Review of 2014 Goals: How Did I Do?

As the year ends, this is the time to assess what was accomplished over the year. I'm going to do this in two posts.

In this post, I will assess how I measured up to a post that listed all my 2014 goals for my garden areas that I posted here on January 1st of this waning year.

I apologize that this is just a boring list. The list is pretty long, as I have numerous garden areas that needed a lot of work. Feel free to skip to the end if you're short on time or interest in the minutiae of my garden -- this list is really more for me, a self-assessment that I've posted online to keep myself honest.

Everything in normal font is from my original post; my assessment and comments are written in bold font. I will answer:

• Yes, if I accomplished what I wanted
• No, if didn't get it done, and I still need to do it
• Some, if I partially accomplished what I wanted to do
• Decided Not To, if I realized there might be better ways to handle a particular area, or I need to think more about what I want in that area

First, my general goals:

1. I would like more early flowers: bulbs, earliest perennials, flowering shrubs and small flowering trees. By March, I'm desperate to spend time outside and see any signs of life that I can, and I've decided that these early flowers give me more joy than the very last ones in October and November do. I'd like to include some early cutting flowers among these: bulbs and branches mostly. Some. I planted some winter aconite some other yellow-flowering early bulbs such as crocus, hyacinths and early daffodils in my Yellow Garden, that I will be able to see from my windows.

2. No more new garden areas this year -- only work to improve the ones I already have. HAH -- No! I only made THREE huge new island beds on the west and north sides of my house. In my defense, those areas did need something, because my other garden areas were located away from the house, which didn't seem balanced. Two of the three new beds are planted with lower-maintenance trees and shrubs, so the new beds aren't as crazy as it might seem, and the third, the Yellow Garden, gives me something bright to look at outside my dreary north window, which I really did want. But still, the answer is most assuredly No. 

3. I need to develop a higher standard of maintenance, weeding more regularly, perhaps edging beds? I'd like a neater look in the garden. Yes. I cut neat edges around nearly all of my old and new beds this year for the first time. Weeding is still an ongoing struggle, but one I did work to improve.

4. I'd like to take better garden photos -- better in quality and more often. My father very kindly gave me a nice camera for Christmas, and I resolve to spend January learning how to use it. No. I still haven't figured out how to use the new camera, and I'm ashamed to still be taking snapshots. This is still a goal of mine.

Goals for specific areas of my garden:

