Gee, so what do you get if you are a regular and post all the time anyway, lol? What if you are a regular and just haven't posted because no one else has been around to play with? :)

You know, Katie, you should have started! But since I have the computer to myself for a bit before DS comes back, I'll start.

I've been up to the usual boring stuff, lol. Working my part-time indoor job, working for my garden customers, working at the local organic farm (harvesting in the rain for the second week in a row today!). In between, trying to get my own garden cleaned up for the season and trying to get some new beds ready for next year.

In between that and the kids' and what they entail, I do a lot of looking at the mess in my house and think that I'll get to it eventually - like after the holidays, lol! I think I need to throw a party. That's about the only way my house gets cleaned, is when I know people are coming over.

Also trying to get some reading done - which I can never seem to do enough of. Have about 4 overdue books sitting here, most of which are overdue and not even started yet! But I cast them all aside because my copy of Eliot Coleman's "Four-Season Harvest" came in. I was thinking of doing some cold-frame stuff this winter, but as usual I procrastinated and it's probably too late for this year.

Oh, and I am starting to collect and prepare my containers for winter-sowing.

:)
Dee

funny, though I am more of a lurker than a regular but I did just sign on to get advice and generate some discussion about spring beds.

I just pulled up the last of my impatiens and cut back my balloon flowers. I do have a couple of Mums waiting to get into the ground and one perennial pot that for the life of me, I can't remember what is in it.

Dee, sounds like we are an awful lot alike. I just had a party on Sat and the house looks great AND I got a call from the library about an overdue book that I've had since summer!!!
Chris

Dee,

I don't know if I knew you were an organic gardener and forgot or just never noticed. [g] That's great! Sounds like a lovely gardening existence. :-)

I can't think of a better book on organic vegetable growing than Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest. Are you going to erect a poly-greenhouse and try to harvest veggies year round too?

I do that a lot with books. I get a lot from the library and have a hard time finishing any of them before it is time for them to go back..lol.

Chris, I have a few unidentified pots out there too. [g]

What am I up to? Hmm...well, it rained pretty steady for awhile here tonight and it was so balmy we sat on the back porch for awhile just listening to the rain and enjoying the beautiful air. I am so happy the garden got a good soaking.

Have been trying to find some help for the garden due to my usual helpers not being able to do it any more, so that kept me busy for about a month. Just finished extending a bed and layering it with organic material for planting next spring. Need to do a Poison Ivy tour of the yard this weekend and maybe start getting my pots put away for the winter.

Trying to get some repairs caught up around the house.
Just ordered a new comforter cover for our bed from LLBean. They have free shipping from now until Christmas BTW.

That's about it...nothing too exciting, but satisfying.
:-)
pm2

I have my shipment of alliums from Sheepers sitting right next to me while I type, let's see 25 allium sphaerocephalon,6 a.ambassador, and 3 schubertii. Last weekend my daughter and planted tulips in her small raised bed, and I donated some allium "Hair" cause there were bare spots. Speaking of allium, after living here 12 years, we finally got around to planting groundcover under the two maples which grace our front door, just vinca minor but anything is better than "futile" grass, which is a special variety bred just for under maples. Several days after all few hundred plants were put in, the gentle rains came and thousands, and I mean multitudes, of onion sprouts emerged. So every day I've been out squatting on a rubbermaid stool with various tools, trying to get out what bulbs I can before it freezes. I figure I have until mid-January at the rate things are going. Did I say bulbs? Bulblettes. Mini might bulbs, teeny bulbs, microscopic bulbs, infintesmially small but mightily annoying onion bulbs. And I know they'll be back come spring.
Mayalena, I planted one of the beautiful azaela's you gave me to the right of the front door.

