November blooms

Are you tired of my flowers yet? I think their days are numbered. We have had several mornings where the thermometer read in the 20's. However, last Friday I went out in a small flurry of snowflakes and took the first two photos below. The rest were taken today. I have to enjoy them while I can!!

an extra week

Did you ever have one of those times when you're running around like a headless chicken, and suddenly, unexpectedly, you are given the gift of time? Well, that's what happened to me today. I've been scurrying around trying to get all of my fall chores done and feeling like I must be getting very old and very slow. There is so much left to do outside, and it's raining almost daily, and how am I going to do this?? Then today I realized that Mark doesn't leave for a week THIS Sunday - it's on the 28th - we have a whole extra week to wrap things up before his business trip! Hallelujah! I'll still be planting tulip bulbs and shredding leaves for next year's mulch when he's gone, but we will have time to get all the big stuff done. I cannot tell you what a load was lifted from my shoulders when I slowed down enough to realize this!

So now I need to do a little blog housekeeping. Violetlady gave me this wonderful award a few days ago. Thank you so much! I love it! I apologize for not thanking you sooner, but it is truly appreciated. She wrote on her blog:

The "Change Begins At Home" award originates from Bean Sprouts and is given to bloggers who live what they preach, who try to make the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world.

I guess maybe after my epiphany this morning, I can lay some claim to this nice tribute - I think it would be lovely if we all slowed down enough to enjoy and appreciate the things around us - especially all of our thoughtful blogger friends. Thanks Violetlady!

I am making progress on the fall prep front. The shed is nicely loaded - I have a few things left to throw in before we close the door for the winter, but this weekend I managed to get a lot of stuff cleaned up and stashed away.

I have become a zealot about the amendments I use on my gardens - and using what I get for free instead of spending money. Every summer I pull weeds from the lake to compost. Every fall I have the task of moving the partially composted pile to the various gardens. I mound compost over the crowns of all my roses and clematis, add it to the tomato spaces (to be worked in next spring), add to any gardens that seemed to struggle this summer, and then if there's any left, I choose a garden to amend. I don't work anything into the soil at this time of year, but by next spring all of that partially composted material will be like black gold for the gardens. I still have this huge task to do - but once I get started, it usually goes fairly fast.

The other big job I do is collect fallen leaves. I save some whole leaves to put on the gardens over the winter. I used to put about a foot of leaves on every garden, but now I pretty much just protect things that are marginally hardy here - and cover up any bare dirt so the dogs aren't tracking it into the house all winter. Next spring, I'll rake the whole leaves off the gardens so the soil can warm up, and put them in the compost bin. I shred the rest of the leaves and put them in a mulch bin to use as summer mulch on the gardens. I used to spend between $100 and $200 for shredded cypress - every year! Yikes! No more - the leaves add good things to the soil - and, in my humble opinion, look nicer. I go all around our area - about a 10 mile radius - collecting bags of raked leaves that would otherwise end up in the yard waste collections. I don't know if they incinerate yard waste here or put it in landfills - but I do know the leaves are put to much better use on my gardens!! I've started collecting leaves and have maybe 1/4 of them shredded. Still a lot left to do.

These are all things reblooming in the garden right now - I have several more photos to share - so maybe I'll get more posts up this week!! And I hope to visit all of you very soon. You're all so nice to keep visiting with me when I'm being such a slug - thanks! :)

rainy weekend

Rainy weekend here. We were so dry most of the summer, that it's hard to complain about it! I did get in a couple hours yesterday morning hauling things into the shed. I think it's going to be a really nice size - the lofts are holding a ton of stuff. We stopped Friday night on our way to dinner to look at stain colors. I have a color in my head, so, of course, that makes the job twice as difficult! I think we will try and get it stained this fall yet - but windows, window boxes and stencils will probably wait until next spring. (Maybe I can spend some time this winter working on my stenciling skills!) I managed to free up some shelf space in the basement by hauling all my clay pots and other garden things to the shed - so maybe this afternoon I'll work at organizing the basement. Does that sound like fun, or what?! Maybe I'll watch a DVD instead!!

way to go, General Mills

There was an article in the Minneapolis Strib today about General Mills donating a 19-acre nature preserve to the city of Golden Valley. Golden Valley is a first ring suburb of Minneapolis. The article talked about how rare it is for first ring burbs to receive gifts of protected land. The land was donated through the Minnesota Land Trust and will be protected forever from development. Way to go, General Mills!! Wouldn't it be lovely if other corporations headquartered in the Twin Cities followed suit!

An interesting tidbit: when General Mills moved their headquarters from downtown out to Golden Valley in 1958, they gave their staff a shorter workday to make up for the "huge commute." Today, you can get from General Mills to downtown in about 10 minutes! How times change.

General Mills has a beautiful campus - lots of green space, walking paths, cool sculptures, and gardens. The next time I'm enjoying one of their many products, I'm going to offer a little thank you to them for being good neighbors.

it's been windy here

It's been so windy here that I couldn't get out and get photos of the things blooming. So I'm going to do 2 or 3 posts. I have to show all the photos, of course! But I'll give you a little break! I bought this red lupine at the Arb sale this year. For some unknown reason I planted it by the Vivid Pink peony. I can tell you, not a great color combo! So, the lupine will move this fall. But it's still a pretty bloom, so just ignore the peony in the background.

The astilbe are opening in the west porch garden. I have more down by the gazebo in a shadier area, and they aren't open yet. Hard to photograph, but I love these plumes.

Another hard plant to photograph - beard tongue. This is "Husker Red" - the stems and leaves are a gorgeous dark red and the flowers white. It's very showy. For years I had my two beard tongues right next to the false indigo. The false indigo would get huge and basically bury the beard tongue. So they never bloomed, but they never died either. Last fall I finally dug them up and moved them to a space they could call their own, and I have two very, very happy plants blooming away now!

Here is the other beard tongue - I don't remember the name, but I love these bright pink blooms. They've been like this for a week now, so I'm wondering if they open into a flower or if this is it? I'll report back.

I have gallardia planted in the lakeshore garden - but it's planted over an 18 inch thick cement pad that we buried under a foot of topsoil because we couldn't remove the pad. I have a ton of plants that are just happy as clams in this dry part of the lakeshore garden. I love the gallardia because it blooms a really long time - like from now until it freezes. However, it is right in front of my Therese Bugnet rose - and I am not happy with this yellow and orange flower in front of my lovely clear pink rose. So I'm deciding if the gallardia will have a new home next year.

Another container. I bought these great window boxes at my iron place. I have 3 of them hanging on the fence between the patio and the driveway - 2 in sun and 1 in shade. The sun ones are planted out with red geraniums, purple wave petunias, potato vine, and what Zoey at Perennial Passion told me is a fan plant - a cool vine with small white flowers. So on the Fourth of July, I will have exactly the right colors going here!!! It's pretty and showy - I love that you can see these bright geraniums as you walk down the street toward our house.