1. House
     I really should repaint our white picket fence, and I'd like to have some new, pretty cushions for our porch furniture. No. I'll definitely paint the fence this spring, and keep looking for fabric I like for new cushions.
2. East Patio and Gardens
     The east bed of the east patio area is overrun with grass and creeping charlie, and I should remove at least the smaller perennials and maybe even the rose bushes, spray at least twice over a week with round up to kill grass and perennial weeds, put a brick border along the back to keep grass out, and replant. We'll see what gets done this spring.... Yes. I completely re-did these beds, removing everything and spraying repeatedly, and put a brick border along the back to keep out grass.
3. Front Border
    These borders will fill out more, as I completely re-did them in Fall 2012. I'll replace any perennials that didn't make it through the winter, and try to plant or seed annuals by mid-May. Yes.
4. Mint Circle
    I'm eagerly waiting to see what the crocus and tulips I planted this fall will come to, and will plant annuals from seed in May. Yes.
5. Addition Borders
    I'd like to plant marigold plants and some seeded annuals in orange and purple colors in the front border, improve the blue beds on the west side, and especially find some attractive shade plants for the north side this year. This will require some research, as I know very little about good shade plants. Perhaps some ferns would look lush. Yes. See #2 under General Goals for the north side bed, the new Yellow Garden. I also planted more blue plants in the west beds; the annual salvias looked particularly nice there this year. Much improved.
6. White Beds and Pergola
    I'll probably have to replace the non-hardy double white anemone "White Everest" that were sold as hardy (but only to Zone 7!). More annuals. I need to find some way to allow the white clematis to attach itself to the smooth posts  on the back on the pergola. perhaps some chicken wire wrapped around the posts and spraypainted white to match the pergola post? Yes. I used chicken wire to provide a lattice for the clematis to climb up. One of the two died, however, and I must replace it this spring. Planted more white annuals which looked nice, and white bulbs for spring.
7. Kwanzan Cherry Tree Grove
    Fertilize? Trim off sucker growth. Yes. Completely re-did this area to the west of the house, moving the cherry trees and making the new West Island bed.
8. North Windbreak with tunnel to Celtic Cross Statue
    I'm getting tired making this list already, so I'll plan on leaving this area alone this year... Yes. All I did was keep it mowed under the trees.
9. North Border
    a) See how first year's planting fills in and what survives the winter (Not much survived, unfortunately.)
    b) add more perennials -- I will think about what else might look nice there Yes. I planted many new things this year.
    c) plant annuals earlier this year, by May 15. No. Around May 25th, although the ground was colder than usual this May because of the late spring. (Really, I didn't delay planting on purpose, I was just so busy I didn't get to it until later.)
10. Peony Border
    This is one of the areas that needs careful consideration and much work. I need to remove the nursery bed plants from the north end and replace them with something, perhaps starting a collection of iris. Some more bulbs planted in fall, perhaps. I will think about this some more in the coming winter months -- as this bed in in line with scenic views of fields, perhaps it would be best not to have showy flower displays, at least after spring? Yes. I moved the nursery bed plants, planted about 20 irises, mulched and edged this bed. There's still work to be done, but I made nice progress on this area this year.
11. Herb Garden
    Plant basil from seed this year as it was unsuccessful from starts the past two years due to drought. Seed by mid-May. Yes, although the seeds did poorly. Maybe I need to amend the ground to get basil to grow better.
12. East Windbreak with secret tunnel
    Again, nothing here.
13. Rainbow Border
    More annuals, planted and seeded earlier. Assess performance of perennials. Need more blooming in June, and this will require some more thought and research. See how the tulips are holding up. Yes. I planted more annuals and planted more bulbs in fall. I still need to move the Red and Pink Sections around and plant more there.
14. Windmill
    The bed under the windmill has been a disaster, because the trumpet vine planted by our predecessors has been impossible to kill. This year, after the daffodils have bloomed, I will mow them off and mulch heavily with compost. Then I will carefully spray anything that comes up, trying to avoid the two climbing roses (perhaps pruning them back on the edges to make their footprint smaller). I will need to get some kind of deadly biocide tree killer, I think, as Roundup has been unequal to the task. I must get this under control this year. Yes. not completely under control, but I did move the daylilies out of this area, mulched with six inches of compost to smother weeds and my husband sprayed repeatedly. I still need to cut back the roses to allow for spraying closer to them.
15. Pond and Four L-Shaped Garden beds
    Use algae control more regularly in spring. See if water lilies survive winter (I left them in the pond this year, as they did not flower last year, unlike their first year.) If they don't come up, I will replace them with new plants. In the beds, plant pink petunias this year (vinca was less than impressive last year). Yes. I used more algae control, and it seemed to work a bit better. The water lilies did survive the winter in the pond and I fertilized them, so they flowered. The petunias didn't do well in this area. I probably need to amend the soil to grow annuals better here -- I'll try them again next year.
16. Orchard
    Plant replacement apple and pear trees for the missing ones. See if more daffodils came up this year and take photos. I planted 500 in fall 2012, but they didn't all come up for some reason, and I bought them from a reputable bulb company. Some. Replaced one apple tree, but we still need more. Only a few daffodils bloomed, so Brian will spray the area this spring to get the weeds under control. Perhaps we'll try to plant more daffs in a few years after the new grass has established itself.
17. Flowering Tree Grove
    Buy two more flowering trees for spots we didn't fill last year, replace any trees lost over the winter. Also, I would like to plant some early-flowering shrubs that I can cut for forcing inside, so I will have more flowers for indoor arrangements. No. Still need to plant more crabapple trees. I WILL do this in spring.
18. Gazebo
    Plant border around gazebo with easy, drought-resistant, deer-resistant shrubs, perennials and annuals. Yes. However, one of the roses I moved there died.
19. Garden Shed and Surrounding Borders
    Move hostas from Peony Bed to west side under tree, also buy 'Sum and Substance' large hosta. Transplant ferns next to shed on west and south sides. Other partial sun perennials, annuals? Yes. I did all these things.
20. Tractor Shed Pavement and Mock Orange Hedge
    Clear off debris and junk from pavement. No. There is still a lot of junk in this area. I need my husband's help to remove it, because it's mostly his stuff.
21. East Tractor Shed Border and Fern Border
   I need to find a way to attach the yellow climbing rose to the side of the shed. Whether I should make a large lattice or simply tie the rose to staples is a question. Decided Not To. The yellow rose died and I completely redesigned this bed.
22. Garage Borders (North, West and South)
    All three of these borders need a lot of work and more plants. The south is blazingly sunny, the west is mostly shaded, and the north is in full shade. I will think about this over the winter.... Yes. Moved many irises to the sunny south side, added a few more daylilies to fill out the west side, and re-did the north side.
23. Forsythia Bed
    I'd like to plant some more perennials and perhaps a few annuals here, but I should plant early, since it's difficult to run a garden hose to this bed to water. I'll have to decide what might look good here with the forsythia, the two large peony bushes, the white rose and the mums I planted here in fall. Maybe some nice June-blooming perennials, so garden visitors have something to look at when arriving. Some. Although I did plant some daffodils under the forsythia, which I hope will bloom simultaneously. Still might plant more.
24. Kitchen Garden and Chicken Compound
    I need to put more compost in the beds, and perhaps some garden soil in beds I will seed for cutting flowers, since seeds don't start well in pure compost. We also need more mulch in the paths. both of these could probably wait another year, though, if I can't them done. I want to plant more flowers for cutting, ones that I love to cut but that will be not too much work. I will look into more bulbs to plant this fall, so I will have more early cut flowers in spring. Yes. Filled beds with more compost, but didn't get the paths mulched. Planted more bulbs this fall. I've decided to reduce the number of cutting beds I maintain and redesign them this spring -- this will give me something to plan over winter.
25. Upper Pasture
    I made a mown grass maze for my children here last summer, but perhaps something different would be in order for this year? Hmm.... Decided not To. I just left this area alone and let the grass grow.
26. Fenced Pasture
    I hope our young weeping willow trees survive the winter and last summer's drought. I'd like to see them grow larger in 2014. Yes. the trees survived and grew quite a bit this year, not that I was responsible for this.
27. Lower Pasture and Wildflower Strip
    This year, I will select a wildflower mix that includes some larger-flowered annuals that can be seen better from the road, such as medium-size sunflowers (tall ones might blow over if it's windy). Decided Not To. I just let the strip reseed and saw what came up. We'll need to reseed this spring.

