’s hooks.  Eventually the scarecrow picks and door hanger will go in that same bin, as long as they aren’t too beat up by the wind and rain – and the lawn crew – lol!

As I mentioned in a previous post, we live in a townhome.  Sometimes the lawn service crew gets a little over-zealous with the blowers.  Unfortunately they pretty much destroyed two of the 5 sedums this past week.  Not quite sure why, as there were no leaves to blow out of there, but nevertheless, it looked like a giant storm had come through that area alone.  Oh well.  Stuff happens.  I will still leave the now blown over sedums for the birds, and cut them back in the spring.  Unless, of course, they really start to bother me this week 😕

I had a change of heart on the bird bath warmer and put my “use what you have” ideas to work.  I took an old (mauve of all colors) plant pot, and weighted it inside with an old terra cotta plant pot.  Then I put an empty dish garden on top of that, put the bird bath warmer in the dish garden and plugged it in.  Within 15 min the birds came!  But we haven’t had a freezing night this weekend so I can’t report on whether or not the warmer is working.  And it’s been raining so I don’t have good pics … Stay tuned for updates.

The hibiscus has had 14 (maybe more) blooms since we brought it in, but is now resting.  There are a few more buds, so I won’t trim it yet.

The shamrocks started looking shaggy this week.  They will soon die back for the most part, and, like the hibiscus, rest.

Saturday I used up the last dozen of the tomatoes that were green last weekend and finally ripened.

So the outdoor garden is done and resting, and the plants we over-winter are also beginning to rest.  But I have envelopes of seeds just ready for May.  And I can’t wait to see what the daylily seedlings from this year might bring in 2019.  I suppose up I could head to the garden store and get something blooming, but more than likely I’ll just enjoy pictures – of our garden, and of other’s. Maybe this winter I will do another garden album.  It’s been years!

To round out this weekend, here’s a pic of today’s squirrel antics.  When our guest in the garden noticed them, he let them know he did not like that one bit!