@north53 Z2b MB, it is crazy that you are a zone 2 ❄️. I love hearing about the plants that do well for you.

Not yet, although a couple pots are starting to look bedraggled. At the end of August I replaced some potted annuals that were looking pretty bad with mums and pansies for a refresh, and those displays still look good. I wait until after a few light frosts to dig the geraniums for storage, so most of my potted clean-up comes mid to end of October, I tend to tackle it at once rather than little by little, unless something is getting on my last nerve then I rip it out when I can't take it any more; hence, the fall refresh with the mums and pansies.

Not really. I've empted one pot- had a plant death. Have emptied a couple bins of their potatoes as I've needed them, but I don't think that counts. But they have been reseeded with carrots and radishes.

A couple more tender pots have been moved into one of the mini greenhouses. I've started putting up the cap frames, but they haven't gotten their covers yet.

My handful of square inch gardening pots and trays have all been emptied though. They needed a refresh before I squeak in one more round outdoors before bringing them inside.

I agree - north53 that's crazy that you are in zone TWO!! Wow. That's something. I imagine gardening there is a completely different experience than here in southern Connecticut! Kudos to you!

I've always wanted to be one of those gardeners who change up their pots seasonally. I always thinks it looks fabulous and when I see a house like that, it screams "I'm a homeowner who cares and takes pride in my house". Unfortunately I'm a homeowner who doesn't have the money to spend on changing out annuals lol. I might buy a pot or two of mums for the front steps but I'd rather spend my gardening pennies on shrubs and perennials that will last longer. I also am helping my daughter establish gardens at her new house and it seems I end up paying for a lot of that too lol. But there is nothing I love more than a well-put-together pot combo and one that reflects the season.

rouge I was thinking about this post when I went outside to work in the garden this morning, and I realized another thing about me. I looked at my pots and thought, hmm, they don't look as good as I thought they did lol. But I focuse more at this time of year on getting things done in the garden that I've neglected since spring - I planted a few shrubs this morning, worked on clearing out an area where I removed some scrub trees that I want to plant in a few weeks, and worked on enlarging a bed. I guess I tend to forget about the pots until everything is pretty much past and then just rip out the dead stuff. I guess one could say if they drove by my house that it screams "I'm a homeowner who needs help in the garden!" haha!

:)

Dee

"Unfortunately I'm a homeowner who doesn't have the money to spend on changing out annuals lol."

I only bought a few LOL! Normally I don't bother because of the short season and the expense, but garden-proud homeowner that I am, DH was having a bunch of his buddies over for a party on Labor Day and I wanted things to look nice = vanity. LOL! (mums are relatively cheap, though -- and they're still going strong so I'm enjoying them)

I try to save a few pennies on annuals by doing my own from seed. Most of the time it works, but I usually have a weak moment or two in the spring at the nursery, lol.

I do need to divide and repot the mums though. I keep mine as perennials instead of annuals. Gotta take the fall round of wormwood cuttings soon too while the tips are still tender.

I had more pots than usual this year and I planned to grow more food crops in them to get them higher away from the rabbits. It worked out okay, but with all the gray days and rain, nothing was having as good a year as seasons past. So I already pulled everything out of the larger pots. I had some leftover string beans seeds I threw in two. I planted Mustard for smoothies in another - cold season crop - Bok choy in another. I still have 4 pots with just soil in them. I thought of using them to repot some of my larger houseplants....Rubber trees - 2 of them. But my DH talked me out of it because the only pots I had available that would fit them were very heavy even before you fill them with soil and water them. So I'm still trying to decide what to do wtih those.

Potting soil is so expensive, do any of you reuse yours? I've started dumping all the potting soil in a mound and letting it just sit there all winter and reuse it in the spring with some added compost and a little real soil from any area of good soil. Just a shovelful or two.

I did buy a half dozen potted plants, the end of July but I put them in the ground - 3 were annuals - Two angelonia and a Salvia that is not hardy here.

