Fall Planting For Fun

 

After spending two months putting together the ward history and slide show, I am happy to be gardening again.  Got my flowers deadheaded, and the roses fertilized this week, and am starting to bury banana peels and egg shells around each plant, to see if that perks them up. Sherry Redd recommended that.  Hers always look do good. They are blooming wonderfully since it's cooled off.

Sept. 29 working the soil and shaping the bed.

On Sept. 29 bought a Mock Orange bush and mums and bulbs from S and K nursery and got them all planted that very day. Expanded the flower bed on the east end of the garage, as the new sprinklers keep overshooting and I don't want to waste that water.  Can't wait until spring to see how it will look.  Put in new bulbs and pansies.

Oct. 6 Plants in, bulbs buried, and compost added

The day we met the former reservation missionaries in Cortez, Oct. 4, I bought about a dozen mums, panseys,  bulbs, and perennials in Cortez. This is how it's looking now. 

Coleus planted by front door did well this season

New home for Mock Orange
and mum and bulbs

 Also put in ground covers in various places.  Dug up and replanted the peony on the north, and put in a pink hydrangea there.  All perennials at Four Seasons were on sale at 75% off.  I spent about $100 altogether, so I'm expecting a great show come next spring.  Planted Clemantis by the north front pillar, and another on the west fence.

I've dug up iris, asters, zebra grass as well as peony to give away. Kim Hurst came and got several things Friday.



Raspberries and Swiss Chard

Now my favorite! Steve put in a berry patch last fall, and the raspberries have been doing super well.


We have a pretty good apple
crop this year, though wormy

I have been luxuriating in them with all sorts of wonderful foods and canning.
At their peak I was picking about a gallon every third day.  Notice the Swiss chard growing as a companion plant.  I also started drinking green drinks using chard, spinach and kale.  Steve has been a pretty good sport about trying them too.  Silvia even puts beets in hers, which I've tried too. After picking, I wash the leaves, pat dry and freeze them on cookie sheets.  Then when frozen, I crumble them into plastic bags.
  I'm not sure why the apple trees were so wormy, as Steve was very diligent about keeping them sprayed every two weeks.  We still had plenty to bottle and eat.



We've also had pretty good success with herbs and kale in the planter boxes at the top of the garden.  I've got cilantro, basil, and thyme planted.  It was too hot in the mid-summer, but they are all doing well now. The radishes, cilantro,  and lettuce have reseeded and are coming up again.  Have been making lots of green drinks lately with Kale.

The south flower beds have flourished all summer, so much so that I've

dug out some of the yarrow, and hollyhocks and large marigold and put in

mums, so I can have some fall color. The pink primroses have really spread!