Light Frost Predicted

It was predicted to get down to the high 30f last night and I'm not sure what temp the coleus will withstand, So I brought them inside for the night.  Those shower curtain hooks make them a lot easier to grab and take off the hangers.  All next week is going to be warmer, so I'll put them back out later today.

I moved the deck pots close to the house.  Residual house-warmth should keep them going.  I cut the balsams at ground level,  They aren't blooming any more.  But I saved the seed pods in a jar.  I don't know if the seeds will bloom but I'll toss them around in early Spring in case they do.

Saved some dried Tithonia seedheads too.  They are supposed to be annual repeat self-seeders, so they should.  Both are in labeled jars in the basement fridge.  It all multiple flowers all Summer and Fall.  I could enjoy more of them.

The deckpot marigolds are showing off well.  After I saved the Balsam seedpods, I cut them off and soil level, so the pots are all marigold.  When they die back, I will add the pansies.  Ans I have enough pansies for several places.  

This is before I cut off the dying Balsam, but you can see the marigolds in there.

Most of the Pansies will go where the tomatoes are now.  They will be dying soon.  A whole bed of 60 is nice all Winter..  Other pansies will go in the deck pots after the marigolds succumb to the cold.  And some will surround the mailbox.  Flowers in Winter are amazing!

I think I will try to keep the Coleus thriving inside.  I will add some ceiling hooks near the deck doors and see if they will last a bit longer.  The deck faces South, so they will get some sun.  I might even add a grow light above them.

Regular Deck Flowers

Late Spring, I planted Balsam, Marigolds, and Coleus.  They did well.  I am saving the Balsam seeds to scatter around next Spring.  You have to handle the seed pods carefully.  If you are familiar with them, the pods pop open when squeezed, LOL!   But they succumb to cool weather early.

So the Marigolds are showing up better now.

And the Coleus are doing nicely.  I thought they would be gone by now, but I hadn't grown them in years.  They are more hardy than I remembered.

And here is a trick I've recently figured out for hanging pots...

Have you ever had bungee cords that wore out?  Well, save the metal hooks.  They are often useful.  I discovered that if you thread the hook part through the hole in the end of a hanging bracket, the large spiral part works as well as a nut and bolt.  

But you still have to thread the hanging chains of a heavy pot onto the hook which is a couplke of feet over the edge of the deck.

WELL, I noticed a pack of metal shower curtain hangers at the DIY store (and I am very willing to re-purpose products).  Obviously, shower curtain hangers are waterproof.  So it occurred to me that I could thread the pot-hanging chains onto a metal shower hook on the deck conveniently, and then just hang the shower hook on the bungee cord hook.

I'm not sure how well you can see this.  But the saved bungee hook is set through the hanging bracket at the top, the metal shower hanger allowed the pot chains to be easily threaded onto it, and the wide shower hanger made it easy to hold while I reached out over the deck to hang the pot on the bungee hook.

😄

I love being resourceful and reusing old stuff!  There is something about "what else can I do with that", that just pleases me no end...

It's like when I saw a 10" wide plaster spreader and thought "hey I can scrape the cat litter boxes with that"!