And back hill which was cleared of Norway maples two years ago, got three 7 foot white pines planted over the last two weeks. I do not know how my husband did it, cause he had to roll each tree with a giant root ball down the hill and over to its respective spot. They had grown in solid clay. By tree two we realized how much lighter the trees were without "a hundred pounds of clay." So I said "hey listen..." (anybody get that song...circa 1960) we freed the roots of the half the clay and could actually move the trees. They look great. We'll find out if we killed them by mid summer next year, I guess.
I'd nearly forgotten about the bee hive. Time soon to start feeding them, because the flower supply is rapidly dwindling. We got about 5 pounds of honey, which isn't bad for a first year hive. Soon it will be time to wrap up the hive for winter, cross fingers and hope for life come spring.
I really want to re-do the smaller shrub plantings on the bottom third of the hillside garden. HOwever, the answer (says me to me) is not now, fool! There's plenty to do without another big project that could take me into freeZing weather.
I have less panic planting to do than other seasons. I really am running out of room, energy, time and desire for more plants. Slowing down a bit feels real good.
Marie

pm2, I probably won't get around this year to constructing any kind of poly tunnel - probably won't even get the cold-frame done, lol! The organic farm I work at is a mile and a half down the road, and I think I could plant in the greenhouse there - they have a greenhouse with no tables which is used as a giant tunnel, I suppose you would call it. But I don't know if I will or not, at least this year. On some of those cold winter days, I don't know that I would venture out into my own yard for a handful of spinach, lol, never mind over to the farm.

Maybe when I get my act together next year and get more organized I'll take advantage of the farmer's generous offer. I'd really be foolish not to, I suppose.

Marie, you reminded me that I have a few tulips to plant yet. I didn't go crazy with bulbs this year - I knew I'd be too busy with other things - so I just ordered enough to pot up a few containers.

Marie, I also think it's cool that you keep bees! I've often thought of this - very funny, actually, for the woman who used to be terrified of bees as a little girl! I'm still a bit hesitant about taking the plunge!

:)
Dee

ahhhh ... the things we will do for points. :0)

been working (a more honest description would be: 'allowing myself to be ground to a pulp under The Oppressive Thumb of The Man') waaaaay too much this past year. on the way back in to the office now, as a matter of fact. but enough about my lack of a life! let's talk about the garden instead!

managed to squeeze in a couple days of fall cleanup but still need to dig dahlia tubers, shift drought-dessicated zinnias/nicotiana/squash vines into the compost bin, harvest pine needles from a friend's yard & mulch, mulch, mulch. erected a large, roundish wire pen in anticipation of ritualistic leaf-hoarding. miraculously got 250 bulbs planted -- narcissus poeticus, allium bulgaricum, a sizeable array of frits (hopefully not destined to nourish lily leaf beetles in the spring). ordered three rose bushes (jude the obscure, ghislaine de feligonde, buff beauty), more dahlias (waterlily & collarette), and probably some other stuff i've forgotten about for spring delivery (yay!). routinely succumb to insatiable little seed enthusiams -- trillium, arisaema, sanguinaria, meconopsis, etc. -- which precipitate bouts of wildly intemperate nocturnal online seed-ordering. one could describe the resulting pot ghetto housing (hopefully) germinating seeds as either 'darned impressive' or 'really unsightly!,' depending on one's tolerence for rows of milk jugs in the yard.

brood incessantly, knowing that my gardening lust will not be satisfied until i retire, which i anticipate happening on the occasion of: a) winning the lottery big time and/or b) snagging a sugar daddy.

kt, the daylilies were fab this summer -- so bright & brimming with good cheer. thank you again.

Well, I have been a very busy beaver of late. Earlier this summer, my next door neighbor rented a bobcat for a 3 day weekend. And since I think of lawn as nothing more than something green that needs to be mowed, I had him tear up my entire front yard (which was lawn). Subsequently, I have been working on relandscaping my front yard, putting in a few paths, trying to figure out how/what I will plant, etc. Its a project that has had my neighbors drive by shakin their heads as they watch me shovel dirt from here to there or use pry bars to move boulders.

Well, the blessing of late is I have gotten 2 loads (9 yards each) of ramial wood chips from tree trimming services FOR FREE. So in the last 2-3 weeks, I have spread 18 yards of wood chips.

