Winter Musing

We haven't had much winter this year, though there have been some cold days. And plenty of nasty, dark, wet days - but not snow days. The past two weeks have been sunny. Last week unseasonably warm, this week seasonably cold and very windy.

I confess, I did not get all my fall clean-up projects done. I have been working slowly away at them, as weather and motivation dictate. I actually mowed the grass around New Year's, the long zoysia on the north side of my house. It will do better in the spring to be short, and it looks much better now than it did. There were some leaves on it, and they just crunched up with the grass and hopefully all will be decomposed by spring.

I've intermittently been cleaning up leaves. I bought a new blower/vac (electric), and it is great at sucking up the leaves from the window wells. I engaged my landscaper to cut down the apple tree that was too close to the house and wires. He stacked the wood on my firewood pile. I've done some tidying of both sheds, and had the brilliant idea of decluttering to the point of having only one shed. So I'm dreaming about a better, single, shed, built on the foundation of current one. I kind of like the idea of a vinyl one, or some synthetic, so it lasts longer and is maybe more resistant to rodents. This shed thing is possibly a multi-year project - first (like the basement) I have to get rid of more stuff. The single shed has to hold my lawnmower and my bicycle, plus other tools, and perhaps winter furniture. This mostly requires rationalizing my tools and furniture.

I need a better-looking compost heap. It's really just a leaf pile - I pile stuff in, and haven't harvested the leaf mold at the bottom for a few years. It doesn't get much green stuff, so it doesn't cook much, just slowly rots. Building one out of fencng and lumber has its appeal, but is one of many projects I want to tackle. I may get inspired and do it one weekend, or I may just think about it for another year.
There is some pruning I want to do, urgently, before the sap starts flowing. This is really limbing up the bottom tree branches. I have a ladder and a chainsaw, and I'm (mostly) not afraid to use them. I want to do it myself, because I've made a study of these trees and I know exactly where I want them cut.

Daffs, including the newest ones along the fence, are poking their heads up. I know they can withstand cold weather, but I was concerned to see some of last year's tulips well up. I left most perennial plants standing, and they look crummy, but provide shelter and still some food for the birds. I can see some basal foliage appearing. Old stuff will be cut down - target February.

Now is an ideal time for certain kinds of weeding, a lovely low key activity. When nothing else is growing, it's possible to spot onion grass sticking up all green everywhere. This is a great time to dig it out - but it does take slightly warmer soil than last night's hard frost has left us. There are other unseasonably green spreading weeds, easy to spot, that also should be controlled. So I'll get to some of it when I can.

I will be ordering plants, too. I need to set a budget, and plunge in. Now is the ideal time to do this, and it'll involve sitting inside in the warmth, but virtuously feeling I'm truly productive. I lost the spring planting season, mostly, last year by working longer. There's nothing like a big box of things to plant showing up on my doorstep to force me out there in the spring. The forecast is for warmer next week, after a wet weekend, so outside chores may be more possible then. Reason enough to spend money now.

Fall

Until I moved to my little house in the big oak forest I didn't really have a strong association with the word "Fall" for the season. But here, the acorns and hickory nuts come pelting down. In a big wind on Halloween, it sounded like stones were being thrown in the street. Bam! The acorns have piled up to dangerous levels - my dog slipped and fell while trying to walk on what was virtually the same as a pile of marbles. Poor old guy. He got up and limped home, but he was sore.

I got out in the yard today and planted 48 daffodils along my new fence by the neighbors, and a handful of crocuses by the front door. There are raking and pruning tasks to do, but planting daffodils is the single best investment to pay off for years-decades- in the future. The bulbs were from Costco. Because of the recent rain it was easy to dig.

The oakleaf hydrangea is truly terrific

Dogwood from below

Unusual for a white oak to be this colorful

My St John's Wort, looking good

The serviceberries are terrific this year

Even from inside the serviceberries look great

I brought the hibiscus in and it's blooming

First Hard Frost

 It was 25 degrees when I got up this morning. But sunny! It didn't get much above 40 degrees. Records set everywhere (for cold). Leaves are coming down fast. But the colors this year are fantastic.

Rain, Finally

We had an inch-and-a-quarter of rain yesterday, the first in a long time. I watered, sometimes, mostly in the front under the trees. September was the driest ever measured. Interestingly, mid-July is when things went badly off course. Up until then, we were even with last year, which was the wettest on record. But in mid-July, this year the water turned off, when last year it turned on at the same time. And also the year before (2017), the rains came in mid-July.

September Blooms

September continued dry - the dryest on record. The prairie plants did well, and it was the year of the ageratum, everywhere.

My full sun prairie patch

This vivid beauty is a bottle gentian.
I planted it several years ago, and haven't seen it recently.

This blue thing was planted by my landscaper
the first year I was here, 20+ years ago, and
continues to do well.

A good year for drought-tolerant goldenrood.

Woodland aster, spreading happily.

The white ageratum.

The blue ageratum.

August Blooms

Catching up on the garden, August was dry. Less hot than July, but hot. But some things bloomed.

Boneset - a eupatorium, volunteer widespread in the neighborhood.

Verbesina, popping up all over

It was the season for NY ironweed (the purple stuff),
and ageratums, which are everywhere.

Cardinal flower, of which I hope to have more, and pink turtleheads.

Fall Planting

Today is the kind of day that makes Fall the favorite season for some (I lean towards spring, myself). Low humidity, sunny, cool to start, warm to end. Most of the work I've done lately has been taking things out - bushes, trees, weeding. But today is for planting. This boring post is mostly my record for myself of what is going where, because without the record I'll forget. I've been known to inadvertently pull out things I planted, thinking they were weeds!

We've been way too dry for too long, so as I plant, I need to water, and finish with the sprinkler going for some time. I finally got some plants I had bought a while back planted. I pulled up some senecio from behind the tree trunk, and used that very prime spot to put in some Hibiscus moschutos. It should do well, if there is enough sun. I also relocated one of the lilies to next to the cranberry bush, trying to make sure there is a path to get further into the garden without trampling everything.

I've been throwing the senecio, and deadhead tops of ironweed and Chasmasthium grass, over the fence in hopes that they will spread there. Because it's downhill from inside the fence, I'm thinking they are less likely to spread back uphill into the more civilized garden. The existing ironweed and grass are totally volunteers spread by seed already, so I know they are opportunistic and hardy. I spent some time a couple of years ago rooting out the grass from areas that are now inside the fence, and I think I'm reaping the benefits of that work (in that there isn't more of it everywhere).

I received plants I ordered some months ago from Prairie Nursery, 32 small plugs of ferns and wildflowers, mostly flowers I already have some of, but want more of. Because they are plugs, I'm hoping I'll get them all planted quickly today.

Update: I did get all 32 plants done! (But it wasn't so quick.) For the record:

• Blue indigo along neighbor fence
• Geranium in wildflower garden
• Sunflower between log and fence
• Cardinal flower in bog garden
• Sedges down near fence
• Oak ferns between compost heap and spice bush
• Goldie's fern dark corner
• Bleeding heart in wildflower garden

I also watered for a total of six hours, moving the sprinkler every couple of hours. Things are looking lush!