The Grand Tally

19   Yes       

 6    No        

 3    Some

 3    Decided Not To

31   TOTAL

So I completely accomplished 61% of my January goals, accomplished "some" of 10% (we'll say half or 5%) and decided against another 10%. I'd say this adds up to a 76% success rate.

I failed to accomplish 19% of my goals, plus the other 5% for the "some," for a fail rate of 24%.

Some people might say I earned a "C" grade for my efforts, but I think accomplishing three out of four goals for a hobby in a single year is probably a respectable result. 

Additionally, as I gardened this year, I thought of and made many improvements that were not on this list, things that I thought of after January 1st. My next post will be a more positive short list (with illustrative photos) of those most important accomplishments, which should be more interesting for readers to see.

Thanks for bearing with me through this long list, and Happy New Year! -Beth

Merry Christmas!

It's good to be back! After a month away to focus on other things -- taking a mental break from gardening, working on my new research/writing project (a book about Iowa garden history), and the last two weeks of preparing for Christmas -- I'm glad to be back writing this blog, thinking about gardening and catching up on what others have been doing.

It's hard to believe that another Christmas is over -- the last of the family staying with us left our house this afternoon, and the weather was so warm, I actually worked outside in the gardens for a little while today -- not something I ever remember doing in late December before. After an unusually cold November, most of December has been quite mild, and the last few days have seen temperatures in the 50s, with no snow on the totally non-frozen ground. It's like we have English weather this month. We had not a white Christmas, but a brown one this year -- and I liked it!

Yesterday when I was outside, I noticed a disconcertingly large amount of grass growing into my front border, and it was so nice outside today that I got out the gardening clothes that I had put away for the year and worked outside, pulling out most of the grass. I feel better now, knowing that it won't be taunting me every time I walk past it during the whole winter (which still lies ahead....).