And the super-d-duper winfall is yesterday I was passing by a sign that said landscaping artist out of business sale. This was in shrewsbury, ma. They had vehicles, bobcats, rototillers, etc. They had several trees, plants, statues. Bricks, tools, granite, bluestone. You name it. Well, although I had other plans, I spent the afternoon filling my neighbors van with 3 trips of granite/bluestone. I got 4 giant steps, large columns that they used to tie up horses, miscellaneous 50 -100 lb hunks of granite, big 3-inch-thick hunks of bluestone, 2 table top pieces of high grade granite.....all for, yep, 25 bucks. I nearly wet myself. So I blew the whole afternoon, fatigued my back, and filled my driveway with large pieces of stone.

Im a happy frugal new england gardener. Enclosed are a few pix of front yard in progress.

Now I have a clean slate to fill with trees, shrubs, bulbs, etc. I will update with posts as the project continues, if interested.

Greg

Planting trees and shrubs!

Idabean, how cool that you have bees! I've thought about that too.

Sunshineboy - how exciting you got rid of all that grass and made some brand new garden beds and what a great deal to get all that stone!

I was pretty much out of action this summer after having a fall from 15-20 feet in June where I broke my wrist (have a metal plate in wrist now), messed up my back and neck, and had a bad concussion. But now my wrist, back and neck are about 90% healed (the head will be slower) and I'm doing so well that I was "dismissed" several weeks ago by the surgeon and OT. I am SO happy to be back to gardening, yard work, and a little work on the house.

Aside from the usual miscellaneous fall gardening stuff, I have been in the midst of a major effort to clear non-native invasive plants from the yard. This project started long before the accident and will be ongoing for several more years. I've spent the last six weeks (since I could crawl around in the bushes again LOL) systematically cutting Oriental bittersweet and Common and Glossy Buckthorn, and weed-wrenching and pulling the youngsters. GREAT therapy and exercise for the wrist!

In November, I've got the tree guys lined up to come take down two large Norway maples, and do some limbing for me. Two other big Norways were girdled this past spring and they are slowly dying. Norway maples have unbelievably dense and aggressive canopies and removing these trees will open up MUCH more sun in my back yard and I'm planning large new garden beds with pathways through the woodland and LOTS of veggies, annuals and perennials. My baby shrub and small tree seedlings are waiting to be planted out. Lots of planning to do!

I am not the least bit obsessed! ;)

Hello! Missing this forum, but somehow not able to sit down and write -- and hardly able to get out in the garden. This is a busy time of year for me with lots of projects, papers, kids' halloween costumes, school stuff, prepping and freezing veggies from our CSA, etc. In between, I run outside to rearrange plants...again.... Keep bumping into cheaper shrubs and buying them and sticking them in the ground, imagining that I'll "know" where to plant them next spring, and hoping that it will start raining sometime so they don't die of drought under my neglect. A week of really good rain would be nice. Then some snow cover this winter would help! And a decently rainy spring.... Planning too far ahead, I know. Still waiting to plant my too many bulbs.... Gotta go!

Wow, sunshineboy, as the Irish side of my family would say, did you ever step in .... well, let's just say you were very lucky! I'm envious! Not to mention envious of the wonderful neighbor you seem to have. Best of luck to you on the project(s). Looks like you have some happy helpers too!

Terrene, glad to hear you are feeling better and getting back in the garden.

I think today is the day I will start raking leaves. I'll be doing it well into January, but I guess I'll start today so I can start my stash of shredded leaves. Such a gorgeous day out....

:)
Dee

Dee...since you are doing winter sowing, I am sure the cold frame/poly tunnel will wait. [g] Nice to have the option of the greenhouse down the street...I wonder if you would be more inclined in the spring to use some of it's space. I am with you on braving the weather for spinach. All of my favorite veggies won't grow in the winter either. lol You don't have any tropicals to winter over in the greenhouse do you?

Gregg...that is some story and LOVE the photos. Everyone seemed to be having a great time too! I will look forward to seeing updated photos as you work on the project. :-)

terrene...that is awful about your injuries!! I am so happy for you that you are healing and back in the garden! Bittersweet..ugh! I don't envy you that. I hope you are taking before photos and more as you go along. Would love to see them sometime.

