Yard Flowers

 Some flowers do better than others.  And some have their own season to grow.  I try to plant flowers that can deal with the local climate.  But sometimes even they need a little help.

I've had these Stoke's Asters for maybe 25 years.  They are pretty durable and (apparently) insect-free.  But there used to be a dozen and now I see only 8. I enjoy seeing them every year.

The daylilies are durable too.  But I don't see as many colors as I used to.  There is weed competition and I need to do something about that.  Using a hedge-trimmer at ground level between the lilies should help.

But I really need to dig them up this Fall and move them to the front yard where The Mews don't go. Daylilies can be harmful to cats.

The yard Pansies are thoroughly done for the year!  Well, they are Fall-to-Summer annuals.

The ones in deck pots get some shade and better watering, so they are still blooming.

These are from a few weeks ago, but they still look pretty much the same.

I tried to pick out some of the weeds, but the roots are very entangled, so I think I will just leave them alone.

The Pansies

 First, here is the spot emtied of the dead tomatoes...

And here is the Winter's Pansy Bed in the same spot.  Might as well use it for something...

That was a lot of plantings for one day!

They are basically triangulated and I tried to not have the same colors next to each other, but I had a LOT of yellow ones.  And they look a bit weak right now (got a bit dried), but I watered them for 15 minutes, so they will perk up tomorrow.  And will grow.

Some had no flowers, so I don't know what color they will be.  That will be fun to watch.

I have saved a dozen for the deck pots...  Some of the best.  You'll see them growing and blooming soon.

Busy Lately Outside

It is the end of the outside gardening season.   We had hard freezes 2 night in a row.  I covered the tomato plants because the next 10 nights are forecast to stay above freezing and I was hoping to get a few more tomatoes to ripen.

But they all died.  Well, tomatoes are actually tropical vines.  So I picked all the green ones.  There are some recipes for using them.  Fried in batter is routine, but I saw one for Tomato Parmesan and will try that too.

The Coleus and Mum pots were safely in the house, so they can go back outside for another week.  I will be bringing them and all the salad trays indoors after that to limp them through Winter.  Any color inside and any salad cuttings are good.

I disassembled the tomato bed today.  Not the simplest thing.  Pull out thge cage support stakes, remove the cages, take up all the labels, pull the plants, pull up the black landscaping fabric that kept the weeds smothered.  The fabric is all trash.  It seems to fall apart in 6 months.  

But at least the grassy weeds are all dead this year.  I'll be planting most of the Pansies there next week (a few will go around the mailbox and some in the deck pots this year).  

Did some serious compost bin work the past week (there are 2 bins).  

I bought a self-propelled battery Ryobi mower a few years ago and it is wonderful.  I have it set for mulching, and I can still use the bagger attachment (easy to attach and remove).  I shredded/mowed leaves all over the yard.  

Filled the empty bin 6" deep.  Then filled 4 trash barrels and 2 trash bags with leaves for future use.  There are more leaves in the trees, but I will shred them in place on the lawn as free fertilizer for both grass and trees.

I had too much green stuff for proper composting, so the leaves were nice to add.  Yesterday, I started turning the existing greenish pile into the other bin and mixed it with more shredded leaves 6" at a shot (the layers compress).  Found I had some good worms in the existing pile.

I got half of the old piled moved but it gets tiresome.  So the rest will get moved tomorrow.  Between the existing green stuff (kitchen scraps) and the newly shredded browns (leaves) and watered a bit, the new pile should finally heat up nicely.

I overseeded the lawn a week ago.  The shredded leaves won't bother them when I do that next week.  They will have either germinated or not and they can grow up between the leaf-shreds without difficulty.

Blew all the leaves off the deck.  They don't bother me any, but the cats dislike walking on dry crunchy leaves.  It offends their sense of stealth.  I indulge The Mews.  And the leaves don't do any positive good sitting on the deck.