Really, I don't think I'm going to plant anything up for the Fall or winter. A nice wreath on the door for Fall, then Christmas. A lot of grasses and Mums in the garden out front for the fall..and that's it.

I am eager to put the garden to bed for the fall. I'm building more berms to contain rainwater on the property and get the double benefit of letting compost and branches break down and produce good soil for next year. I am not even going to move any plants until the spring. I did that last year with Gaura and I lost 2 out of 3. I'd like to build some better tomato cages out of cattle panels and a dozen or so boxes made of hardware cloth to keep the rabbits away from my favorite plants next year. And that's it. More pots next year!

Extra good post @prairiemoon2 z6b MA. Thank you.

letting it just sit there all winter and reuse it in the spring with some added compost

For sure. That is definitely the way to go if you have space to put all of last year's potting soil.

I am eager to put the garden to bed for the fall.

That is how I feel come late September. It is lots nicer doing the season ending routines in good Fall weather rather than in the rain, cold or even snow.

Exactly Rouge. Last year I shirked some work because I just didn't want to suffer through the change in temperature. lol The older I get the more I feel the cold. I used to consider myself a hardy New Englander and loved heading outside regardless of the weather. Now it takes me a few hours to warm up once the cold gets into my bones....brrrr! and it's better for the plants if you are moving them early, like late August or early September. I have sometimes hoped to get a jump on spring by moving a few things in the fall, but I have better results waiting until spring for the most part. I was planning to renovate a large bed and move everything around, but, I waited for cooler weather and then I felt like it was too late to do it. Next year, as always. [g]

I pile the potting soil up next to the compost bins.

"Potting soil is so expensive, do any of you reuse yours"

Absolutely. I dump it in a huge nursery containers and store the containers by the barn and pushed up against the cart I protect from the elements, the containers keep the bungee-d tarp from blowing around and getting un-bungee-d. It all gets refreshed in the spring with a good turning-over or two and more mix added to it as needed.

(this cart):

Loads of them...but mostly to get them in the ground at the allotment because my garden is seriously full. I am also inclined to yank out things which are looking a bit tired...such as nicotiana. At onetime, if there was even a single bloom remaining,I would hold fire until death/frost intervened but I have no time for that wishy-washy prevaricating these days. I am perfectly amenable to using my secateurs when plants start to look a bit over the hill...and have just given quite a few plants the heave-ho (Rozanne has been severely trimmed, along with a coupla dahlias, gypsophila, a bunch of scabious, salvia Nachtvlinder, and Sierra San Antonio, adenophoras, the last kirengoshomas, sphaeralcea, a couple of grasses - either hacked into submission or removed completely.

Of course I re-use potting soil - I use a good loam based mix to begin with and I have bloody heaps of the stuff.

Yes to the reusing potting soil too. It gets cycled though pots, bins... usually takes a few years for it to hit the cages when they need some topping off.

Rather than emptying containers, I am potting them up! And not with seasonal plants but items I am digging from my current garden to take to my new garden next month. Other than a hanging basket and couple of tomatoes - which are power producing at this moment - I planted no seasonal containers at all. No annuals. The dahlia currently blooming was last year's left over and the rest are tender perennials I have managed to winter over the last couple of seasons. And they will get schlepped over to the new place along with umpteen already potted trees, shrubs, clematis and perennials.

In case anyone was wondering, my new tiny little garden will be almost 100% containerized. Very much ala the very compact, in-city container only back gardens that are often featured on Gardener's World. While my new place is perhaps wider than many of those, it is quite short and my contractor buddy and I decided I could cram in more plants in containers than I could if they were planted in the ground.

In rouge's defense, I have often dumped annual containers well before the weather turned cold (first frost here not until late November, if it happens at all). They can frequently look overstressed by this late in the season and depending on the plant selection, sometimes just look wrong! Nemesia looks terrible now. 😖

Very much ala the very compact, in-city container only back gardens that are often featured on Gardener's World.

Will such 'drastic' changes for you ie new home and new garden area result in you now taking pictures that you will post here? :)

Nemesia looks terrible now.