I also cleared out a spot right next to our house on the east side of it, and prepared the ground for planting early cool-season annuals like sweet peas there. I was inspired to do this by reading my new book that I received as a Christmas present:

This was my most useful Christmas present!

"Cool Flowers" was published in October by Lisa Mason Ziegler, a cut-flower gardener in Virginia. Even though she gardens in a warmer zone (Zone 7) than I do (Zone 5), she has included advice for colder-winter gardeners in her book, and I think her advice might be sound for Iowa. The book describes how to grow annuals that like cooler weather, like sweet peas, which I've never had any luck with in the past.

After reading "Cool Flowers," I realize that the problem was that I never planted them early enough. Unlike in England and the west coast, Iowa spring weather moves from frozen ground to summer heat in a relatively short period, so the cool weather period that sweet peas thrive in is limited.

Gardeners in mild winter areas can plant sweet peas in fall, but that won't work here. The trick in cold-winter areas (like Iowa) is to plant earlier in spring than we're used to planting things. When midwesterners think of annuals, we think of petunias, zinnias and other warm-season annuals, which cannot be planted until after the last expected frost date, (about May 10 here). But cool season annuals are different.

To be able grow sweet peas, I now know that I must start them in February (inside) or March (sowed outside), protect them a bit near the house until April, and shelter them from the hot western sun of early summer. With any luck, by doing this I will have them blooming in April, May and possibly June.

"Cool Flowers" also describes other flowers that tolerate light frost, about 30 different varieties in all, and relates how to grow each kind. These include flowers that I would like to try such as Canterbury Bells, godetia, lisianthus and Iceland poppies, as well as ones I've grown with success like snapdragons (one of my favorite flowers, and gloriously pictured on the book's cover), bachelor buttons and Bells of Ireland.

I'm looking forward to having something to do in late winter and early spring, and I'm curious to see if this method works.

Anyway, it's nice to be back, and I'll try to post and read your own blogs at least once a week until spring, when I will again aim for posting twice a week.

Hope you too had a wonderful holiday with family and friends. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Merry Christmas!

Garden Fancy: A Year Old Today!

Garden Fancy is one year old today!
(Bev Sykes)

Yay! I'm celebrating my garden blog's first birthday today, having written my first post on November 24, 2013. (It was a pretty lame post: "Hello, this is my inaugural post at Garden Fancy. I know no one will read this for quite some time, but I have to start somewhere," and wrote a few words about what I hoped to cover in this blog, which I hoped would be of interest to a few readers.)

Since then, I have written 79 blog posts including this one, an average of one about every four and a half days. I had hoped to post about twice a week so I didn't quite make that, but it's still a respectable effort, I think.

And a few people have started to read my blog fairly regularly; I now have 18 followers, 11 Feedburner email subscribers and 11 Google+ followers -- every one of which I'm so happy and honored that they actually are interested in reading about my gardens and my thoughts about gardening. Thanks so much for continuing to read!

And I have made a number of online garden blogging friends over the past year as well: I was able to visit Larry's magnificent gardens in Wisconsin this past July, after following his posts at Conrad Art Glass and Gardens; Beth at Beyond the Garden Gate, Pam at Pam's English Cottage Garden, Janneke at The Flowering Country Life, Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome and Linda at A Rich Tapestry have all been steadfast readers, leaving many kind comments; Casa Mariposa generously featured a prominent link to my blog on her own well-read blog. I greatly look forward to reading what's going on in these bloggers' gardens each week, and feel that I have come to know them through their writing and photos -- what a wonderful thing garden blogging is; that I can visit such lovely gardens and chat with the gardeners, all around the world while living in rural Iowa!

My own blog has improved over the past year, and while many of my posts were probably not the most exciting thing to read, there were a few that were more interesting to readers. A list of the most-visited posts is found on the right sidebar, which you might find of interest if you haven't seen them already (most of them being older posts). And these are a few of my own favorite posts:

10 Reasons why Iowa is
a great place to garden

The Most Beautiful Time of Year

Tulip Time!

Are Gardens Art?

