A Dry Goodbye

It seems to be this season's theme is disappearing months.  September was a busy month -planting trees, grasses, a few additional perennials, and harvesting!  Made it to the north shore for a quick trip of hiking, beer tasting and tree color, a nice getaway. 

So the tomatoes and peppers made it to October but the garden has been put to bed for the winter.  The few rutabegas we saved from the rabbits got very large and tasty!
I'm rebuilding the vegetable gardens with compost, putting in some new rubber edging that looks nice and fairly easy to install, just have to wrestle with it a bit, but better than digging! I don't need any more rocks this season.  I still have to drain and clean the ponds, and I don't think I'll over winter the lilies unless I try keeping them in a cooler in the garage. 
Next is finishing up the rubber edging and getting loads of mulch in there- still in a bit of indecision as far as the edging and the "look" of the trails in the garden.  I'll prepare the area on the patio by the fence for planting next Spring, either the hyacinth vine or maybe a perennial vine, and hope to figure out a system for the raised bed so less watering is necessary.
We added a total of eight trees this summer, a grape vine, various perennials including the runaway trumpet vine on the pergola.  Next summer will be interesting!

It's still dry, a bit of rain today finally, but way behind what is needed so we will keep watering and rain dancing.  Here's the photo finale!

new asters and mums(below)for more Fall color

  

vanderwolf-hope this color is normal for autumn!  

quaking aspen, junipers in back.  Leaf composter over veg. garden!

 dwarf apple- snowcrisp!

remember the color!

August Got Away

Wow, what happened to August!  Tree planting and veg. harvesting, and watering, watering, watering.  Nice to have the rainbarrels, because even an 1/4" of rain will fill them, but with this drought it doesn't last long.
The vegetables have recovered nicely from the heat but my squash never recovered quick enough, so no butternuts this year.  The few melons we got were very, very good, saved the seeds for next year.  Our mystery vine plant turned out to be a Bumpy Pumpky- we'll use them for autumn decoration- not even going to try and carve them- they are rock hard.  Speaking of rocks, we planted three fabulous junipers along the fence, two vanderwulf pines in front, a quaking aspen, and soon a dwarf apple tree, and a dakota pinnacle birch tree!!  Yes, we are crazy, but that will be it for trees, maybe.
Definitely planting the hyacinth bean again next year- loved it, and my newly planted trumpet creeper is on the march.  It may cover half the pergola by next summer.  Enjoy the pics!

beans going strong

bumpy pumkys

delphinium blooms again

Larry's sunflowers

peppers rebound

too late for the butternuts

still tons of tomatoes

good year for the asters

Hyacinth bean vine

cardinal flower vine

clematis took off too

hyacinth bean

trumpet creeper

rutagbegas, yumm...

3 new junipers and grasses

quaking aspen

bounty, the jar is full of skinless cherry tomatoes in a balsamic vinegar laced with chipotle pepper- look like cherries!  I'm thinking a bloody mary addition.

Greenie

While Away The Weeds

Although trying to stay ahead of the weeds in our yard and garden is an impossible task, time spent in the garden is still enjoyable.   Taking short breaks to check out the progress of perennials, or in my case yanking them out by the roots when I've come to the conclusion that they are poorly functioning specimens, and not contributing to the garden.  I tend to have more "weeds"( eye of the beholder) that do a better job of flowering nicely and attracting bees and butterflies!  Speaking of butterflies, I was fortunate to find a monarch chrysalis on some milkweed and took a photo, good thing, it is now gone.  I've seen several monarchs flitting around this week, I'm sure they are happy the phlox and butterfly weed are still in bloom.  I do need to get some dill in the yard.
I've been pulling out infested squash left and right, but still have quite a few squash that don't seem to be infested  - the borer even got into the zucchini- I didn't know they liked zucchini too!    I did do surgery on the zucchini to remove the little offenders.  So far the plant is doing ok, but I planted more seeds today, just in case it succumbs.   I have a mystery melon, maybe watermelon?  It is doing quite well, with a couple of fruits, but really can't tell for sure what it is.
Beans have been slow, hope they do better with less intense heat.  The tomatoes are doing ok, just not gangbusters, like previous years.  I have what seems to be dwarf roma plants with lots of normal sized  tomatoes sitting on the ground.
The saddest sight of all are my peppers, which have never done fantastic in our yard but this year they appear to have some disease. Leaves are falling off and the peppers are small, often mutated.  Potatoes have looked sickly too, but now the new growth appears healthier.  I'll continue to spray with the fish fertilizer.

my dwarf roma plant-loaded with fruit!

supervisor

  

mystery melon

zucchini rescue from borers

fancy water feature

tomatoes-7-26-12

recently planted trumpet creeper- growing like a weed!

rutabega

green beans

monarch now?

sickly peppers

hyacinth bean-yet to flower

It was nice to have a day not 90 plus degrees and heavy humidity, especially after our much needed rain.  Tomorrow, even drier and cooler air- sounds like a bike trip to me!
Greenie

Hold the Heat, Please!

No more complaints about the cold!  I believe the heat index( heat plus humidity) is supposed to reach 100 + today.

lambs ear humelo- really like this plant, always looks good.

butterfly weed is doing great this year- I added some more.

the circle is in bloom- the prairie clover is hidden  by the overwhelming mexican hat coneflower

look for the red cherries-we actually got to eat about 30 of them.  Really good with sugar and a little brandy-let sit for half hour-serve over icecream!

Peas gone wild

Larry's sunflowers

our new porch, patio, and pergola

PPP. wrapup- a little more stain..

Larry's great raised bed

PPP wrapup with garden bed in front

added another dephinium since it seems to be surviving the dry, rocky soil.

Interesting observations on the growing season:  Snap Peas grow in cool weather and in heat but maybe toughen up a bit at the end of their life cycle, or because of the heat?  Still picking the snap.  What happened to the Hyssop?  Last summer's Hyssop was overly abundent, this summer barely there-maybe lack of snow cover?
more photos after the heat wave!
Greenie

Deep Freeze

We are having a little cold snap here in Minnesota.  Not unusual for April but because we had such a warm March everything is a month ahead.  So, I'm covering up most of my perennials, and the cherry tree, which has alot of flower buds this year.
I also got another composter, with a dual container, which will enable us to let one side cook but keep adding to the other side.
Side note on the rye grass planted in the two beds, growing very well now.  Just not sure if I'll just cut it, or cut and lightly till into the soil.
Since the lasagna garden did not do to well over the winter, I may just leave the burlap on and cut slits for adding soil/compost, and then plants.
I'm off to get onions and potatoes to plant.  The peas are up!

hard freeze

rye grass in beds. lasagna garden. new composter.

Greenie