I have a Norway Maple and I hate it but it is the only screen between me and two houses and a busy road. I just don't have the courage to cut it down. I am going to be calling a tree company to do some trimming of overhanging branches around the yard. I should check how much they charge to take it down. Terrene...I think you are in good company....is there anyone on this forum that isn't obsessed? [g]

Hello mayalena...sounds like a great kind of 'too busy' to me. :-) Where have you been running into shrubs on sale? I am still waiting for the 50% off sales. None that I have come across yet.

You have leaves on the ground already Dee? All of the trees here have barely dropped a leaf yet. LOVE leaf season. :-)

Yes, pm2, I actually raked a few leaves up last week (but just a few). Raked up enough for two bags of shredded leaves today. But I have oaks, and there are still tons of leaves on the trees... which is why I am raking straight through January, lol. Those darn oak leaves just don't want to fall!

Normally I don't start raking in earnest until November - aesthetically, there is no point. Rake today, everything is covered tomorrow. But since I will be needing an extra-large amount of shredded leaves this year, I thought I'd get a jump-start today.

:)
Dee

Hi... I'm a newbie - both to gardening and to this site...

I've been planting shrubs! I was planning on waiting until the spring, but the bargains at several of the area nurseries are just too good to pass up...

Leucothoe... pieris... andromeda... mugo pine... azalea... anything and everything...

Welcome dcdre14,

I sounds like you have been enjoying all your bargan hunting. It's hard to wait when you see a good deal.

I still have three pots of Iris to get in the ground and one of Russian Sage. I still have pots of impatients in full bloom on the deck. They have had a good year but it will soon be time to tuck everything back into the garage. I hate to do it while they still look so good and are still so happy but, I have found that it is best to do it in good weather. The end is near... :(

ok, I get some points because I haven't posted here in a while.

For some reason I have been less motivated to get my fall cleanup done this year. I had to drag myself 2 days in a row to cut back most the perennials. Now I have my client's, who grows a gazillion dahlias, that all need to be dug up and tubers saved (she insists).

We haven't really had a real frost here yet. Just a touch of a light frost that was just enough to start to turn the basil brown and wilt the zuchinni. I still have tomatoes and eggplant ripening in the veg. garden. Today it's supposed to be 79. Maybe I'll go to the beach. Or maybe dig up those dahlias.

It has been soccer season so we have been very busy with our 13-yr old daughter on 2 teams. Last game today.

I've been raking leaves sporadically so the job doesn't get too overwhelming. Haven't gotten around to shredding them though (rain-soaked leaves is a good excuse).

Bulbs from Brent and Becky are due today! Now I just have to remember where the existing bulbs are lurking.... time to dig out the spring photos.

Claire

Okay, I am more of a regular "back in the day", but have posted occasionally within the past few months.

I guess it was due to my mother being ill and then passing away earlier this summer. Also, we were rebuilding a house on the shore of Rhode Island. Regarding my mother, I've been getting on with things. Regarding the house in RI, after the drought, we decided to postpone landscaping until this spring. Also, we ran out of money in the budget. It is nice to have a blank slate. Also, it gives us time to think about and talk with the contractor about what we want to accomplish. I plan to do most of the stuff myself, except for where we need the heavy equipment to level the lot and spread the loam. We did have a gravel parking area put in.

At my home in metrowest Boston, I did plant some bulbs. I still have some allium bulbs to plant, drumstick and schubertii. I plan to plant the drumsticks among some artemisia. I planted some of these in another area last fall and thought they would look good as a contrast with the silver artemisia. The squirrels already dug up one tulip bulb and took a few nibbles. I don't usually do tulips because of the squirrels, but I really wanted some Queen of Night. I put pumpkins out for decoration and they are all partially eaten.

I think I posted awhile back about how the oaks didn't have their usual bumper crop of acorns this year. So the squirrels discovered my tomatoes, which by the way the plants still have some tomatoes on them, even with the damage. I'm waiting a bit to harvest the carrots.

At home we had to clean out the attic, (what a job!) so we could add more insulation. Keeping warm will cost a few bucks this winter (if it gets cold).

