Saturday, November 19, 2016

A Strangely Warm November Ends Tonight



Hello again strangers! It's been more than two months (!) since I posted here. In fact, this whole summer and autumn I've been terrible, posting only a few times. I think it's because my gardens haven't looked very good for most of the summer, plus I've been trying to work seriously every day on a new writing project since July.

I'll probably take a little hiatus from blogging over the winter, although I might post a few shots of what's growing in my new sunroom from time to time. It's stuffed full of plants already, as you can see in the photo above, and I've only had the room since August (although I've been collecting houseplants and exotic patio plants for more than a year now.

Some big changes are planned for my gardens next spring, mostly downsizing some beds and eliminating others that are farther from my house or harder to take care of. I'll post about those changes when I start making them next spring.

But here are a few photos from the past few weeks in the better-looking areas of my gardens. We've been enjoying a strangely warm fall. We had a very light frost about a month ago which only killed our basil, and then didn't have another until last week. So we've had lovely flowers until mid-November, which is unusual for Iowa.

Here are a few shots from last week:


Roses 'Seminole Wind' and self-seeded snapdragons around our front gate.

Reblooming iris and cosmos in the Iris Bed. I'll never get used to seeing these bloom in autumn!


Morning Glories on the west side of our house.

'Golden Celebration' roses near our kitchen.
Annual salvias in the Front Border still going strong.


The Yellow Garden in sunlight. I'm planning to reduce the size of this area and make it nicer next year.


Oh, we've finally gotten some projects done around our house: we finally bit the bullet and had the house painted, so it looks a lot brighter now (as can be seen in the first photo). Also, we had our ancient cellar excavated and sealed because it was leaking. So now we have a big mound of exposed dirt behind our house waiting for grass seed in spring.

We also had our handyman fix our front steps, which were sagging and rotting underneath (like everything in an old house seems to do...).



Before: (Back in 2014) You can see how the front steps met in a point at the corner. They were sagging and rotten, and there weren't enough hand rails to make the steps safe.

Our handyman cut out the corner of the steps, shored up the remaining stairs with additional risers, and built two new hand rails, which we will paint in spring, after the treated wood has dried a bit. Both my husband's and my own elderly parents will doubtless be happy at the extra hand rails. There are some broken concrete slabs in the exposed area, but I plan to fill the area with a display of pots during the warmer months.

Since the frost cleared out some room, I've been cutting a few areas back and finally planting the bulbs I bought more than two months ago. Thursday I planted about 600 of the 800 bulbs that I purchased -- only 200 left! (I was pretty sore and tired afterwards, I must admit.)

The temperature is forecast to drop down to the low 20s tonight, so we may not have too many more flowers for the rest of winter. But it's time for the holidays and if all goes according to design, my new Winter Garden will allow me to have some green foliage and lovely flowers all winter indoors.

I hope you are still enjoying a few more blooms outdoors, and that you and your families enjoy a wonderful holiday season. Thanks for reading! -Beth

17 comments:

  1. Hi Beth, It's been great having blooms this late in the season, and the nice warm days we have experienced. Your yellow garden and your morning glories look especially pretty. I planted 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories in 2015 and they had not one bloom! Must have got a bad packet of seed. This year I planted Grandpa Ott's from Seed Savers and had a lot of blooms however Larry Conrad tells me these were very invasive at his place! I had them in a small area; I think I can control them. lol
    Wishing you and your family a blessed Thanksgiving!
    Beth

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    1. Hi Beth, I'm so glad you also have been enjoying our warm Iowa weather and our extended bloom period. I think the morning glories must have been 'Heavenly Blue' that I planted last year -- they only managed a few blooms last autumn right before they were cut down by frost, but they must have reseeded, so I stuck a trellis behind them in July and draped a strand over it and voila! I looked out a month ago and it looked like someone who knows what they're doing planted them there on purpose and carefully trained them up the trellis! I've heard people have had problems with them being invasive, but it's mostly been from warmer climates -- but I guess Larry's climate is no warmer than ours -- I hope neither of us have trouble with them taking over!
      Thanks for reading, and best wishes for you and family during the holiday season! -Beth

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  2. Hi Beth,
    you did a lot of work during the last weeks and months. The house is really bright now, it looks amazing. Planting bulbs is really tiring, although I like doing it very much. We had the first frosty nights very early this autumn, so most of the blooms have been frozen. Now I expect the helleborus to bloom soon :-).

    Wish you a nice sunday.

