I'm pretty relieved to be done with watering the garden for the year. It was a good year. I had some great flowers. I rescued some beauties prior to the last couple of overnight freezes, including an unexpected dahlia, shown above, and some sweet cosmos, shown below.
And yet, I will miss my tomatoes. Even though some were SO tiny!!! I had nearly a handful of little tomatoes every week since June, and I haven't had to buy tomatoes in four months until this week.
I've brought in the strawberries I started from seed last winter. I got about five strawberries all summer long, and they weren't very big, but VERY tasty. The flowers are so pretty!
A couple of strawberries are still growing on the plants I brought indoors. I will try to keep the plants going as long as I can.
I left the store-bought Quinault strawberry plants on the porch because I didn't get a single blossom from them. I got three more lavender plants in the ground in the backyard. And I bring in the two remaining lavender pots when the temperature gets too low. I couldn't find any onion bulbs, so I bought a package of tiny little purple onions from the grocery store and planted them. Half were mushy in the middle, so they probably won't grow. But I'm hoping the rest will root. They help keep the squirrels and bunnies at bay. Mr. Squirrel has been in my raised-bed garden every chance he gets ever since I cut down the tomato plants after the first freeze. I think I'm going to put down a good thick layer of cayenne pepper powder...
My biggest task, other than the backyard leveling, which still has quite a way to go, was transferring amaryllis in 14 different pots into two. I'd read amaryllis bulbs are happier when they are tightly packed. So after a good summer of sun, plus unexpected summer blooms from two of the biggest bulbs...
...I unpotted each and every bulb (finding two more bulblets I didn't know about!), broke off most of the rootbound mess, and transplanted all the bulbs (about 21 of them in all!) into fresh soil, all the big bulbs in one terracotta bowl, all the smaller bulbs into the biggest of the now empty amaryllis pots. Now the bulbs and bulblets get a nice autumn nap in the basement. Some may not bloom next year because I cut off most of the roots to give the bulbs a fresh start, but I'm hoping I will have at least some blooms in about February!
I'm not finished with the garden work, too. However, it looks more like the end of fall here. I must hurry.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the days!
Regula
Wow, I never knew amaryllis bloomed in summer, but if it's planted out I guess it makes sense. What a show you will have in February with all those bulbs packed into two pots.
ReplyDeleteThe dahlia and cosmos are so pretty. I always think cosmos is the quintessential garden flower.
I miss my tomatoes too. We had a long slow end to summer this year, with no frost to speak of until late October, so I was able to keep them going. But a few nights in the low 20s last week put the kibosh on that, despite my having covered them with a tarp. Now we have a bowl of little green ones ripening on the counter.
(The beginning of fall was so unusually warm here this year that lilacs were blooming in late September and through October. It was freaky. Lilacs should only bloom in May. I wonder now if they'll bloom next spring.)