pie-eyed

 The feeders are full and the birds are out.

The deer too, from time to time.

Check out that leap!

The new bed is completely seeded...

...just in time for the rain.

It's cool enough now for Claudia to spend a lot of time in her little house...

...and it makes for a truly majestic morning fog.

Thanksgiving has come and gone!  Even though it was just the two of us here, we had a great time, with too much food...

...a great nap, and the annual viewing of Dumb and Dumber.  We only had one unexpected guest at the table:

I made a quick decoration:  a pie garland that took about 30 minutes from beginning to end.  I cut out wedges of construction paper and scored some paper strips for the accordion-style pie crust:

A quick trim of the crust and a taped-on cotton ball completed the pumpkin pie.  For the cherry, I cut out strips of construction paper and used double-sided tape to make a quick grid.

Then I trimmed them to size.  Voila!  Nothing fancy, but it was a nice festive touch to hang over the table!

Now we're looking toward the Christmas season, which begins with the world's best Advent calendar! I love the idea of little daily gifts leading up to Christmas.  I'm kind of a gift fiend and Todd is the lucky recipient of my focus.  :)

We haven't had a bit of snow or ice, and temperatures have remained in the low 50s during the day.  Still, the short, dark days prompt a lot of cat naps.

Bosewichte has been sick with terrible allergies and spends a lot of time on my desk, snoring away.  It's a nice soundtrack for early winter.

Have a great week!

 

make a new plan, stan

 Our late-autumn skies have been amazing - brooding and atmospheric.

We'd had snow by this time last year, multiple times, but this year remains a bit warmer and mostly dry.  We've had some beautiful frosts...

...and early morning fog.

It's been perfect weather for working on outdoor projects.  Our back frost-free faucet area, for example, was dilapidated...much like everything else back there when we moved in!  Todd dug up the posts and sunk them deeply in gravel.

He wanted to stabilize them and also make them more visible, so that we didn't accidentally bump them with our cars.  But, being the thoughtful person that he is (💕), he also thought it would be nice for me to have another place to plant some vining flowers.  So he dug and mulched the base.

He's going to attach lattice around the top in the spring and it will be vine-ready.  Hooray!  Will I plant Hyacinth Bean 'Ruby Moon'?

Maybe Thai Double Blue Butterfly Peas?

(Photo courtesy of Baker's Creek)

One of my unusual Morning Glory varieties, like 'Picotee Blue'?

(photo courtesy of Seed Needs)

I've also got plenty of Black-Eyed Susan Vine...

...and Corkscrew Vine, yellow:

(photo courtesy of Plant Attraction)

I have a few months to decide!  I've been trying to do all of my spring planning now, so that I can take the winter "off" from it but still be ready to jump in February.

Dahlias are wrapped and stored, and so are my geranium roots:

I need to hurry and get my perennial seeds planted before the weather takes a turn.  Perennial seeds need what's called cold stratification, or a period of chilling to loosen the hull of the seed.  I tried doing it in the freezer last year and got no results.  The freeze/thaw cycle of late winter is perfect for this, so I gathered up my seeds...

...and tried to fill the new bed.

Most seeds are just pressed into the surface and then dusted with a covering of sand/peat moss to keep them from blowing away.  I'd planned on doing it yesterday, since Sunday is my only day off, but after losing a palmful of apricot and white foxglove seeds in 30+ mph winds, I called it a day. I'm going to have to squeeze in the work sometime this week.  

At least the planning work is done.  Since I'm an active seed trader, I have a lot of seeds.  A LOT of seeds.  I have filled three 3" binders:

I have to look through my binders and honestly determine:  how many 'Cherry Caramel' phlox plants do I want next year, especially if I have 12 different varieties of phlox to choose from?  Do I want to plant a few of each, or go heavy on 'Cherry Caramel', which is clearly the superior phlox?

(isn't it dreamy??)

(photo courtesy of Floret Farms)

Once I decide that, I move on to:  am I going to plant one round in early spring, or am I going to plant two rounds (one early spring, one early summer) to prolong the grow period?  If I do that, my first planting should be smaller.  Then I need to check the seed's needs.  Does it need cold stratification?  Does the seed hull need to be scarified (nicked)?  Does it need light to germinate, or complete darkness?  Does it take 5 days to germinate, or 3 months? Is it cold-tolerant, meaning that the seedling can (and should) be set out in mid-April instead of mid-May?  Can it ONLY be directly sown outside, since several types of flowers hate being transplanted and might die off if I try it?  These questions need to be asked for EVERY SINGLE VARIETY.  