Interesting 'gg' as I think this plant often "rebounds" in the cooler conditions that you would be experiencing now?

Yes! I’ve emptied my window box and also my woodland garden containers, and am moving on to fall decor. The summer pretties have had their day in the sun…onward!

My window box gets pumpkins and ornamental cabbage, and my woodland garden containers get stacked heirloom pumpkins. My front containers will get dumped this week in favor of mums.

Rouge, I appreciate and learn from all your posts, and I hope you keep ’em coming. To think that you post anything here for ”shock value” is absurd.

All good @lovemycorgi z5b SE michigan...thanks.

" Will such 'drastic' changes for you ie new home and new garden area result in you now taking pictures that you will post here? :) "

Maybe 🙄 It sure isn't going to look like much for the first year or so!

Your new garden sounds a lot like mine, GG. Best of luck with the moving. Small gardens keep you focussed!

LOL I guess I am a "wishy-washy prevaricator" because I have such a hard time cutting back/yanking anything as long as there's a single bloom! I also have trouble thinning seedlings.

I'm glad to see others re-use their potting mix. I do as well, although I always seem to read that one shouldn't. I usually take out the top third of each pot and add fresh and mix it up. The stuff I removed goes into trays to lay my dahlia tubers in or to temporarily pot up stuff that will be planted out. Any extra potting soil from my winter-sowing containers gets dumped in whatever bed I'm planting in.

beesneeds I sow a lot of annuals from seed too, but they are mostly cutting annuals. I find the bedding annuals (impatiens, geraniums, petunias etc) seem to take too long and need to be likely started indoor or in a greenhouse, and I strictly wintersow stuff. So I do buy some annuals for my patio pots. It's so very hard NOT to be tempted and enticed at a garden center! Especially in spring!

mxk there is nothing wrong with a little vanity in the garden! We all want our gardens to look great! :)

Best of luck in your new garden GG!

:)

Dee

O Dee, you KNOW you are - haven't you already regaled us with your tender-hearted failure to toss a single plant...despite sowing 3 bazillion of them? I am made of much sterner stuff - but obviously, this is because I am basically a hardened planticidal maniac - I have 'offed' literally thousands of them...sometimes just for being a bit dull!

I am bafflingly soft-hearted when it comes to slugs and snails. While my neighbour brutally dispatches hers with the kitchen scissors, I gently relocate mine, a good distance away (although on the other side of a fairly busy road). All because I once picked up a snail and swore I could hear it 'fizz with life'. I hadn't even been on the drink! If plants could talk, I fear mine would be perpetually screaming.

Hahaha yes! I am truly going to make a REAL effort to NOT sow five thousand tomato seeds this year! Not even 100! I am going to sow 5 to 6 of each variety, and no more than 40. This will leave room for some failures and some to give to my daughter. As I sow I will repeat, "I do NOT need 200 tomato plants. I do NOT need 200 tomato plants". I just today felt a pang of guilt because I walked by a tray of dead little tomato seedlings that I never got around to planting out.

I am pretty soft-hearted too. I almost always move bugs and worms, and even slugs I can't kill. I WILL drown them in beer, but I tell myself it's a great way to go lol.

:)

Dee

I haven't touched a pot yet, but everything is on a drip system so most of the summer all I do is walk by and every now and then fertilize, so there's not much to get worn out with... but I can hardly blame anyone who pulls things early for 'tiredness' or plain boredom. One of the reasons I like perennials is the anticipation of bloom and then the progression through the year from one planting to the next, unlike annuals which might still look great but you just don't notice after the first month or two.

My thoughts lately lean more towards what comes in for the winter and when, and holy crap did that get big this summer.

Thought I'd try several petunias in pots, never again will I do the small flowered types that produce a zillion blooms cause then of course the endless deadheading! The larger flowered ones I don't mind as much, though think I'll mostly do other less labor intensive flowers and foliage. Zinnias are great, though despite being in large containers they really do need frequent drenching. I often mention my alstroemeria, it requires the least amount of tending of any of my pots, far fewer waterings as well and simply pull out the spent stems from time to time, oh and a near year round bloom period with these!

