Some Unexpected Fall Sights

Except for a few cold weeks early in October, we've had a really mild November, and some of my plants are still trying to bloom their little hearts out. Every one of my roses were in bloom these last two weeks and even my Nikko Blue Hydrangea bloomed a bit (though the above buds were knocked back this week).



Weirdly enough, I've had a ton of these little Jalapeno peppers ripening these past few weeks (I made Turkey chili again this week), even though the other pepper (sweet banana) plant I bought was totally killed by the cold. So thumbs up to jalapenos! These are super hardy plants.



Another surprise and delight has been this sweet pea plant, which I sowed way too late in the spring. I totally forgot about them, and lo and behold I got this one plant growing on my fence. I really like sweet peas, but I'm still scratching my head a bit about where they should go and when exactly I should plant them. I had pretty much thought I was going to forgo planting them next year, but this one pops up and now I'm in love again.

As I was raking up my sidewalk today, I looked around and everything is pretty much brown and going dormant. The air is a bit more still and the sun is hanging lower on the horizon, making 1:00 PM, feel a bit more like sundown. In some ways, its my favorite time of the year because it makes me appreciate all the energy that went into getting to this point, and gives me a chance to rest a bit from the usual gardening chores. At this point, I'm pretty psyched to hang up the weed wacker, stow away my pruners, and actually enjoy having pretty nails again.

On to the seed catalogs!

-Steph


-Steph

Plans for Next Year

The late summer/early fall front garden.

The garden has begun its Fall decline, with things looking more rusty, brown, or golden yellow. So I'm starting to take stock and think about next year.

For one thing, I will absolutely be planting more Dahlia's. My one purple Dahlia I got from Home Depot has been such a surprise and a delight that I can't wait to try more. I like plants that require little care and bloom for a long time. The Dahlia totally fits the bill.


The oft photographed pale purple Dahlia,
continuing to bloom its little heart out.

I took a trip to Lowe's for some compost to dump on a few patches of dirt that were rather too clay-like for my comfort, and came across a huge rose sale... so of course I walked out of there with three bags of composted manure and a new rose bush, a rather leggy-looking Christopher Marlowe (a David Austin shrub rose) for a wopping $5 (which my husband still felt was too much money, because in his words, "would you have bought that rose anyway? So now you just spent $5 more than you would have if there hadn't been a sale.").


Rosa 'Christopher Marlowe'

In all honesty, I really was thinking of buying another rose bush or two (add roses to my list of garden addictions) in the Spring. My front/side yard is like the Sahara and roses seem to really like the 10+ hours of sun I get during summer. So I was going to buy another rose, and I was lucky enough to find a cheap one that I liked; Rosa 'Christopher Marlowe'. In my opinion, this is a truly slutty rose; it has tons of petals, buds that are pink with shades of orange and yellow, a lovely scent, and it reblooms. I mean how could I resist that for five dollars? The photo above really doesn't do it justice (the link sort of does).


Common culinary sage (Salvia officinalis).

For next year, more plants from seed. I had lots of success with sage, love-in-a-mist, echinops, sunflower, and allyssum (not to mention the tomatoes, basil, and cilantro). The sage in the picture above, I grew from seed this Spring. I think this plant might actually be a clump of three individual plants, but still, this baby got huge in just two seasons. Plenty for stuffing the turkey. Truly easy to grow, high germination. Not to mention that the sage is really pretty. I'm thinking about spreading it in a few more places as an edger, but first I'll wait to see how it does over the Winter.

Last lesson - mulch! I didn't mulch the garden this year and have grown to regret it. I wanted to see how many of my plants would self sow. Hah! A ton of plants did self sow. They're called weeds and most of my summer was spent weeding. Never again.

-Steph