Then I had to compile a list, and put everything on Google Calendar, to help me keep track.

I'm mostly doing this laborious process now because I need to know how much soil I need, how many heat mats, how many grow lights, and how much shelving.  I don't want March to come, suddenly get SIXTY Google alerts for seeds that need to go on the heat mats, and discover that I'm short.  

Also, detailed processes appeals to this Type-A planner.  :)  This is where every second of my free time has been spent for the past week.

I also ordered my spring ranuculus and anemones:

(photo courtesy of Johnny's Seeds)

(photo courtesy of Floret Farms)

Once I finish planting those perennial seeds, I'm finished and can join Claudia in a little relaxation!

I can't wait.  Have a great week!

compost engrossed

 Our unusually warm weather has lulled us into a sense of complacency.  It's hard to believe that we're a little over two weeks from December, especially since we've been experiencing temperatures into the low 80s.  But I know that it can't last, and there's much work to be done before the cold weather hits.  So we've been up with the sun...

...and plotting to take advantage of these last few days of heat.  This past week has been especially productive.  In an effort to locate our main water line, a trench was dug...

...water line located, and frost-free pump installed...right in the back annual garden.  Very convenient!

All of the dead plants and debris had to be removed from this back garden, so I collected the very last bit of seed...

...and pulled up the dead plants.  Claudia helpfully slept in from of the wheelbarrow most of the time.

I think she's going to miss our hang-out times there!

I was amazed to see the size of the celosia stalks.  With a plastic knife for scale, you can see just how thick the 'trunk' of this plant is...and the seed was the size of a grain of sand!

I also found a few garter snake skins...a nice sign in a garden!

It's strange to see the area so flat and brown.  But no time to think about it...so many other things to work on.  Todd cut our old fence...

...since we were having a dump truck full of compost delivered to that space, the garden expansion area.

Loads of mulch and gravel were also delivered.

Not only do we have to spread compost over the new expansion area and then have it tilled in, we have to top-dress the back annual garden with compost and mulch.  That work we will probably hire out...but we had to do the more detail work in the front beds ourselves.  The perennials in all 3 large beds were cut down and hauled away to be burned.

All beds were then top-dressed with a thick layer of compost.  A load of dirt was delivered earlier this week, to build out a new back perennial bed.  This was raked out, and we're slowly adding compost to the top.  As soon as the weather cools, I'll be planting perennial seeds here.

It's exciting to think about...just last year, this was a blank, ugly space.

One half of the perennial garden has already been added:

We're adding a huge wooden bench seat with a pergola for climbing roses that will sit against the house, a bird bath, and bird feeders.  Two mulched paths will meander through this space.  I'm excited to do a same-perspective photo, from 2019 to 2021!

While I've been spreading compost, Todd has been using excess fill dirt to even out ruts and dips on the property.

I had to hurry and dig up my dahlias this week, too.  Even though they were first root-bound and then completely dried out by the drought (my watering was very sporadic), they were gorgeous.

It's too cold in our zone for the dahlia tubers to overwinter in the ground, so they have to be dug up in the fall after a few good frosts, like potatoes:

Dahlia tuber multiply.  From 5 tubers planted, I got this amazing bounty:

Over 50 tubers!  But I learned that these are only the food sources for the plant, and that growth comes from the "eyes" at the base of the stalk.  You have to slice up this mass carefully, since multiple tubers can hang from just one eye.  The problem?  I don't see any eyes, which look like little white bumps.  They become more prominent in spring, apparently, so I'll overwinter these clumps in the garage and hope that I can do a better job of spotting them in the spring.  I'm not getting 50 dahlias from 5, but there's a good chance that I'll end up with 20!

With so much outdoor work, my only indoor activity has been collapsing on the couch at the end of the day.  I haven't had the time nor energy for working on my quilt, although it remains in the sewing machine, ready at a moment's notice.  Apparently it's a well-loved item, even before being finished!

They heartily approve of this hobby.  :)

Have a great week!