I have been THINKING about gardening for a month or so. Lately, I’ve been telling myself that I needed to take advantage of the wonderful sunny, not too warm days, to get out and begin the work of putting the gardens to bed for the winter. When I started falling asleep planning what needed to be done, and waking up, thinking, “I’d better get into the gardens today, the rain is coming,” I figured I’d better DO something about it.
This morning I worked in the herb garden. Because we put a new layer of chat down in the walkways this year, there wasn’t much that needed to be done there. What a relief. It’s stupid to spend your time on your hands and knees weeding a walkway when it’s chilly and damp! I’ll put some Preen down later this month and perhaps that will help head off any seeds that have strayed from the garlic chives and feverfew and lemon balm.
I clipped the tomatoes at the base of the stems and then lifted out the branches and the supports. I decided to cut the garlic chives back this year, but I waited too late to keep them from spreading their seeds. I’m seriously thinking about digging them out next year. I don’t use enough of them to justify the headache of weeding out the new plants.
I cut back the sweet basil plants. There are still two small globe basils, but I’ll get them the next time. I’m growing zinnias in the herb garden this year. Zinnias were one of my Dad’s favorite plants. I thought the seeds I had would be plants about twelve to eighteen inches high. These are HUGE! I think some of them must be over 36 inches tall. I’ve left them for the time being because the birds seem to like the seeds, and we’ve seen humming birds visiting them. Once the hard frost kills them off, I’ll probably cut them down.
After lunch, I worked in the sidewalk garden at the front of the house. I pulled spent plants from several planters and moved three of the planters into the garage. I’ve had volunteer tomatoes growing in the volunteer vinca, and I ripped out all the tomatoes on the north side of the sidewalk, and half the vinca. I added dirt around the base of a very old Palace Purple huchera, and planted three small starts that were knocked off when I weeded. I have six tulips and about a dozen lilies to plant in that area when I get the rest of the vinca cleared out.
I still have some iris to clean out, and a dahlia to lift. I hope it will store over in the basement during the winter. I want to put straw down over the ferns and some of the daylilies, and there is a garden on the east side of the driveway that needs some TLC. I’m not done by a long shot, but I got a good start today. I think the rain that we are supposed to have this week will make some of the chores a little easier to do.
It was a good day for gardening!
Arrrgh!!!
It's just my state of mind!
My garden is ashamed of me.
As usual, just reading of your work made me tired.
Vinca is so hard to get rid of. I made the mistake of putting some in 10 years ago and I am still pulling up starts of it.
I’ve been in bed with a head cold this past weekend, so I’ll just let you do the work. I’m not up to it. (That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)
Pattie, mine has been ashamed of me all this summer. It’s really bad when your gardens look their best since June when you are cutting them back for the winter! I think some days we manage to get it all done, and others, the gardens just have to fend for themselves!
Cop Car….don’t be silly. YOU work MUCH harder than I do! We both know that when we put what we’ve been doing down on paper it sounds more impressive than it really is! lol
I’m not kidding myself that I’ve eradicated the vinca. I’ve just made it a bit more manageable for next year.
I’m so sorry you’re not feeling well. It’s awful to be sick when it’s so pretty outside. I hope you’re feeling better, soon!
Thanks for the well wishes, Buffy. HH says I am obviously feeling worse today than I did yesterday, but I think I’m about the same.
I went out with a hoe, this morning (if you can call 10 AM still morning) intent upon getting all of the young weeds chopped in the planting beds. I had an aching back when I was only 1/2 done with the first bed (maybe 10′ x 40′). I finished the bed, then grabbed one of my grandmother’s enamel-ware bowls to go pick some spinach & chard for tonight’s dinner.
I love hearing about your battles with your plants and critters. I don’t feel so alone. *smiling*
My new computer arrived yesterday – the box is still unopened – so I am starting to clear out the hard drive of my oldest computer (circa 2002) and making sure that I have copies of everything from it that I want. That is the only computer on which I have installed EQ5, so now I’ll need to install it on the Cute Little Devil.
Don’t overdo it. I know our work looks more impressive when we report it than when we do it, but that doesn’t prevent our occasionally overdoing it.
Cop Car, I love th message you sent. I should have written back to you right away. I hope you’re feeling better by now. I can’t believe that you went out to hoe when you felt so bad!!!
I bet there are a LOT of people who *smile* when they read about my problems with the chipmunks and raccoons. The other night something must have scared a skunk while it’s defense end was facing our bedroom window. Holy COW was it bad!! I caught a whiff of him a couple of days later, so I need to figure out what’s drawing him to this area.
My computer is on the fritz. I think the monitor might be dying, but it could be a virus. I hope my sons will be able to determine what’s causing the problem and get me started back to computer health.
Take care of yourself! Heed your own advice and don’t overdo!