Ahhh, Dee, you're such a softie, I'm the same with most bugs, I just leave to be other than the destructive types, slugs I have no problem putting under foot! My tomatoes I've curtailed, I just don't need 150 lbs to be doing something with, especially with my reflux, though should get a whack into the dehydrator cause then they really then do sweeten up.

I don't empty containers, I just pull some indoors that i hope to grow on (herbs and such) will do that soon

FrozeBudd, I rarely have enough room for more than a few tomato plants and therefore, no glut of tomatoes to have to do something with. This year I was able to have about a half a dozen plants and the 'Sungold' cherry tomato is still pushing out tomato after tomato despite a slow start with the rainy cloudy weather of May and June here.

We've been putting them in everything and giving them away. I just sent home the end of them with our kids today. Well, not really the end, but at least I can see my counter again for awhile...lol. I expect we'll have more for at least another 3 weeks.

Great pot of Alstromeria, and great information about what is less and more work in a pot.

Things just keep getting better-for about another 6 weeks.

I often mention my alstroemeria, it requires the least amount of tending of any of my pots, far fewer waterings as well and simply pull out the spent stems from time to time, oh and a near year round bloom period with these!

Ah ha!

I have often considered acquiring alstroemeria over the years but have never followed through. (Do I recall directly that you were able to overwinter a clump, planted next to your home?)

@FrozeBudd_z3/4, given that it is probably hardy to a zone 6, I am wondering if it could be grown in a pot outdoors in the summer and then brought in and placed in the cold cellar (always above 0C) in the winter, going dormant. (We have so little full sun locations in our house to keep it in flower all year long.)

Alstroemeria are, by far and away, the most prolific, long-flowering blooms in my entire garden. Right now, they are ramping up for another 6 weeks or so of flowering. I pick* them for the house and this actually stimulates more flowering growth.

* Actually, you don't exactly pick them, you have to rip out the entire stalk which then initiates immediate growth from the point where the stalk meets the root-mass. And when picked, they look good in a vase for over 3 weeks! Mine are the tall, back of border varieties - a fairly garish red called 'Etna'. In my teeny garden, I swap and change a LOT but I have had the alstroes for well over a decade (and have gifted a number of root clumps to other gardeners too).

I have never given a thought to their hardiness - they will put out blooms almost to Xmas and seem to never have a dormancy period, pushing up new growth even earlier than the new daylily growth. Give them a go, Rouge. There are some with really quite interesting foliage - 'Indian Summer', with dark green/bronze foliage or 'Rock and Roll' with variegated foliage.

Alstroemeria are, by far and away, the most prolific, long-flowering blooms in my entire garden.

You for sure arent the first member of this forum to write similarly about this plant and yet I see so few threads about it.

Give them a go, Rouge.

(Will do 'Rosa'...thanks for the encouragement. Hemm...I wonder if I could snag one even now this late in the season. It would almost for sure have to be mail order.)

And on another note.

@rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9, to be honest I am getting a bit...piqued by your lack of photos ;). I/we so would like to see what's what in your garden e.g. your prolific Alstroemeria. (Werent you going to get help from family awhile back re posting pics to this forum?) (At least @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) has an "excuse" in that she is moving :)).

Yeah, I almost got it sorted. I seem to get defeated on 2 fronts - my chromebook is old and rubbish and I have issues with my phone. However, as yet another attempt, my D-i-L's dad is visiting from Ireland...and he is something of a computer whizz. If anyone can sort it, Ronan is the man...assuming my phone is still working. I left it in a customer's garden last week where it was rained on. I am going to collect it tomorrow and will hopefully get back on it. Years ago, I had a little Canon which would upload stuff to my old PC tower - all very easy. I used to be able to burn CD's, use peer-to-peer networks, even do basic programming. Tech has not gotten easier - it all seems to be very specific, you need up to date equipment, nothing is universal, things like 'the cloud' have confounded me and I have never really got to grips with smart-phones...and apart from this forum, I don't do any social media stuff either. I do feel horribly excluded, wretched and left out...so much so that I hesitate to even post on this forum because all I have are words. It really isn't for lack of trying but after every fail, I just feel so utterly discouraged.

