What an October so Far
The foliage has, or is, spectacular this year, the best we have had in years. We are officially no longer in drought, the flowers are still cranking out with no frost in sight for at least another five days and I got an all clear with the eye doctor. I can officially go back to gardening! And that my flower friends is the best news ever! That news comes at a particularly good time because as you know, October ramps up in what need to get done in the garden. Tulips, digging dahlias, harvesting mums, cleaning up the beds and hopefully prepping them for spring, and trying to eradicate the stink’n voles. Like I said, a very busy number of weeks ahead.
The dahlias are still cranking out amazing blooms. Maybe not as quickly as earlier in their season, but still lots of blooms, and check out these stunners.
The frost just needs to hold off just a little bit longer. Please. I have flowers going out at the end of the week for a wedding.
The chrysanthemums are coming on. Not as fast as I would like, but they are coming along. The first crates of tulip bulbs have been delivered and they are safely tucked in the cooler. Now that is a great story. With the arrival of the bulbs I wanted to lower the temp of the cooler to 45, not that it is 100 % necessary with the field grown tulips, but we did it anyway. Or tried to. The air conditioner that we had been nursing along for over a year decided it didn’t want to go that low. Luckily, I had a back up from when I thought it was going to crap out two years ago. So with my brother Charlie’s help, we were able to swap out the old, and put in the new and we are ready for the next shipment of tulips which should be really soon now. I figure it will all work out timing wise and not to sweat it. Out of my control.
While I am waiting for the frost, or really the freeze, I will resume weeding and organizing the cutting garden for next year, now that I m allowed to. Once the freeze happens the dahlias will get cut down and lifted, then I can move the peonies that are too crowded into their new place, then organize the dahlias and get them into storage, plant the tulips that are being forced and get ready for spring. I am hoping to get the garden finished up by mid November. Can I do it? Damn will try to.
I have done my first flower bouquet since my detached retina two months ago. I think it has turned out well. It was for a birthday celebration. And I celebrated that I felt confident enough to pull it off.
So there you have it. My one and only creation in the last two months.
The flower shed will be open on Friday… not sure for how much longer, but i will let you know in the newsletter or here, which ever happens first. I can still do special orders for a bit longer, probably into early November? We will see what the flower gods decree.
I will pass this off to Steve for proofreading and his little ditty. Until next week.
Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?