I have plenty of stuff that ought to be addressed in my gardens which will not be done this year, sadly. I am getting too decrepit as I age, and my usual fellow who cleans up the yard/gardens has a medical problem right now, so all that is being put off until spring. It will be interesting to see if leaving it all undone will provide better-than-usual habitat for insects (the good ones like butterflies) and critters of various sorts for winter protection.

Also it has been terribly cold here in MA for the past several weeks - the ground has frozen earlier than in the past and it is far too cold to work outside. To top it off, we had an 8+ inch of snow three days ago and it is still covering everything. Guess it's time for me to begin my personal annual hibernation and just view the birds flocking to the feeder!

Have been dealing with my brother's "estate" as well (he died in a different state and he didn't leave a will, stupid-but-beloved guy, so that has huge complications) and that has left many garden-related things here undone. I did glean some new-to-me gardening books from his stuff, so those will become my winter reading...

I'm sorry for your loss, roxanna. I need to find a garden helper guy. It has been cold here too this past week but fairly mild otherwise for this time of year. Today the high temp is supposed to be 66 in the NC piedmont and we're expecting some welcome rain soon.

I stay busy in cold weather with plant propagation...roses mostly. Some root better in cold weather. Also I pot up newly rooted ones. Watering is an ongoing requirement even in winter , mostly for my potted plants.

Today I want to get rid of freeze damaged morning glory vines and cut back some roses I plan to dig up. I ordered more roses for spring delivery and have to make room for them. Did some raking last week and have a little more to do.

I started my Heavenly Blue morning glory seeds early this year...Feb. I think, but still they didn't bloom until very late fall. They didn't bloom as prolifically as they have sometimes in the past. But I noticed that the ageing blooms fade to pink and can have brilliant pink blotches on them.

O sympathies, Roxanna,

Still to do...shedloads. It never really stops. I still have a heap of bulbs to plant (did a deal with local nursery to take all the end of season stuff off their hands).

we have a very mild climate, but an unusual early snow 2 weeks ago, all gone now, but a surprising number of branches/ trees snapped

I found a nice garden helper this fall, I managed to put in a new rose arbor? a metall frame, and am almost on top of the tasks.

started clearing the flatend plants after the snow and got intoshovel-pruning quite a lot of so-so plants. and I accidentally came into a pile of nice perennials (50 something) after a small project of mine was terminated earlier than planned and it was my task to clear them and rescue them...

sooo, lots of prepared cleared beds now, some not-planted-yet bulbs were in that project as well, so hopefully I can spread them all on the weekend and plant them in one go.

among the not-used bulbs are a few dozens of a late single tulip, tall, and white flowering, Maureen, which is quite fancy, so I should get a nice spring display...

So sorry for your loss roxanna <3

I always have stuff left to do! I thought this year I was getting better, and I DID get done some of the stuff I really wanted to do (spreading mole repellent, temporarily planting some new purchases in the veggie garden, almost all of the beds cleaned up, etc.) I also had a lot to do clearing out a large area where the electric company cut down some trees, so that was extra work added to the usual fall chores.

Mother nature kind of threw a wrench in my plans. I always put down my shredded leaf mulch in late fall, after the ground has frozen. Well, we had 80 degree days well into September and maybe even a few in October, and even after they passed, the days were unusually warm - days of 70's, high 60's, even high 50's in November. So I kept holding off.

Well you know what happened lol. Suddenly we're in the 20's and 30's, it's snowing, etc. Today is sunny, snow cover is gone, but it's 15 degrees. So, no leaf mulch down, pots of perennials still outside. My chairs, bird bath, other ornamentation is out of the garden, but still outside of the garage lol.

It's looking now like if I get things mulched, it will be after the holidays. And truth be told, that's not too unusual for me, especially the last few years with the warming climate. My main things to do are rake out one last bed and put down repellent (although my wimpy little heart is thinking, do I really want to displace the critters from their winter homes now, when it's so cold out??), put down leaf mulch in the beds, and pull in the chairs, empty pots, and potted perennials.

As suzy says, it never really stops lol. It just continues on into next year!

:)

Dee

P.S. Until last year, I WAS the garden helper lol. I had a side business taking care of people's gardens. They always told me how hard it was to find someone like me - someone who weeded and planted and knew about plants, etc. They said most "garden maintenance" people were mow and blow guys, or folks who designed and put in gardens, etc. I now wish I could find someone like me to help me lol....

Sorry to hear of your loss, roxanna...

I did get my fruit trees sprayed. Whether it actually helps or not remains to be seen, but I got it done. I didn't finish pulling all the weeds, mulching, and putting up tree guards around the trees, but I'm have vacation coming up for the holidays and can probably get that done then. The weather was warm enough last weekend to thaw the ground, so I was able to get all my vegetables pulled and discarded, that is a huge relief to get that cleaned, especially the tomatoes since I have disease problems and it's best to get it all cleaned up. The weeds are all still there, but I didn't have enough daylight left to work on anything else out there in the small block of time I had that day.

I'm glad it got super-cold during the week = insect-killing, disease-dampening FREEZE. Yay!

Dee -- did you ever decide what to plant in that area down by the road?

The concept of 'done' is non existent for me. We can garden year pretty much year round so really it's just a question of inertia on the part of the gardener rather than a timetable decreed by the weather. My garden is tiny and takes only a couple of hours to tidy up but the allotment is a different matter. It needs year round mulching and weeding so there's always work to do there. And the grass is still growing ...