New Seed To Try, First Frost

A lady from Kentucky sent me some interesting seed to try for next year. Well, probably more interesting to me than to people that grow them every year.

Asarina
BES vine
Cypress vine
Picotee MG

Thanks barnbatt! She also sent me some Nicotiana, which isn't new since Kim sent me some last year, but they never seeded for some reason. I loved them though, so am so glad I have some more to grow next year. I'm going to try them in a different spot, I think.

We had our first hard frost last night. I haven't been out yet to check on damages, but thought I'd record it so I can look back on the date in future.

I finally cleaned out the mailbox bed. Sad to see it so bare.

I can't imagine if I could afford to do seed exchanges all the time. I dunno, maybe no lawn would be a good thing!

I don't know why I keep watching gardening shows so I can drool. I'll never have beautiful rows of azaleas, perfectly clipped hedges, enough spectacular flowering trees to divide my garden into 'rooms'. Why, oh why do I punish myself with garden porn?

In reality, I know it's nothing but a dream anyway. Who could manage to take care of that much garden? Being surrounded by farm fields, I have enough trouble keeping the weeds out as it is! Hmmm, the one downfall to living in the middle of nowhere? Not so funny when the air is so full of puffy weed seed that it looks as if it's snowing in August. And guess where they all land?

Kitty Litter Is A Wonderful Thing

Well, for cats and drying flowers it is. lol. Ok, and for planting pond plants (but only a certain kind!), and soaking up oil, and for slippery sidewalks, and, and...

I never tried flower drying that way before so thought I'd give it a wing. It worked great! I got much better results than I figured I would. Two weeks and voila! They came out perfect.

Well, maybe I'll just have to give some kissing balls a try.

:)

A New Tops On The Want List

Growing kiwi in Canada? Who knew!

Well, honestly, it isn't solely the novelty of the fact you can grow something towards tropical way up here in the great white north of Central NY, it's more about the form of this (vine) tree. It's fantastic! I wish I could find a decent pic somewhere on the web that really shows it off. Alas.

"A. arguta-Once established, they require minimal care. Vines are very hardy and can be grown northward into Canada and south to Zone 8. The plants are relatively insect- and disease-resistant."

Now, tell me, what's not to love about that?

"The fruits taste similar to those sold in food stores, but are much smaller, have smooth skin, and do not store well. Unlike A. chinensis, the fruit of hardy kiwi may be eaten skin and all."

Yum!

Besides, it even tickles my crafty side:

"Cut vines can be fashioned into decorative wreaths much like those made from grape vines."

Bonus:

"Large, dark-green, oval leaves that are very hairy underneath adorn the vines. Fragrant, white flowers make it an asset in the spring landscape."

I can sooo picture three of these little darlings lined up beside the driveway, trunks surrounded by heaps of fabulous tulips in the spring. Sigh.

Why, oh why, wouldn't this be sold at every nursery to replace those God-awful problem children like Bradford pears that are seen in every landscape from here to Timbucktoo. It looks so wonderful when pruned into a tree form.

Really, would a little once-a-year pruning be too much trouble? Ok, so you have to have room enough for 2 - one male and one female. But, for the life of me, I can't really find a downside to this (vine) tree.

Why do I always seem to find the perfect plant I can't have? lol. Ahhh, well, it's definitely still on the top of the want list!

There's Hope For Our Future Yet

Ever look around where kids hang out (like the mall-yuck!) and get that sinking feeling of, "We are so screwed if we leave the environment in the care of these kids?"

There's still hope!

“Operation Green” :

America’s Top Young Scientist of the Year- youngest winner ever

Erik, congrats, good for you. You go boy!

Hurry, Hurry!

The tree rats are getting pushy with their fall hunter-gatherer behavior. Not a good sign.

Sigh.

Today I guess I'll grab some hardy geranium cuttings to start new plants during winter.

I'm all seed gathered out. Man, that can get exhausting after a while. A sweater box jam packed full of flower seed should be plenty for winter sowing, right?

The new flower beds aren't getting anywhere. With D working weekends, my fall schedule has been thrown completely out of wack. The only good thing is that at this delay rate we'll be able to mow the leaves instead of rake. The clippings will be fantastic for the compost bin, too.

They finally chopped the corn field across the street. Yay! I have a view of the neighbors woods again.

I really should get out there and weed out the beds, but I just don't have the gumption.

The mums are looking fantastic, as are the snaps that rebloomed and the zinniaa are still going strong. The calendula have slowed, but are still hanging in. I've ripped all my containers and dragged the rest in for the winter.

The ponds are netted, but with the warm weather, the water is staying warm enough that the koi still wait for their meals every day.

I ripped out a lot of spurge that had gone bonkers, so the rock edges look neat and clean again. We got the rest of the stepping stone laid down through the pond walkways. Looks nice.

I transplanted a lot of thyme to the edges of the arbor pathway - regular and variegated. The contrast against the stone looks better, even though they're small yet.

I planted a few blanket flower sprouts in the half of the pond flowerbed that did get finished. I think I'll complement them with some black eyed susans, some verbena, lupine, maybe marigolds along the outer edge (lamium was a thought, but that's doing fantastic spillage on the opposite side of the path) and some zinnia on the inside edge. And a few drifts of cosmos - gotta have cosmos.

Hmmm ... maybe some purple coneflower. Nahhh, too clashy. Possibly gloriosa daisy. Iffy.

Amazingly, the mailbox bed is still doing well, so I'm holding off on ripping anything out of there yet.

I still need to clean off the front arbor and decide what will be climbing there next year. Someone offered me black eyed susan vine and some cypress vine, so maybe I'll give those a try at either end and put the pink hyacinth bean that did so well in the center. I don't know, I'll have to think on it.