Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
In the garden October
This was my garden last week, third week of Octorber, as I got a significant amount done on putting the garden to bed for the winter. I have planted two plum trees, mulched the blueberries, and put in a series of bulbs that will come up in the spring including: Chionodoxa Pink Giant, Narcissus Cool Flame, Hyacinth Pink Pearl, Allium Ostrowskianum as well as a black and pink tulip mix. Each year my goal is to get more permanent flowers into the back yard through the use of bulbs and perennials. Eventually we will beat back the grape hyacinth which was the only thing growing back here when we moved in (can you believe it? three summers and the yard is a totally different beast).
I have also started digging up the dahlia tubers, with that project to finish this weekend – and have planted half my garlic. I am also going to attempt to keep my hanging fuschia alive from this year to next by moving it into our little studio and putting it into dormancy. Apparently this is easy, as is taking new fuschia cuttings in the spring which would save us the $80 we spent this year on hanging baskets next year!
We’ve got a ton of leaves out front now, and are investing in a leaf-vaccum and shredder which will make for some easy mulching of these back boxes as the fall turns into winter. You can see from these photos that some of our beds are still in need of a top-up to be truly ready for next spring – and the leaves will be a big help on that front. With the rains coming in this week, I suspect it will be awhile before I can get a picture of our backyard that I love as much as this one – with the fall colour in and everything still green. The mud-days are coming, followed by the frozen-days…. and I’ve still got so much to do before that happens! (See all of last week’s garden photos on flickr.
Red Cedar 
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