Autumn...cleanup time!

You know how toward the end of the season it seems like the weeds take over?  Well, they certainly did in my garden this year.  Today I witnessed that as I began to cleanup the spent perennials and discovered the vast number of weeds that had crept in.  I pulled, dug and raked to get the ground ready for next year.

I have finished my course in Gardening and Landscaping, so I've begun to work toward a bigger plan for my new garden.  You might remember that I started a fern corner, I guess that was the first step.  Now, since I have some ideas about the rest of the back yard, I've dug up some Mondara that was taking over a rock garden area.  It always looked like a weed, and I was tempted to cut it down and then it would bloom this red fluffy star-type of flower.  It wasn't real showy, so I decided to dig it all up.  I suppose there will be a few that I missed that will come up next spring, but then I can see them and dig them up too. 

I've planted Pampas grass as my first permanent plant for the new garden. (Except for the ferns :) It seems that everyone says that they don't make it through the winter here, they're not hardy enough.  However, there are several stands of the white-plumed grass growing near Polk City!  So, we'll see.

I have an order in for some other plants to put around my mailbox....ones that will be better than the foxtails that are growing there now.  I'll be sure to take pictures next spring to update everyone!

I will be posting more often now, as I add plants and ideas to my garden.  I've been a little lax, but I'll be better, I promise!

A Great Vacation!

Just a few days vacation can make all the difference in the world to your attitude!  On a beautiful, not too hot day, I spent several hours in the garden, cleaning up debris and running all the sticks and trimmings from the garden through our chipper shredder.  Now I can move easily through the area leading to my fern garden and the mulch the chipper produced is wonderful for keeping in the moisture.

Today, it's raining.  It's perfect.  We went to the Iowa State Fair yesterday and it was fairly hot, but not to the point of exhaustion.  Having this day of rain is relaxing, cooling and a great time to spend indoors catching up on friends and family.

Take care, and we'll talk again soon.

Down the lane

In the back of my garden, I have a little area that has a path through it.  We mow it every time we mow and it is fun to walk down it.  There are garden phlox blooming on both sides as well as the Clematis.  I took my camera out and recorded a video but I'm unable to load it here for you.  Maybe someone with more technology will read this and give me hand??

Okay, so there was this huge storm last night. It was around 9-9:30 and we wondered how everything outside would do with the wind. I have this little maple tree that I pulled up as a sapling in the yard that I planted in a big container. It's working on it's second year now and
Ray says, "don't you think you should plant it????" Well, when you buy a tree in a container at the nursery, it most likely is 3-4 years old. That gives it a nice root ball and it's a happy camper. So, if I were to plant it this year, it would probably not survive as well as it would if I wait. Ray also worried about it during the storm and wondered if we should bring it inside. No....I say, the wind helps it develop roots capable of holding it upright as it grows. If you coddle it, it will be weak!

Fine, he says. It really was a very nice storm.

Still doing stuff....:)

Even though the days are hot and the mosquitoes are hungry, I'm still working towards the garden! I'm working online towards my Landscaping and Gardening degree! This module is about drawing up the landscaping plan. I'm learning to draw to scale, perspective and different ways to use architect's tools to help. I've never worked much in graphic design and hope I get the hang of it! To be able to create the best possible plan for my home garden is my first goal. Later I might reach out to others that would like to plan their gardens.

So, for now I'm inside in the AC environment away from the screaming mosquitoes and working hard toward my degree! Later.

Beautiful days, plenty of itching

Okay, I have to admit that I haven't done much in the garden for a few days. I'd like to say it was weather related, but.. no it's not.

When I was a kid, I used to play outside all the time, and I'd come in way after dark. Sometimes even though I had been hot and sweaty during the day, my mom would have me just wash up a little instead of a bath. My feet were always a mess because of course I was barefoot most of the time, but still I just washed up. That was a mistake on my part, but hey, I didnt' know any better. The mistake was not washing WELL....well enough to wash off all the chiggers that were using my body as a host. There were summers when I had hundreds of chigger bites...and no one seemed to have a clear idea of where they came from, or how they managed to get under tight places such as elastic without me knowing it!

Well, recently Ray and I went fishing. Now I've not had many chiggers since I was little, but after that trip I had once again managed to get bites under the elastic. So, I finally went to the internet for some answers. Seems the things are almost invisible to the naked eye. They catch a ride on their host by climbing up to a high blade of grass or weed, then when you come by they just hop on. They like tight fitting places, not just elastic, such as behind the knee when you're wearing jeans. They burrow in and begin to secrete some enzymes that liquefy skin cells, then they eat their fill. When they're finished, they just drop back into the grass, or wherever you happen to be. At this point, you probably don't even know you've been biten. It takes a day or two, then the itching begins. It lasts about a week. It tends to make you a little gun-shy to go out into the garden. Even though I haven't gotten chigger bites before in my garden, as wet as it is this year it could happen.

So....All I've been doing is mowing. On the John Deere tractor. For those of you that are prone to getting chigger bites...be sure to spray a bug repellent on your shoes, your socks, your legs from the knee down and the outside of your jeans. Even then, I'd come home, strip and shower as soon as possible!! Wash the clothes in hotter than usual water and dry in a hot dryer.

Either it's rain or heat!!!

Yeah, like it's crazy hot right here. I'm sitting in the office, (with no AC) a fan blowing directly on me and still I'm sticky and hot. My windows are open and I'm hoping the outside air will begin to cool down, but my best chance for cool is to go on back into the air conditioned house!

I've been going out to look at the garden often, but it's sooooo, hot and because of this wet weather it's full of mosquitos that I'm not out very long. I did take some pictures of some of the bloomers and growers out there, and I've included them here today. I've had a few days off and would have spent lots of time in the garden if the weather had cooperated!

Even in good weather tho, ya still have to break off the gardening to take a stab at the dust bunnies in the house.....however in my house it's DOG bunnies. My two pugs leave many bunnies for me. So I've been using this time to clean up so I'll be ready when the weather gives me a break!