A silent garden in December

Sunny High 41° F Plentiful sunshine. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunrise: 6:58 AM	Mostly Clear Low 31° F A few passing clouds. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunset: 4:13 PM

While we still have over two weeks until the calendar start of Winter, it's already here. While the greater Boston area has not had snow, other parts of the northeast have already had their first snowfall of the season. Darkness falls early, and it's getting to be that time of year when seeing the sun is a treat. During the Thanksgiving holiday I was in Carlisle, PA, and the extra 1/2 hour of daylight they get was wonderful! The 9 hours of sunlight each day do not leave me any time to be outside during the week, and I'm looking forward to Saturday to do a quick look around the garden in the sunlight rather than by star or flashlight! The stars have been clear though lately, and the triangle of Venus, Jupiter, and the Moon this week was beautiful.

Over the past holiday weekend, I got the chance to work out in a garden! It was my mother-in-law's garden on her farm, and while the ground had already frozen some, we worked to dig up the Canna plants for the winter. We filled about 5 grain sacks of tubers, which she said was more than she planted the previous spring. Luckily, I got to take a sack home. As the plants need full sunshine (and grow to 6 feet!) there is limited space in my own garden for them, but I plan on sharing with my sister and sister-in-law come spring. Which made my sister happy as she is redoing doing her beds next year and she said the Canna tubers can be fairly expensive (about $10 for 3). Now the sack is on my 3-season porch, where it hopefully won't freeze. In the spring, I plan to put them in my front yard against our derelict fence. There is an old stump there that will probably need to come out, but the small hillside gets full sun and I'm hoping they will do well.

Even though I did not get a chance to put in any more spring bulbs, I've been browsing through some catalogs to begin planning next year's garden. Pinetree Garden Seeds, Garden's Supply Company, and Breck's (for bulbs) have all given me good ideas. I want to expand the cutting garden, develop the front yard to the right of the driveway, do more with the rock garden, and expand the vegitable gardens.

Lots to plan!

Enjoy the holidays!

Freeze warnings

Clear Low 33° F Mainly clear skies. Low 33F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Sunset: 5:57 PM	Sunny High 57° F Precip: 10% Mainly sunny. High 57F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Sunrise: 7:05 AM

There is a freeze advisory tonight for our region, which means the killing frost will most likely set in. Outside right now you can see your breath and would be uncomfortable without a jacket and even a hat for more than 5 minutes! I went out a few minutes ago to cut the last of the cosmos and zinnias. They would be blackened tomorrow, but are still so pretty! There haven't been any new blooms recently, but the ones out there have done well in the cool days we've had.

We have been working on putting the garden to rest for the winter. The colors in New England this fall have been wonderful so far, and this weekend brought a steady wind to shake a lot of the leaves off the trees. There are still two very green trees in our back yard that won't change until late-October or November, which means more raking! Our first town leaf pick up in next Saturday and we only have 6 bags so far. Last year we put out 32, and I remember raking mostly in November, so I'm betting our next pick up in late November will have a high number.

Last weekend we harvested all the herbs, which are drying on our back porch. I froze rosemary, chives, and mint as they tend to keep the best that way. The back porch smells heavenly, and the herbs make a great decoration too! I've already been snipping some of the dried parts off to use in our dinners, but they won't be ready to take down for another week or so.

The vegetable garden is on its last legs, and I've covered 1/4 of it with a compost mixture. Jon and I are already making notes on what to plant for next year, and as we continue to enjoy this summer's green beans, I know they'll be back on the list!

Next weekend I'm turning my attention to the rock area in our front yard...I need to decorate it for Halloween!

As everything winds down for the season, I'm beginning to look at my houseplants to see what can do to make them more healthy. My spider plants and blue gingers were outside all summer and all doubled inside. My spider plant flowered, but since brining it back in does not get a lot of sunlight and has begun to brown underneath. Any tips? Daylight is sparse in our house!

Keep warm!
Some fall pics below!

Jon raking gathering and bunching the herbs
herbs drying out on the porch.

Week before Autumn Officially Starts

Sunny High 69° F Plentiful sunshine. High 69F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Sunrise: 6:29		Clear Low 39° F Mostly clear. Low 39F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Sunset: 6:49 PM

Fall begins Monday, but the signs that it was just around the corner have been here for a few weeks. There are apples and pumpkins in the fields, the leaves are starting to change--especially on the Maples--and this Friday night there is the chance of a first frost in New England. I've already switched from iced coffee to hot coffee in the morning, but I'm not sure I'm ready for the frosts yet. Although it will kill off the mosquitoes!

One thing that the frost will begin to do is kill the plants in the garden. While I am sure this will not be a killing frost (generally a heavy frost), the squash and tomatoes which are already on the way out will need to be composted afterwards. The flower garden should survive intact, as zinnia, snapdragon, and the sunflowers are resistant to light frosts. However, I'm hoping the cosmos will survive.

This weekend I am hoping to get the chance to clean up the garden a bit for the fall. The back lawn needs to be mowed, and I am going to begin to prepare the garden for winter. The compost heap has reduced itself again, so I'm sure that the bottom of it is black gold, ready to be spread across the soil. It's pretty amazing to watch it go down each day. A few weeks ago we had it filled with garden debris, and now you can't even tell what was in it! It's just a brown mushy pile.

This evening I will have to bring in the houseplants I had outside all summer. In June, I set out my two spider plants and my blue ginger plants. The spider plants had looked extremely anemic from being inside, and now they both have flowers and lots of new growth. The blue ginger plants, which I had brought back as root cuttings from Hawaii back in 2000, are tropical plants and loved the wet, humid summer we had. The trick is getting them to last another winter in New England! They loves lots of light and heat, which the winters up here don't tend to give. But, we are finishing our porch this weekend, so they will have a lot of light for another month at least while being sheltered from the cold nights. Remember that when you bring in houseplants from their outdoor life you should check them thoroughly for aphids and other critters! I plan to move mine inside in stages. First the porch for a few days or weeks, then inside next to the other plants. Otherwise all your houseplants could become infested.

