Garden Shed – Nov. 7
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Well, COVID still has us in it’s grips. Not sick, but lack of energy. I was grateful to get all caught up on my mowing. At least I could sit in the mower seat with no physical effort. I have gotten some of the small chores like getting market pots put to bed for the winter, a couple of mum’s planted in the garden and some of the cannas dug. The freeze a couple of weeks ago got the tender plants out away from the house, but I have two huge cannas right up close to house and they are still blooming. The impatients on the North side of house are still blooming, though they aren’t as pretty as before the cold spell. I had hubby to go out and cut off the dahlia blooms before the freeze and we have enjoyed them inside for about a week. I have them dug and drying in the garage. I guess I will cut off the canna’s that are still blooming so I can get them dug. I’m not a fan of digging when it is in the 40’s.
I will probably enlist the help of hubby this week, as I want to get pine needles raked up and a good layer of pine needle mulch around my mums. The mulch helps them to have a chance of survival during the winter. I really hope to pull them through so I don’t have to replant them next summer. I have a white one that is just beautiful and such big blooms. I didn’t remember even having a white mum last year, but proof of the puddin says I did. I had planted about six or so in my raised bed last fall and every one of them survived in the spring. That is what I planted in the front beds where we ripped out the rose bushes. With both mums and Autumn Joy sedum, I am hoping for a good show for next fall. At lease the pine needles are close to the house and not very far to haul them. That is the part that I will give hubby to do. If he rakes, I will do the mulching so with team effort, we should get the job done before it turns cold again. The weather on Halloween is always unpredictable. This year it is to be cold.
It looks like the Farmers Almanac and the woolly worms are telling the same story for winter. The Almanac says a mild winter and the woolly worm says the same thing. We have had gobs of woolly bears and they all have a wide brown band in the middle and a short black area on their tail end. That means a mild winter with a bit of harsh weather late. If you are seeing all black or all white fuzzy worms, they are not the Teddy Bear that is the weather predictor.
After Christmas last year, I purchased a couple of flower pots that had the tags torn off and no bar code to scan. Each had a flower bulb with the pot. One of them turned out to be a amaryllis and the other one was a Paper White. Both bloomed last winter. I have never had good luck with getting a amaryllis to rebloom, but it is still alive at least. The paper white pot sat on the basement floor all summer and I forgot what it was, so took the pot to the garage. It sat on my potting bench for a long time, until I remembered what it was. I added some new dirt and left it sitting on the potting bench. Now I have a new shoot coming up, so I have brought it in the house and gave it some water. Maybe I’ll get blooms again thus year. Not a bad buy at .50 cents . I had another pot that is showing little green and I think that I had a few daffodil bulbs laying on the potting bench and stuck them in a pot. So I might have some spring blooms during the winter. I like surprise’s like that.
Russ gave me a angle wing potted plant for Mother’s day. It was loaded with lots of beautiful blooms. It lasted for several months with blooms. After it quit blooming, it looked sort of sad and lop sided. Tall on one side and shorter on the other, it looked like it needed water or something. I have never had one of these before and not sure how to care for it, but I thought it looked like too much plant. I took it out to garage and dumped it out of the pot. There were three individual plants in one pot. So now I have three plants instead of one. And I wonder why my basement keeps getting more flowers. I think the basement may be to cool for this plant during the winter. I guess trial and error will tell the story to whether I get it to rebloom or not.
My big peace lily that got super dry while I was in the hospital, has bounced back. It has a new bloom on it. I had to cut off some of the bottom leaves that turned yellow around the edges. A little water does wonders for a wilted peace lily. Russ was complaining about his peace lily was shattering white stuff all over the floor. I told him to cut the center thing out of the middle and that would take care of the problem. It may not look as pretty but this procedure does eliminate the mess.
We are to have a few beautiful days this week, so I hope you can get out and enjoy the beauty of fall. So many pretty trees in town and out around, but the leaves are dropping fast. God has painted us another beautiful seasonal picture for us to enjoy. We have even had some beautiful sun sits the past few days. His beauty is everywhere, so look for it and enjoy. It will be a few short days until it is gone. I am not looking for day light saving to end, not a fan of the long, dark evenings, but we are getting closer to longer days, which gives us something to look forward to. Spring!
