It's been a mild October so far, the morning glories are going nuts out there, I love the Heavenly Blue blossoms, and they last all day with this damp drizzly weather we're having. The pineapple sage that is usually nipped by the frost before it blossoms is blooming like mad out there, so much so that my oblivious to flowers husband commented on how nice they looked out there by the street. The Nicotiana mutabilis are so tall this year, and so lovely still, the daturas are still putting forth lovely white blossoms and the bees are enjoying every minute of it.
I've been digging the new section of the garden, removing the dandilions that multiplied out there - I let them go because they're so inportant for the bees, but enough's enough, the ones in the veggie garden have got to go. They can run rampant in the lawn ;->
The bulb order will be here soon, and I'll get the garlic in the ground by the end of the month. Then everything will be tucked in nicely for the winter nap. I do love the seasons and yes, even winter. The Winter Solstice is my favorite solstice, it means the return of the light. The cold, grey dullness of winter has to be endured to get the soft renewal green of Spring.
Now, *that's* my kind of weather! We had Morning Glories onone of the fences for a couple years. Now they are everywhere and I am fighting them all summer. They are beautiful, but they can be noxious.
Hell yeah......lawns....patoooie.
Garlic is on my list this week too.
Ha......this prompted me to rummage through the boxes of CDs and dig out my Windham Hills Winter Solstice music and get a *big* jump on the season.
Hmmmmm.......I'm not feeling *quite* so eeyorish.......for the time being. I'm sure someone will drop a stone on me ere long....sigh.
That was neat, Ann. Facing losing Faerie Holler, being homeless, losing the gardens.....it's all almost too much........then the faeries, the local residents who love what I still have here despite the chaos of drought that has gripped us so fiercely that I feared that I'd lost the 'Diablo' Ninebark that "Gardengal" Pam had sent me years ago that I haven't heard from in a few years now.....but upon walking around the western bed, I went through the crisp and pitiful yards and there were little green leaves about 2/3rds of the way down! I snapped off huge trunks of 4's a few weeks ago while calling Sugar to PLEASE come inside and lately I've noticed these HUGE lunar???? moths that are larger than hummingbirds! And my Cereus cactus is blooming for a second time this year!!!!!! All the flying dinosaurs are soooo pleased at my spreading out a huge buffet for them from all the seeds I'd stashed away and forgotten about, putting out all the suet and such, and the visitations have uplifted me when I'm despondent. Now the evenings are cool to cold, the days are unseasonably warm and I see there are survivors who persist despite my ignoring and being so brutal about not watering. What survives will be dug up if I have a place to take them. I will NOT leave some things behind that are totally irreplaceable like the huge "Dragon lily" bulbs (I suspect they're huge Regal lilies) because they're the size of cantaloupes..........And there are lots of containers to consider tucking away at two friends house for safekeeping. I've already given away my supply of horded garden stuff like greensands, organic amendments,bulb granules and what not I'd been stock-piling for two years now......Ethyl will benefit in the long run and it saves me the worry of where I'd store it or leave behind. However, there will be a pallet or two with my garden paver blocks I've bought and built up beds with now. That's just too much money to leave! Hellebore, unusual hosta's, the 16 year old tree peonies. A piece or three of Blue Enigma Salvia......maybe trim the Indigofolia and put it into a pot...........it's something to give me horticultural ponder.
But then there's also the trimming down of 35 years of accumulation and pack ratting to just necessities........
Our lake is down it appears 40 feet below normal, I've never seen it so dusty and dry in my life. But the bumblies and other pollinators are rampant here in FAerie Holler so it gives me comfort for now. And now there are mockingbirds that have decided to serenade me and the crickets and peepers that appreciate the slight moisture I allow. I've been strict this time figuring it helps to let Mom's Nature cut things back for me.
No bulbs this year to plant, but I see signs of survivors that are quietly waiting for spring to wow me I hope in containers. And that one lone cyclamen deserves to be put into a pot so I won't leave her behind. She bloomed for me this year and she was sooo cute!!
I will keep in touch as I am able. I miss all of you and love you very much.
maddie, up on the ridge, back in FAerie Holler, overlooking English Mountain in EAstern TEnnessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36 and NO rain yet...............(-14 inches below normal so far this year)
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