nestled all snug in their beds

Yesterday I spent most of the day planting......All these guys and some more, of course.
Each of the green strips represents at least 5 specialty bulbs not found anywhere locally....

There were also 2 witch hazels, 2 clumping bamboos, a native currant (great hummingbird plant), a wegilia, and about 400 bulbs from Costco. Right now, there's about 500 bulbs in the back....daffs, alliums, crocus, and hyacinths......and the same in the front, which also includes muscari, and some species tulips.....not too many big tulips...they're just deer candy. Maybe next year when the back is totally fenced and they can't get in.

Now I'm setting my sights on bulb clearance racks (although I don't really need too many more), and saving my pennies for the spring when Costco and the like will start getting in bare root perennials and trees.

Today, I hope to mostly finish painting the shop and put that project to bed too.....

Next up......a LONG list of things to finish, and a long winter of not finishing them.

painting!

Last weekend was beautiful, so I decided to take what was probably the last opportunity to paint on the shop......
before......

 

after.....a whole day on the ladder!

 

 

I really wanted to work on it more this week, and just finish, but the weather had other ideas. It was too cold, and most important, too wet and foggy to do any work. Today looks promising, though, it's still not too warm, but it's also not that 110 percent humidity fog that we've had all week.

I'm hoping to get most of the front done, and then finish up with the doors. The back side, the one you can see that is "natural", is probably going to stay that way, except for the door and trim. We'll get out he sun and moon collection that I have packed away and put that up to give it some interest.

 

The far side needs to be cleaned up first, but we'll paint that too, and then build our new chicken coop there.  One thing at a time.

artichokes, anyone?

Check this out.....grew it all by myself!!! From artichoke plants that I bought at the grocery store for $2.99. Pretty cool, huh?

They're actually purple ones, yes they're edible, and I certainly hope they'll come back next year. (they should). P.S. the deer don't eat them.....too prickly!

This week, the clearance bin yielded a few goodies....at home depot.....a black mondo grass for $3.50, which I divided into 3 and planted.....a half price hosta, and two daylilies for $1.50 each.
From the master gardener plant sale, we brought home a native currant - pink blooms in January, and a fall crocus (colchium).

I also used a bit of my local nursery gift certificate to get 2 witch hazels and some more allium bulgarum bulbs - the hummingbirds will love both of them.

Speaking of hummingbirds, we put up the feeders yesterday after watching two of them fight over the neighbor's fuschia for nearly an hour. I think he's out there right now, protecting his territory. Next spring, I have to plant some of those hardy fuschias....those little guys love them!

We also put out some Halloween decorations on the porch. I love my little owl guy!

 

This week, the weather is supposed to be great, so we're hoping to paint the shop. I have the paint (at least a good start on it), and if I need more, it's on sale. This'll probably be our last chance until next spring, so........

Finally!!!!

It FINALLY stopped raining!!!!
After having nearly 9" of rain here in the last two weeks of September (honestly, we were ready to build a boat!), it FINALLY quit, and yesterday was a wonderful day to get outside.

We cleaned up the garden a bit.....

and roofed the pump house with some clearance roofing we bought at home depot.

 

The next project here will be putting in the window and some siding. We're down to these kind of projects, little bits here and there, finishing the pump house, painting the shop (well, that's a big project), finishing the fencing, and, of course landscaping, planting, and landscaping some more.

 

Today, the plan is to try to prime the bare boards that they put on the shop when they did the roof, so that they don't get crummy during the winter.

It's nice to know the rain didn't ruin everything.....

and the passion vine has finally grown tall enough for the deer to leave it alone. I was fearing for its survival there for a while.....

 

off to mow and paint while the sun shines.....supposed to rain again tomorrow.

rain, rain....GO AWAY

Geez, it's only September, and we've already had WAY more rain than what is fair!

Last week, there was only one day that it was even possible to go outside, and I spent it picking up leftover roofing bits and about a million rusty nails from the shop project.

The clearance bin at lowes is gone, so no scores there, but we did go out this morning to a little nursery that is closing down tomorrow for the season. We scored a great crabapple "prairie fire", one we've been looking for, some nice gallon perennials for $1, and a cute little grass for the front yard.

It's too wet to plant them, or do anything else, for that matter, so that will have to be next weekend when it's supposed to be nicer.

I'm still looking for wood chips to keep all my nice dirt from running away, and I just need a good clear day to go clean out the garden.

Hopefully soon......

A garden score and a new roof

This week, "the boys" came and finished re-roofing our shop. Nothing too exciting, needed to be done, and now it is. They scraped off the old metal roofing and 2 layers of 50 year old 3-tab, fixed the leaky spots and left us with a nice, new black roof that matches the house.

The next project will be to paint the darned thing the same color as the new house. Not now, though, 'cause it's raining buckets. We'll probably have a few nice days left this fall to at least get started. No rush, it's going to be a lot of work.

We also made a trip to a nursery that's shutting down for the winter, so they had all of their stuff on sale half price. There were some pretty good deals to be had, and we came home with a car load of stuff.

I'm hoping this pic wins me free garden show tickets this spring....."gardening Subaru" ya know.

The roof was the last major project we had to do here (aside from painting) - we'll be making our new "honey do" list to work on over the winter and next spring. Some of the items include....putting a gate in on the food garden side to keep the deer out, finishing the last little bit of fencing on the dog kennel side to keep the deer out, closing off the gap in the back corner to keep the deer out.....Sensing a theme here?????

We also want to build a new chicken coop so that we can get some babies next summer. I loved having chickens and really want to do it again, but we have to make them a super secure house to keep out the predators (raccoons this time, not deer).

This week, I'll probably start searching for a couple of loads of wood chips to mulch the flower beds - keep weeds down and the dirt in place.....they're hard to get, though and most places have a waiting list.

slowing down and hunkering down

The weather here is starting to become a bit unpredictable....although we had a pretty nice week this week, last week we had the biggest thunder storm I've ever seen in all my years living here. It started at 4 pm, and the thunder and lightning went until well around midnight, much to the doggie's dismay.
At some point, we got about an inch of rain in 10 minutes. That did nothing for my newly applied dirt, and half of it is now over in the other lot.

The good news is, I didn't have to water this week, even though the temps have been around 80 degrees. It's supposed to start raining again today (another potential thunder storm), so we'll be scrambling this morning to mow our little lawn and put away the summer furniture before that happens.

"The boys" (contractors) are also working on the shop roof. They tore it all off yesterday and they'll be back on Friday to roof it. This is our last big project for a while. Now we just need to paint it (already have the paint, just waiting on the roof), and do some work on the deck, and we'll be hunkered down for winter.

The clearance rack at lowes was pretty dismal this week, but I did score a black centurea from the local nursery for $2. You can't kill those things and it'll be fine next spring. I also got a couple more bags of bulbs from Costco....not planting yet....too warm. It's going to look pretty cool in spring, when over 300 daffs, 100 crocus, and a whole bunch of other bulbs start making their appearance.

Next week, finish the roof (not me, the contractors), maybe some painting...depends on the weather...