    Greetings from Birgit

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    1. Hi Birgit, I'm glad you have some hellebores to look forward to -- they don't bloom here until spring. And it certainly is nice to get bulbs into the ground so we have spring flowers to look forward to expectantly. Thanks for your nice words and for stopping by! -Beth

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  3. Hi Beth, great blog, thanks. What are the flowers in front of the first picture please? I'm putting my money on Zinnias but may sulk if I'm right, since mine never do so well. What a show! The house gleams in the Iowa sunlight, my sympathy for all the work you've had to do. The new steps will look fabulous with a cascade of pot plantings. Have fun.

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    1. Hi Debbie, Thanks for stopping by -- do you have a blog too? I'd like to read it if so. And yes, you're right: those are zinnias in the first picture. We live on a windy hill in the middle of the country, so zinnias mostly avoid mildew and other problems here, and that's a full-sun area, which they really need. And I'm glad you like my idea about grouping the pots near the steps. Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a comment! Best, -Beth

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  4. Beth, all the work you've done leaves me dizzy. And to have the house remodeling going on at the same time, wow! Your sunroom is such a joy; I'm sure you're loving it even more now that the weather has cooled some. I still have a few dozen bulbs to plant, but not as many as you have done! My mother's house is over 100 years old and her basement leaks too, I always wondered if there was a way we could have it repaired. Our house is 'only' nearing forty years old and already needs major work, but of course with the septic installation, we've blown our remodeling budget for a few years. I love the way your remodeled staircase turned out, too.

    I've never heard of reblooming iris until a lady gave me a white one two years ago, and now I see they come in yellow, too? How gorgeous! I can't wait to see how your garden renovations come along as we are doing much the same here. That said, I love your yellow garden too, but I completely understand the need to pare down the garden to a more manageable size. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season, and good luck with your writing project!

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    1. Hi Karen, I know for a fact that you and your husband work far harder in your lovely gardens that we do here -- my laziness is why I plan to reduce a few of them (but I won't reduce the Yellow Garden by very much). And I remember your septic issue -- I'm so sorry it cost you so much to redo it. :-( As for our cellar, it's an old root cellar that predates our house, located next to our basement, and the newer concrete slab on top of it was leaking where it meets the foundation of our house, to the point that chucks of concrete were starting to come down. So we had an excavator come out and scrape off the dirt that covered it, paint some sort of tar over it and seal the joint with flashing, and then regrade the whole area. I'm not sure how to stop a real basement from leaking, but I bet there are basement guys in your area who could fix it.

      Thanks for all your encouraging words. Best wishes for the holidays to you and your family! -Beth

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  5. It seems a lot of work is done over there. I really love the charme of old houses but I know there is always something to repair. Your garden still looks lovely on the pictures and when I look through the windows of your sunroom I see lots of promising greenery. Beautiful!

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    1. Hi Janneke, We're in agreement about old houses -- they always seem to need work (although so do many newer houses), but I'd always want to live in one if I can. Thanks so much for visiting, and for your nice words! Best wishes, -Beth

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  6. Nice to see your post Beth.... have to admit to being slightly envious of the wonderful new sun room.... it's been difficult here deciding what to bring into the house.... latest concern involving whether to spare three varieties of mandevillas... I'm giving them a shot.... good luck with your writing project and have a great Thanksgiving!!! Larry

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    1. Hi Larry, Maybe your next project could be a sunroom for you and Sarah to relax in during the long winters? Not just a greenhouse for plants, but a sunny living space for people (and lots of plants too, of course). :-) I understand your dilemma about whether to overwinter plants. I've had to make some calls during the past month as I try to fit in everything that still looks good into the room, and I do have a few things in the basement under lights too. Hope you are well these days, thanks for reading, and enjoy the holidays with your family! -Beth

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  7. Your garden looks lovely, like midsummer rather than November. I am looking forward to another glimpse of your sunroom. I have an old house and there is always something that needs doing.

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    1. Hi Chloris, Yes, old houses always seem to need something (usually something expensive), but how could we live anywhere else? Thanks for reading, -Beth

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  8. I'm impressed at how much you still have blooming! I hope to see you at the 2017 Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling. :o)

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    1. Nice to hear from you, Casa -- I hope you have a great time at the Fling! Best, -Beth

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  9. Oh your garden looks wonderful...will hate the first freeze, but if you are like me, I do get a bit more rest from garden duties in the winter months! Hope you have had a nice Thanksgiving weekend!

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