My family just scoff at the chromebook and use that as an excuse to avoid getting involved (because they don't know how to use it either), It's miserable because I am a terribly shy and reclusive person IRL and have very few places where I can talk about plants and what I am doing with them. It is so much better to have people to share with but I am not in any sort of position where I can just go out and buy new tech cos I only have a small state pension, a very few part-time work hours and a disabled partner (pretty much all my stuff has been hand-me-downs so is always a bit old and rubbish. Built-in-obsolescence seems to have become all encompassing, ..my old PC was slow but did the job (until it finally died) while the chromebook is deliberately built to ensure we have no choice but to replace perfectly useful items with the latest model. I despair, I have always been a can-do, competent person in just about all aspects of life but I have gotten to the point where I never use my phone (which is why it is still in my customer's shed, a week later) and it all becomes very destructive and depressing.

Sorry for this - feeling altogether a bit tearful and feeble now. It is really hard to explain how paralysing and upsetting this whole photo fail is.

rosa I can't believe you are terribly shy and reclusive! You seem so gregarious and friendly! Well,l I should say you ARE gregarious and friendly, at least here on the forum!

I've often thought about trying alstroemeria, especially when I was selling bouquets, but I've heard it's, at the least, aggressive, if not invasive. Then I thought I'd try some in pots, but have never gotten around to it.

On the tomato topic, I WISH I had enough tomatoes to do some canning. Haven't done that in a few years. Yesterday I did make a sauce with my paste tomatoes. Seems about 500 tomatoes made enough sauce for four servings. Okay, I might be exaggerating, but not by much. Good thing the sauce tastes so wonderful and is worth it lol.

:)

Dee

@rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9 I offer my apologies. Of course I had no intention of causing you more stress. Please forgive.

(Wouldn't it be so cool to be able to visit you on your home turf; I could see your plants up close and personal and I will be responsible for taking the pics and posting them here :))

Rosa, I always read all of your posts, and while I do often think I would love to see photos of your gardens, your posts alone, your 'words' are quite entertaining on their own. lol I seem to have a clear picture of the busy gardening life you live and you are doing a lot in your garden that I would never think of doing, so I find it very interesting to read about. And not being able to post photos, is not a "fail", it's just a circumstance in your life like any other. Circumstance are just not always in our control. But I can imagine how frustrating it has to be not to be able to post a photo to show people what you are doing. I hope eventually you find a way to do it more easily.

And I actually really HATE technology. lol I've always thought I'd rather live in the times of horse and buggy or even the frontier life. I don't see it as a benefit to society at all and the person who can survive without it, is in a much better position going forward than someone who can't live without their phone on every second of the day.

I have started undoing pots. Heeling in perennials for the winter, prepping to bring in some tropicals, and just clearing up annuals I have decided I'm done watering for the season. ;)

I love my plants but I also enjoy a slow transition into fall. Taking the time to put the various bits to bed for the winter at an easy pace. I am up in southern ontario zone 6 so perhaps my winter comes sooner but I hate to feel rushed due to cold, cold is coming.

I'd rather enjoy the task, and take my time. Appreciate a slower pace in fall where the trees do so much of the heavy lifting with their colour change. :)

Besides I garden year round under lights and my indoor plants are starting to need more attention and repotting. All things in their time, ;)

FrozeBudd, this is the first year I tried Mini Vista Supertunias, but it won’t be the last. No trimming required and no deadheading whatsoever. This was a single petunia plant planted in July, mini vista Violet Star. Very easy care.

"And I actually really HATE technology. lol I've always thought I'd rather live in the times of horse and buggy or even the frontier life. I don't see it as a benefit to society at all and the person who can survive without it, is in a much better position going forward than someone who can't live without their phone on every second of the day."

I am so glad I'm not alone in that...

