Fertilizer Friday, October 15

I was out and about for awhile late this afternoon, which felt great.  As I walked around the yard, I was amazed at how few leaves are left on the trees.  While I've been goofing around trying to figure out what's wrong with me, the season was progressing with no help from me.  I wanted to watch the spectacle, but I've been indoors too much.  I really love the smell of autumn, of leaves freshly fallen.

I wish I could smell them now, but I've caught a head cold.  'Caught'----what an odd term that is.  Not to sound Andy Rooney-ish, but who sets out to 'catch' a cold?  Have you ever seen anyone actually chase a person with a cold in the hopes of acquiring their germs?  "Don't run away!  I want that cold!!"  Or has anyone ever tossed a cold to you so you could catch it?  (Wow, I have been sitting around thinking way too long....it's scary here in my head.)

  As odd at is sounds though, I'm ok with the cold, because at least I know what it is!

 The gardens all need clearing out for winter, but I'm going to wait for the hostas to freeze really hard before removing the foliage.  In other years, I used to go around and cut all the foliage back by hand, sterilizing the knife between each cut, but it was a lot of work especially since we have LOTS of hostas.  At one time, we had over 500 different hosta varieties, and yes, I had them all documented and labeled. But then we moved them around and split them and put them here and there, and lost a few and before I knew it, I have a lot of hostas without name tags--but a hosta by any other name is still...........a hosta.  ;-)

The weather here has been nice for the last two weeks.  Let's see what else is going on around here while I've been fermenting; I'm curious:

The River Bed is going strong, mixed orange and yellow Inca Marigolds and Angustofolia Zinnias and somewhere in there, Victoria Salvia with a dash of purple ageratum.

Berberis thunbergii 'Golden Nugget' foliage almost as pretty as a flower.

Out by the Escarpment bed, the mums are really filling out.

Left to right: picea pungens 'St. Mary's Broom', 'Indian Summer' rudbeckia and 'Rudy Haag' euonymus sharing a space on the north quarry hill.

'Forever & Ever' pink hydrangea still looking good even after frost.

and clematis 'Comtesse de Bouchard' is looking marvelous, as only a Comtesse should.

Over on the Pachyberm the Wave petunias are in full bloom.  It's going to take a much harder frost to send these off to the compost heap.

The hyacinth beans are still growing on the Pachyberm hill too, next year I'm going to use them in other areas as a ground cover.  I don't know why I didn't think of it before; I always thought they had to be on a trellis. 

 Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon' catches a glint of sunset and a reflection in the Quarry pond.

The other side of the Quarry, looking back toward the Formal Garden.  We were supposed to have another wedding for photography last weekend, but they changed their mind.   If anyone comes this weekend, there is still quite a bit of color around here and there. 

I'm thinking about taking the 'Annual Holiday Family Photo' this weekend for the Christmas card...shhhhhhhhh........don't tell our sons, I can hear the groans already---but it would be nice to do it now before everything is frozen, including us, standing around trying to look warm. 

The biggest mum I own above and with a close up (I tried to get the Salvia 'Victoria' in the background):

 The woods across the road-- I am having such a hard time believing the leaves are gone, but I will get a grip, I promise.

Around sunset, we had a short downpour.  I loved the colors in the sky.

It was starting to get quite dark and also raining.  The larch lit up nicely when I used a flash and it also illuminated the rain drops.

I took a picture of the rainbow but it is very faint:

  So, I guess that's about it.  Now head on over to Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time and see what other gardeners have blooming!

Hope you all have a great weekend!