Hi hostas.. :-)

'back in the day'...how long have you been coming to GW?
I am very sorry to hear about your Mom. Such a painful loss. You have had a tough summer. I am sure there are few people on the forums who have not lost someone, me included. I found gardening to be even more important to me at those times. Glad you are posting again!

pm2

This is one of the rare times of the year that I can
actually be glad my "garden-in-exile" is in Zone 6-B
(aren't most of you in 6-A and higher? Well, I guess the
Cape would be warmer) since my garden is STILL in
tumultuous bloom - still picking tomatoes, and I had a couple of handfuls of raspberries after lunch. This is the
time of year I try to stick to hard-scaping projects (when
it's "allegedly" cooler -can you believe it's 80 degrees
on Oct. 23rd?) since there's NEVER enough time in the crush of Spring. Rebuilding the stockade fence across the
back using concrete piers instead of posts since the wind
out of the west has severely weakened it - giving up on a
grass pathway cutting down through the trees to the lower garden (too many roots, too much shade) and re-grading it
for mulch - and my "magnum opus", a 16-foot tower (which
I started 2 years ago and never finished) which is a kind
of "response" to my red-neck neighbor's hoodwinking the
town into letting him erect an 11-foot barrier along our
property line. It's a long story (some other time!) but
as you can imagine, I was furious and frustrated for quite
a long time (it barricaded me from all my neighbor's up the block and totally altered the dynamic of a garden I'd
spent a decade creating), but then the challenge kicked in
and everything has been successfully re-designed and
implemented. . .next season, the established, climbing roses surrounding the tower will clamber up their new
"trellis", and by climbing up to the platform at the
6-foot level within the tower, I can once-again wave to my
neighbor's up the block - and they can see part of my
garden!

And what a hoot to see that someone else (Dee) is obsessed
with shredded leaves: soon, I'll be trolling up and down
the block with my 12'x12' blue tarp, collecting everyone
else's castoffs to drag home and shred ! Most years, I'll
fill 20-30 of the HUGE industrial size black bags to hold
over the winter. . .we are a strange lot, indeed. . .

Carl
(Yankee-in-Exile)

Marie, had to laugh at your post. Fight the good fight! I too have been swamped by work, home improvements, family committments, etc.

Greg, I stand in awe of your bargain hunting skills. $25! The EM team would have had to be resuscitating me right there on the wood chip pile. *G* Way to go!

I know answers are rolling in. I guess weÂre all busy in our various lives, but itÂs fun to compare. Since my gardening is collapsed into just the weekend (still a weekend commuter and a wage slave in the city during the week) I so regret the shortening of the days. Six am rolls around and itÂs pitch dark, so I canÂt be up and out to take advantage of every hour.

As some of you know, I bought an old house last fall, and engaged in taking down an awful shed plunked right in the back yard last spring. As of April, said backyard was ready to "be gardened," but unfortunately, there was no money to buy any plants. I have divided a certain number of things from the community garden where I work in the city, and bought annuals only for the pots on the deck. The spring and summer was a time of discovery  the PO was a gardener, but had neglected the beds for awhile (it looked like).

Now, keeping the theme of $$ outflow, the house is being painted, so I have a great incentive for cutting things down. I have bedded fallen leaves over the back of the beds near the walls where I think the painters are going to tramp. I pray for a clematis right in the line of fire. It was a hard choice  a new door that actually opens and closes with ease or a viburnum in the back. The horrid light fixture (florescent !) in the kitchen has stayed up way beyond its time so that I could splurge on annuals  I have foregone perennials (except for a large Russian sage on sale at the Stop n Shop). In the interest of pinching pennies, this winter I am going to try winter sowing.

It seems such a shame  the last weeks have been balmy and summerlike -- to have the annuals wind down. My nicotiana, lantana, impatiens and wave petunias are still sprouting like mad. Zinnias and annual salvia had mildew on their leaves and had to go. So did the phlox and monarda. Cosmos too. A huge disappointment in April was that there was not one  not even ONE  daffodil on the property. I can live without nice shrubs, without exotic perennials, without roses (I think), and most bulbs, but I cannot live without daffodils. I planted 100 bulbs that arrived from BreckÂs (cheapo) -- Just a wee drop I know  so this April their trumpets of gold will welcome in the new gardening season. You will all see me next spring at the CT plant swap, for sure.

ThatÂs what IÂve been up to.
lucia