Dee, there's just something about growing tomatoes that makes it easy to go overboard planting them! I've cut back on the cucumbers, some years it wasn't unusual for a few folks to leave with 40 lbs. in hand, lol. With the high cost of food, I really should be preserving and putting up much more than |I am, but am spending very much time tending, loving and supporting my mother and find such very comforting as I return onto her the TLC she requires.

Ahhh, davez7anv just gave me the great idea for using succulents, I already have a large collection of hens and chicks and many sedums! Also, LOVE the yellow variegated canna, I've grow 'Tropicanna' for many years.

Rouge, alstroemeria is pretty darn easy to keep over. Yes, I first attempted growing it snugged up against the house, but as Rosa mentioned, it's a plant that does not want to go dormant and was pushing forth in a February warm spell, it weakened and succumb. Whereas in pots, just bring indoors and give as much light as possible and they'll continue flowering, albeit in reduced capacity and colors paled. Otherwise, just toss into a cool bright room to rest and give an occasional drink that they don't completely dry out. Despite my very deep cold winters, I have planted a clump in open garden and setting deeper down within the soil and with intention to provide winter protection, fun to see if successful or they're dead as doornails next spring.

Erasmus, I believe you have an alstroemeria that is more so closer to the species, though yes, in general the plants are known for being vigorous!

Prairiemoon, I love my laptop and would never be without, though I don't even have a smartphone and neither do I desire! Funny, I'm often the only person within a waiting room without a phone in hand. People use to talk to one another, now they often don't talk among their own family for their noses in those phones!
Rosa, you're obviously in a bit of alstro heaven, big envy in so many ways! I also will chime in that we all enjoy knowing of your garden endeavors, success and frustration. Your wit and humor and expressive openness makes you very relatable!

For pink hates, close your eyes, lol, but wish I could source 'Tricolor' in Canada, photo from the web.

Alica, I'm with you, I'm almost glad now for the longer evenings and soon end to the garden season, wasn't much of one in my neck of the woods for being sopping wet as it was, all the mosquitoes and awful smoky skies!

No not quite…..but I definitely have garden fatigue. I also am with the poster who mentioned aging and intolerance for cold weather so I tend to cut back earlier than others. This year I have many new plants hostas and perennials and am not sure whether to cut back things recently planted.

Oh, and yes to reusing potting soil whenever possible.

debra

@FrozeBudd_z3/4, I am curious on the dimensions of the pot(s) you use containing your alstroemeria as the advertised size of these plants are larger than I was expecting.

(I was able to order on on-line!)

LoveMyCorgi - That is a very pretty pot! I should try that Supertunia next year!

Mxk3 & FrozeBudd, I use my laptop most days. I think it’s hard to do without one now. DH and I are also hold outs for a smart phone. My DD has given up trying to persuade us to get one. I really don't need one. I do have the capacity on my laptop to text. I do see that there is some reluctance to pick up the phone and make a call. Texting is definitely preferred. And now I notice some people have reduced their text to mostly emoticons [g].

We were at the beach a couple of weeks ago, and I was very surprised to see people at the edge of the water with their phones! One women was sitting on the edge of the waves by herself, looking down at her phone. Others walking along the edge of the water, looking at their phones. LoL I just don’t get it.

Very pretty ’Tricolor’!

I never see Alstroemeria at the nurseries. Where did you find one online, Rouge?

I like a lot of old fashioned things such as rotary land line telephones. I don't like cell phones..don't like the shape. I never use one though I have one for emergencies. I don't want to be bothered with phone calls when I'm out. I like microwaves and computers are pretty handy. Weedeaters are good. Pushbutton car ignition is nice. Security cameras are nice to have. I suspect that many people might be stressed by the speed of technological advances...maybe there is a loss of continuity with history and the familiarity of how things were growing up.

I think it's sad to see people out to eat , one or more glued to their phone, ignoring the person right in front of them.

Spectacular @ginatay124!

