How can it be time to take things in already??? Summer went to fast I can't beleive it!! I started taking some things in this weekend and have been getting things ready to over winter. Here are some things I took in...
http://lusarytole.blogspot.com/
Have a great week!!!
Already??? it was 90 here today. I usually wait till they are announcing 1st frost. Looks like it's not happening anytime soon.
Down here I won't even think about bringing plants in until the end of October. Because my porch faces south and the bricks hold warmth, I leave several plants out there all winter (unless they call for one of our rare freezes). My plants have all grown wonderfully well over the summer too. I always hate to have to bring them in to the dry air of the house during the winter :-(
We're bringing them in one at a time so it's not two days out of our lives in October.
I wish I could have plants outside all year long. A few years ago we had 8 inches of snow the first week of october. All the leaves were still on the trees and we had trees down everywhere.So I start usually the first of Sept bringing them in one by one too...
Snow in October--OUCH!! We're usually still swatting mosquitoes in October down here, LOL! The trade-off though would be that y'all actually get a beautiful, colorful fall--we don't. We're lucky to get a little pale yellow and some orange. Our trees don't usually finish dropping leaves till sometime in December. Please post some pictures of your fall color come October--I will be sooo jealous!
Usually by the middle of Oct the trees are beautiful and by the first of november we have no leaves. The trees are already starting to turn a little. Yea it is beautiful but I could live with 70's all year, but not my husband. He is ready for snow and dear season!!! LOL
Lynn
DH and I like deer season too but not in the snow! We don't mind it when the temps get down to 40 or so, but no colder! We only get snow about once every 10 years. It's beautiful and we enjoy it for the day or so that we have it but then we're glad to see it go. I'm in the process of putting in some fall plantings right now.
Here is a picture of the October snow we woke up to a few years ago. Beautiful but the trees really suffered. I'm going to send another picture of our front tree...
We had not even had a frost before this snow, that is why all the leaves were still on trees and it weighed them down so bad. You could hear tree branches cracking every where that morning it was crazy.
After a high of 87 today, with 88% humidity, you have no idea how refreshing the snow looks to me.
I was thinking the same thing it was 90 here today. What a difference a month can make!!! Playground at school was miserable, but the kids needed to go out for sure!!! LOL
Beautiful snow but I'm sure you didn't appreciate the damage to plants and trees. We had a bad ice storm quite a few years ago that did tremendous damage to trees from the Delta all the way down the the central part of the state where we live. We were without power for five days. Fortunately for us, we had water (many lost their water too) and we had a wood stove. We kept the house warm and I cooked on the wood stove so we able to stay home for the entire time. All the rain from Gustav has cooled us down to the eighties and it's still cloudy. I'm enjoying it.
I have to admit I am dreading hauling them in, and this year may reduce the list. The ones I take in have gotten so huge it is difficult to find really good inside places for them, and I hate to see them looking sad during the winter.
They are: a ten-year-old gardenia in a large pot. The plant itself is about four feet tall now. It really needs a sunnier window than I have. Do you think I should prune it back?
An eleven-year-old cut-leaf philodendron named Fred. Fred is one of the toughest plants I have ever known and never complains or gives problems, but even Fred needs more light than I have.
An eight-year-old palm. The palm seems to do best inside, rather to my surprise. I always thought of palms as sun-loving but it actually seems to prefer the conditions inside rather than out.
I would do almost anything to keep the gardenia going. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
Rebeccatowoc,
This site has info on pruning a gardenia:
http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/flower/when-to-prune-a-gardenia.htm
NatureLover - I only meant the beauty of the snow was so cooling and refreshing on a hot day. I feel for the loss of any branch or tree that's needless and have suffered enough losses that I know the feeling.
Before I was ever born a storm hit this area and knocked down every single tree. That was back in 1938 and a few neighbors, now gone, remembered walking through as the trees were all cut up. What had been a cool and beautiful walk (with no homes) became a sunny spot immediately.
We don't always appreciate Mother Nature's way of "cleaning house."
I realize many people lose huge trees but the thought that anyone would have been impaled by this flying limb is frightening.
Here in Scotland I to have stared to put my garden to bed for the season is now over, we can get 4 seasons in the one day here and the last couple of summers have been diabolical, cold, wet, windy and not too many sunny days, last 2 years we had soaring temps (for us) in March April, then may arrived and we had storms, heavy rain and cold nights. Every winter we can loose power for days on end so my home is littered with candles just to be ready, we loos telephone too, last few years we have had massive trees down and as we live rural, it is up to my husband and I to clear this away to allow passage to and from our home, as I live right on the ocean we also get lashed with storms and the salt water spray travels up to our place and strips the leaves off some lovely shrubs and trees etc. yes nature sure has it's own way and sometimes shows no mercies, but I love where I live and the views of the busy sea right in front of us is wonderful, fortunately because we are coastal, we dont get snowfall too often and when we do, it is gone in a few days. my garden has been rubbish this year and it has been a real struggle to keep on top, now the leaves have stared to drop, we will have to start the clear up soon just to exit and enter our home, so all you guys that are complaining about the heat, remember us poor soles who are doing the garden in summer with woolly jumpers on, instead of plant swaps, we should do garden swaps, ha, ha, ha. good luck all you happy gardeners, good thing are ahead. WeeNel.
In spite of the effort involved, your place sounds wonderful to us landlubbers.
WeeNel,
You sound like us. Where DH and I live, if we leave early in the morning after a storm, we have to be sure to take the chain saw with us! But we absolutely love it out here. Wouldn't go back to a subdivision for anything.
Know how you feel Naturelover, sometimes it is only the birds songs we here and at other times, it is the trees creaking and groaning and the crashing of waves, but you pick yourself up and dust the garden down and start all over again, sometimes with tears in your eyes, other time in wonderment, thats gardening and for sure, you can do a lot of things, but nature always has the last laugh eh, happy gardening. WeeNel.
WeeNel, we've had an unusual spring and summer here too, but if I could trade gardens, I'd pick yours =) Visiting Scotland has been a dream of mine for years; one of my biggest regrets is not going while I was in Ireland or in the UK. I'd like to say I enjoy reading posts you share with many of us 'newbies' and the knowledge you've given. You've helped me many times.
Yes, we try our best to compete with Mother Nature, but sometimes I think we should just sit back and watch what she can do if left alone...appreciate Her more.
I recently went thru one of our State Parks as a short cut on the way to the Dr's office and I just wanted to pull over and walk the 5 miles instead. It was amazing. It was one of those rare moments when there was no traffic behind you or coming towards you because you surely would have wrecked looking at the scenery =) Rocks the size of my house, trees and vines everywhere. There were colors that Mother Nature put in inconspicuous (is that a word?) places we wouldn't have chosen, but it was beautiful. and perfect. It made me want to go back and throw more flower seeds for Spring...to add to the flowers already there. And even though I wanted to get out and 'liberate' seeds for myself, it was comforting to know it was 'natural'. it was a gift to all of us from the Queen of all gardners.....the real Mother Nature.
Happy Fall to all.....its time to get ready for a new season.
WeeNel, geez, what a climate! It was 104 here two days ago ( that is 40 celcius, if that is what you use in Scotland). I'm always looking for different plants that will tolerate baking sun. And it hasn't rained for months, but that's normal for us...:)