I'm beginning to think about planting for the spring too. I don't know how many of my front tulips will come back in the rock garden, so I plan on putting in just a few there. But, I want to line the driveway and front paths with daffodils and tulips. Last year I think I put in 200, and it was a beautiful show! I may shoot for 500 this year. The bright flowers do help bring on spring! I have to begin researching types of bulbs. While my mother says the yellow and reds last longer, I do love the striped flowers, and deep purples too.

Lastly, in the spring my sister and I had both planted pumpkin seeds. I had visions of tangling vines with giant fruits overrunning my garden. My vine is 2 feet long and still flowering; not a single pumpkin grew. My sister, however, grew 3 pumpkins. One is a normal size, and the other two are smaller gourds. But, it's 3-0, so she is the official pumpkin champion of 2008. Neither of our watermelons produced anything substantial.

Next year, the giant pumpkin will be grown!

After a week away

Sunny High 79° F Precip: 10% Mainly sunny. High 79F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunrise: 6:18 AM		Mostly Clear Low 59° F Precip: 10% Clear to partly cloudy. Low 59F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunset: 7:07 PM

I went away for a week and left the garden completely unattended. It survived, for the most part. I had to count on Mother Nature to water it, but did pick beans and tomatoes before I left and gave them to a neighbor. I didn't want to let the fruits of my labor spoil on the vine.

I am not sure on the weather while I was gone, but we did come back to the remains of a hurricane or tropical storm. Things looked pretty good, and nothing had dried out at all (no chance of that this summer anyways!). One of the bean bushes had collapsed on itself, breaking its support. But that didn't stop the bush from producing a huge amount of beans during the week. The first thing I had to do was bring in 2 full pots of beans and about 15 tomatoes. There are still some (ok, alot) of tomatoes ripening, and today I saw a squirrel running around with a small green one in his mouth. At least they will get eaten. Unfortunately, 4 or 5 did rot during the week, but I'm sure they will be put to good use in the compost heap. Or by the theiving squirrels.

The flower garden looked amazing. The sunflowers opened, and of the many many seedlings I planted, 7 flowers remain. But, they are pretty. One of the flowers had broken weeks ago, but I left it where it was and was rewarded for my hope (lazyiness) with an open bloom. I cut a nice bouquet from all the blooms....

The time of the tomatoes

Sunny High 77° F Precip: 0%	Mostly Clear Low 56° F Precip: 10%
Sunrise: 6:06 AM	Sunset: 7:28 PM

I haven't posted much in the past two weeks because the garden has been relatively quiet. At this point, we are still pulling in beans about every 2 days, and I have a bunch of bags in the freezer for eating once the plants die from the frost...which I am expecting to be early this year. The night lows are into the 50s, although last Tuesday we hit 48 degrees at night. It's chilly! The Farmer's Almanac is predicting a long, cold winter for the Northeast, and I think they may be right on target. We have had so many flocks of birds in our yard at the feeder in the past week; it looks like some are getting ready to head south! Some of the trees are beginning to change as well...and not just the maples! I saw a birch with yellow leaves, and one of our neighbors has already broken out the rake. The earlier evenings are another sign of the end of summer. Just 26 Days until Autumn! It's weird that the amount of sunlight we have now is the same as in early April. At least it's much warmer. That is why I love fall so much! Residual heat...ahhh.

Other than the beans, the tomatoes have set all the fruit they are going to and are ripening on the vine. However, the plants themselves don't look too hot. There is a blight in the region from all the rain, and an article ran in today's Metro about how to prevent the spotty and brown tomato leaves--next year. Because of all the rain, the blight really hit the plants hard, but the fruit itself is not affected. However, once the plants are done they need to be pulled, and it is essential that rotation is put into effect for next year's planting as the spores can survive in the soil. So, don't plant tomato or potato where you have either plant this year. Find a new sunny spot!

We are going away on Friday for a trip north to Maine for a week, so when we get back the tomatoes should almost all be ripe. The squash and zucchini haven't set any fruit in about two weeks although they continue to flower, and I think this may be because of the weird weather as well. It's odd as these two plants usually are extremely prolific, but we got maybe 5 zucchini and just 10 squash this season. I guess the beans made up for everything though!

We are beginning to dry herbs for the winter. I tested out some oregano, and it turned out ok until the fuzzy cat sat on it. Not the herbs have hair all over them so they cannot be used (or rather, should not!). This will be a great saving to us as we use herbs for cooking all the time. Especially on chicken. The fresh herbs have been great in the tomato sauce we use on our pizzas, and I don't know what I will do when the basil is done. I'm tempted to dig it up and pot it for my kitchen.

The flower garden is fantastic! I am so happy that I planted a cutting flower garden, and have been able to bring flowers to work, give my friends bouquets, and keep the house filled with fresh flowers. The gladiolus I planted have not bloomed like I thought they would. Instead of the tall multiflower stalks, mine look more like a white iris. I have a different type, and will post a picture later tonight. The zinnias are fantastic, and look wonderful next to the cosmos and ever blooming snapdragons. Next year I plan on doing even more flowers and beginning it sooner.

Well, soon we will begin preparing the garden for fall. Once the squash is done I will either cover the area with compost or plant red clover, which is a great fall ground cover that replenishes nutrients in the soil. Any any ideas for fall plantings? Let me know in the comments!