Put a marinated chicken on the smoker.  Not exactly my old model (fancier shelves), but close enough.

I can never quite get it to fully-cooked in the smoker, but I've read that all the smokey flavor gets in after 2 hours, so I just finish them in the oven.  Sometimes I brush half with BBQ sauce for variety.  I pulled off a whole leg for dinner (with veggies).  It was delicious!

More to do the next few days...

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.

Pansies Again

 I went out and took pictures.  First, a group shot of the 96 pansies (for 50 cents each).

And I mentioned they were yellow, purple, blue, white and red.  I haven't seen many white ones, and red is a surprise to me.  I picked among the various 8-packs to get a good variety but I took every pack that had a red one in it.  

Flowers

The Mews have not decided who will host the Thursday Garden Tours and I haven't collected the pictures of the Saucer Magnolia and the Daffodil Bed as they bloomed for a slideshow yet, so I wanted to show the Happy Pansies in the deck pots for now...

The warmish Winter and soft Spring has let tem grow better than they have in any previous year here.

If the pots look like they have too many of some color and not enough of others, it is because they got all the ones that weren't blooming at the time I planted the outside large mass. 

I was expecting some randomness surprises, and I got some.  

But that was the point, LOL!

The massed planting is doing well, though the Winter weeds have grown suddenly.  I had dragged the scuffle how between them in January, but apparently the weeds either grew back or new seeds germinated due to me disturbing the soil.   

Maybe they looked better in March.  Fewer flowers but fewer weeds...

I would hoe again, but newer demands command attention for longer-term benefits.  I have perennials and self-sowing annuals to plant in the Meadow and Pollinator Beds, wild blackberries and other briars (and some poison ivy) to dig out in the back non-lawn area.  It took days with the brush-cutter to chop all the wild stuff down last Fall, so I don't want to let that escape again.

But the Pansies sure have been a pleasure since October!

Pansies 2

So, I had the pansies randomly sorted by colors (and a dozen of unknown colors).  I had the bed rototilled with a small electric tiller, my measuring stick, a large piece of plywood to reduce soil compression as I kneeled on it, knee-pads to save my aching knees, and a sharp trowel to dig holes for the pansies...

The first row was 12, the second, 11, the 3rd 10, the 4th 9, and the last 8.  It went better than I thought it would.  I get a bit better each time.  Each row is slightly offset from the previous.  And I had a dozen with no flowers, so I didn't know what colors they would be,  so I placed them in the center.  You can't get more random than that.

They will grow larger all Winter.  

Meanwhile, I had set aside some for the deck pots.  I planted those this afternoon and even some leftovers in planters to set out front (surrounded by wire mesh cylinders so the deer can't get at them), but it was too dark to take more pictures.  Sometime soon, though.

Pansies

I love pansies.  They flower in Winter and Spring.  Few plants do.

The local DIY store had a great deal on them.  18 pansies in cell-packs for $16.  Can't beat less than a $1 per plant...  I bought 6 flats of them 3 weeks ago.  Then it turned nasty outside.  When it wasn't raining, it was cold.  Or windy.  And then we went to DST, so it was dark an hour earlier.   I couldn't find a good day to plant them...

But then there was a day good outside, sort of.  Up to 54F and not much wind.  But then I realized I really needed to sort the colors out.

My sunken patio is a good height for that, so I spent an hour doing that.  But then I realized that to plant them "randomly", I needed to have all the colors mixed in the trays where I could easily reach the different ones.  Nothing is simple, LOL!

By then it was getting dark.  DST is a real change here.  Exactly when the DST change happens, the sun path is blow the elevated house west of mine.  I get TWO hours loss of sunlight.  It gets dark at 3:30 pm and cloudy days make it worse.  When I get up and about at 10 am and eat breakfast and read the newspaper by Noon, that doesn't leave much of a day.

But I got them planted.  Descriptions and pictures tomorrow...