End of the Season

My temperature gauge reads 27 F, snow flakes fly, and a trace of slush accumulates on my back deck. It is the official end of the growing season. I was hoping that my magnificent geraniums and marigolds would get a few more days. Call me an optimist...or a Minnesotan.

Planting Bulbs

This first photo is one four foot bed where I planted two Profusion zinnias. This is a great variety, spreading and blooming, well, profusely.
Planting bulbs is easy and the reward is delightful flowers in spring. It's a lost easier than uploading photos! (They are in reverse order.) I planted Siberian squill (Scilla). Being careful to keep the mat of grass intact, I dug a hole deep enough to plant the bulbs three inches deep. I have clay soil so I dug out some of the clay and put in some garden-worthy dirt.
I mixed in some organic bulb food and planted the bulbs.
Next I replaced the lawn on top. In the spring I should have blue flowers peeking through the lawn. I planted clumps of at lease three throughout different sections of the left side of the lawn. Hopefully they'll survive the winter!

Garden Update

The first hints of gold and red touch the leaves outside my window. Fall has arrived even if I'm not ready for it. The marigolds look spectacular and I sigh with relief every time the frost misses us.

In other news, I am moving some hostas to make room for a swath of squill to grow through the grass in the spring.

The joe pye weed topped out at about 6 feet this year. I think the plants like this wet year.

The Sun Chips bag that I put at the edge of a compost pile in the spring is mostly disintegrated. The leftover bits looked a little like pieces of leaves. So it does work, but here in Minnesota it takes some time to completely compost.

Garden Update

Comparing the previous impatiens photo to this one, you'll notice that the flowers have overgrown the pots and steps. They like this spot!

This other photo is one example of the geraniums in pots line the front of the house. I love the "pop" of bright color that draws your eye up to the house.

Cosmos are one of my favorites. I plant them every year, along with other butterfly-friendly flowers.

Raccoons?

Imagine my surprise to find the last blueberries gone! I had placed sturdy metal stakes into the ground. On top of the stakes I have plastic two liter bottles with the bottoms cut out to make climbing (or landing) impossible. I have covered everything, even the top, in netting. Well, something clever pushed the stakes so they tilted in the soft rain-soaked soil. This same something clever pushed the loose netting close to the blueberries, close enough to eat them. I've been outwitted by a wascal.

Impatiens

This was my challenge this year--to grow impatiens from seed. I had success, as you can see in these pots on the shady deck. However, I planted lots of seeds, with only one third becoming plants. After reading about the difficulties of impatiens from seed, I knew that could be a problem, so I over-planted. And I am happy with the results. Will I do it next year? I did save money and I tried a cool variety (Accent Star Mix), so maybe I will.

Sunflowers

These sunflowers are the Earthwalker variety. I have planted them near the mailbox. At first all the blooms faced east, away from the road, but tnow they are looking better. I counted 14 open flowers and 18 blooms (though I shouldn't count my blooms before the blossom!).