We have had two, count them, two, hard frosts. Much of the garden is done, save a few stragglers such as a handful of cosmos and chrysanthemums, and bits and bobs. Still enough for a bouquet for mom and me, but the pickings are getting slim, but one learns to be artful.
Clean up is slowly starting. Slowly. Steve has gotten down the fencing for me which was a big help, and has started to chop the now brown flowers into bits so I can get them onto the compost pile and then I can get the netting put away. After that the the irrigation, the weed mat, then more compost and tilling getting the beds prepped for spring. It will all happen, in time. There is so much other things to do. Like planting bulbs!
This past week I have been busy planting bulbs. All the bulbs areas have been rototilled again. And, more rocks have been pulled out. So far, this week I have planted all the daffodills, about 300 of them. Then the long awaited peonies finally arrived and they were planted on Thursday or was it Friday before the rain came down down down. Heavens. I have extra space, so I have ordered more. Not much left to order. I was amazed about how many of the bulb selections were sold out. I did score four more peonies, 50 Dutch iris, and either six or twelve Eremurus. Then I am done ordering for spring. Promise.
Today, I spent this morning planting the 900 some, lets just call it 1000 tulips. They are safely planted in the vegetable garden and all I need to do left is spread compost on the top of the beds and hopefully they will be safely tucked in till spring.
So that is it for this past week. Next week is full, still have to clean out the little greenhouse so I can find last year’s ranunculus and anemones. They were totally sold out so if I want to have some for you in the spring I better get last year’s dug, cleaned and ready for planting in February. I am going to try it a little bit later this year and see what happens.
So until next week, let the rains continue because we still need about 9 inches to make up for the summer’s deficit, I will continue on in the gardens cleaning up and prepping for spring. Soon the catalogs will be rocking in and I will be drooling over this next springs offerings.
Allie