FrozeBudd, now you’ve got me thinking about bringing in my alstroemeria again. I had decided to let them go since they didn’t bloom much this year. I’ve always tried to keep them in a sort of dormant state. But you say they don’t like that. Probably why they didn’t do so well. But now the plants look quite full and healthy. I might try putting them in my heated shed instead. I imagine I’ll have to spray them with something to control bugs though.

Debra, I'm born and raised far north, but have low tolerance to cold, my thyroid function a bit subpar and also have that awful Raynaud's in my right hand and feet often ice cold as well. Yes, was just thinking I'd almost better get started cleaning some of the garden off, don't want to be caught off guard!

Rouge, 12 x 12 inch container I have the alstro in. These plants are slow at first to bulk up, so just keep up potting as necessary.

Prairemoon, good to know I'm not the only hold out, I've often been mocked for not having a smartphone. My sister has prompted I get one, even said she'd wipe her son's old phone clean to give me, I still declined, lol. I love my laptop, but when I'm done it's closed and I'm disconnected from the world just the way I like it, but of course do email or calls on the landline. I know I should get with texting to be in better contact with family, though yet a hold out with that, but the time is coming. Yes, headshaking how folks have become so detached and engrossed in just their phones!

Erasmus, I have a cell phone when traveling and that's pretty well the soul purpose of the thing. I agree with your entire comment.

Ginatay, your containers are outstanding, sure gotta love that canna lily as well, I think likely a 'Cannaova', these are exceptional!

North53, the first go around with planting the alstro next to the house was kind proof how these are reluctant to go dormant, sheesh coming up in a prairie February warm spell! When next giving the plant a go in a container, the thing just wanted to continue growing and flowering well into the autumn, so yes, I kept it watered and fed to enjoy the blooms and cleaned the plant up in April when strong new growth emerged. As for bugs, thus far it has not been affected by spider mites, maybe just fortunate or something! Am sure the plant would be fine if tossed into a cold room for several months, probably as cool as possible just above freezing to keep it in snooze mode.

Ginatay, that last photo of the pot against the blue house is stunning! What great colors!

:)

Dee

And so today I got to the point that I had used up all my collected rain water from rain barrels. (The last rain we had was 3 weeks ago.)

Alicia Thompson wrote: I have decided I'm done watering for the season. ;

I would rather not have to use city water to keep my containers going, given the time of year and so I will need to pick and choose which ones I decide to keep.

(Any city water I use now will be mostly be to help transplants settle in before it gets too cold)

Nope, I think there's probably a couple of months before anything freezes around here. My balcony isn't getting any sun but things are still blooming. I started a few borage plants from seed in late summer and they are just getting buds. A hummingbird spent about 5 minutes checking out every flower and sucking up whatever was there in the handful of relatively stale necotiana, torenia and petunia flowers. Bumblebees are loving the sweet autumn clematis and the random lobelia erinus. Eventually I bring in everything that is salvageable and grow them indoors for the winter - petunias, portulaca, strawflowers and even nicotianas and dahlias. Some of them succumb to the cold and not so bright lights but others go out again next spring. I find that the longer I wait to bring them in the less likely they are to be afflicted by aphids or spidermites.

I could have written your post Rosa. Hugs to you.

That said my DH is super tech savvy as is my DS. They are my conduits to the world.

I wish for your Ronan to help you that much and more.

What do I tell myself when crippling shyness sets in?;

I really want this more than I want to be shy right now. For some stupid reason it works.

We all need help in some area. It doesn't make us feeble; it makes us able to look after our strengths and lean on one another if we can. For their and our strengths.

I see pictures in my head so don't need a wack of pictures but many people are extremely visual and that makes it tough for them. When I do need a visual I look it up online so perhaps other people can even though it's not the same as visiting your Garden virtually.

I'm not very good at keeping on top of my annuals but I do Buy petunias etc.

I also buy million bells and when I cut them back I cut all of them back even if full bloom is occurring when did they start to look too ratty to me. It works for me plus I get the pleasure of seeing them..

Lots of potted plants being transferred indoors to cool and room temperature culture in sunny windows and under lights. Figs and cannas will go into cold storage after the first few hard freezes.