Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! And so I begin my quest to keep my hibiscus alive during the winter. This is the last bloom for a while. Of course, it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the pie...the making-of photo is better than the pie photo (pumpkin and apple with crumb topping)...Not insta worthy but tasty.

Fall in Minnesota

One nice thing about fall? I'm gathering lots of mulch for my garden. The Minnesota craziness is snow. Our area broke a record with October snowfall of over 7 inches! Now it is completely melted, though for a while it looked like it was here to stay. We even hauled out the snow blower to clear the driveway. This week I'll be working outside in 60+ F temperatures, finishing leaf removal, clearing dead annuals, and mulching perennials. 

I adhered to health department guidelines for Halloween. This is a table set up with bags of candy. The pieces of wood are to hold the candy and the table down because it's so windy. I'm not a great decorator, but I enjoyed my spooky eyes peering out from a spider web. 

First Snowfall

Yes, the first snow of the season has arrived. It's melting...slowly. 

Here's the backyard, and you can see the garden beds (post on that process coming soon). And a bonus fall photo from the front yard below

Beautiful October

October has been beautiful so far, from frosty and foggy mornings to crisp, clean blue skies. It has been a bit dry, so I have been watering my new plantings regularly, estimating at least an inch of water a week. The above photo is my back yard. The two below are the park nearby. 

Early Frost

The delicate frost looks pretty on this wild lupine, but I know how destructive it can be. I covered my lettuces and greens, and I'm hoping some plants survived enough to look good for the next month.

August Garden Update

A few weeks ago a strong thunderstorm knocked over all my tomato plants, mostly cherry tomatoes with four Roma type and one Cherokee Purple. They've been doing well. I have way too many cherry tomatoes because I didn't have the heart to compost all the extra plants that I started indoors. I've been cooking them into to sauce to freeze. They take longer to cook down because of all the juices, but they make a tasty sauce. Below is a ripe sweet pepper that I harvested yesterday. This spot has a lot more sun than my old place, so I was super happy to get this fully ripened pepper. I'm rationing it over two days to make it last. Next year I will plant more peppers...and fewer cherry tomatoes.

The fall greens are doing well..endive, assorted lettuces, and Swiss chard. The long dried stems are dill that I harvested and laid down between the rows to keep the rabbits out. Ha! I saw a rabbit nibbling on one, so I added the netting, which has worked well. Cooler weather is in the forecast, so I'm looking forward to getting some "heavy lifting" done this weekend.

Heat and Humidity

Heavy fog during my morning walk in the park shows how humid it is today. I don't do well with this level of heat and humidity, but the hibiscus loves it. (below)  I bought this hibiscus on clearance last summer in July, and it's doing well in spite of me. 

Below is my cardboard contraption to protect my fall crop of greens from this heat. The netting is to keep the rabbits away. I'll have more photos of the completed vegetable garden once I have the last garden bed ready, hopefully in early September.