Garden Visit: MOBOT Spring 2014

Amish Flower Auction

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has so kindly read my posts over the past year. I hope I'll be able to continue to improve my blogging skills during the second year of Garden Fancy, and I look forward to reading your own blogs and keeping up with what is happening in your gardens next year.

I might not post as frequently during the upcoming busy holiday season and during the winter months when absolutely nothing is happening in my gardens, but I will post occasionally with recaps of this year's garden improvements, my plans for next year, updates on Master Gardener activities that I participate in, and my continuing research for my planned book about Iowa garden history, which is my big project for this winter. And when spring arrives, I will again be eager to share many photos and progress reports about my gardens as they awake from their winter slumber and flower in the moments of glory that keep me out there digging in the dirt.

Many thanks again for reading! I hope your holidays will be enjoyable and safe, and that spring will come quickly everywhere. Best wishes!  -Beth

Bulb Planting Travails

Stupid cheap tools.... This was a straight-handled bulb planter before it collapsed under use. Grrr!

So I finally got nearly all my bulbs into the ground on Sunday and Monday. I always buy more than I should when I go bulb shopping -- the containers look like candy, with their bright, tempting photos of beautiful spring bulbs, and I'm too much like a kid in a candy store. I also ordered a bunch of bulbs online from Van Engelen, the wholesale distributor for John Scheepers (I almost always buy large enough quantities to qualify for the wholesale price).

But then I have to plant them all, and I curse my greediness, often putting off the work so late in the season that I've had to use a pickax to hew a planting hole in the frozen tundra of my flower beds.

This year, I vowed to get ahead by starting earlier. In early October (a good time for planting bulbs here), I planted 550 bulbs of various kinds in my new Yellow Garden: tulips, daffodils, alliums, hyacinths, crocus and winter aconite -- all yellow-colored, of course. I hope the heavy clay soil there won't be too much for them.

And I got 60 Asiatic and Orienpet lilies planted in the North Border, and 60 more tulips in a small bed near my house, in late October.

But that still left a lot of bulbs in my garden shed, and cold weather was fast approaching, so Sunday and Monday I pulled out all the stops:

First, I potted up all the bulbs for forcing: early daffodils and tulips, crocus and a few other early bulbs. This is the first year I've done this, so it's an experiment, the results of which I'll post about here in January and February. I labelled the pots, watered them and put them into the "cave" that I constructed out of straw bales inside our large tractor shed. The bulbs can freeze (after all, they do every winter in the ground), but they shouldn't freeze and thaw repeatedly, so an insulated place is needed to store them. I think the straw cave might work.

My potted-up bulbs for forcing, after being watered.

I put them in the straw bale cave, with the earliest bulbs in front and later ones in back. The plant markers give a date range for them to be brought inside by my husband, and also identify the bulbs in each pot. I heaped leaves on top of the pots and then closed up the front of the cave with one last straw bale. I'll put them under lights in my basement starting after January 1st, when I'll be more than ready to see some colorful flowers.

After I finished with the pots, I planted the rest of the bulbs:

• 24 Allium 'Globemaster' in the North Border
• about 50 alliums, hyacinths and Asiatic lilies in the White Beds
• 250 tulips, alliums and muscari in the Rainbow Border
• 90 mixed tulips, 45 mixed daffodils and 50 alliums in the Cutting Garden
• 24 pink, purple and blue hyacinths in the Front Border

Altogether (but not counting the potted ones) I planted about 1,200 bulbs this year (which is actually less than half of the 2,600 I planted last year, to my great suffering). I mostly plant them by digging out an area with a digging shovel, arranging the bulbs right-side-up in the hole, and shoveling the soil back on top. So I certainly didn't have to dig 1,200 individual planting holes (yikes!).

But I did use my old long-handled bulb planter to individually plant the 60 lily bulbs (which need fairly deep planting holes) in the North Border -- and that's when the bulb planter collapsed, bending under the weight of my stomping efforts and causing me to lose my balance. Luckily I was able to catch myself before I ended up flat on my back in the middle of the border, but it certainly took me by surprise. No more cheap tools!

Maybe this is what I need...
The Yard Butler G-BULB Green
Flower Bulb Planter
Has anyone had good luck with a
particular brand of long-handled
bulb planter?

Anyway, I have all but one bag of daffodils planted at this point, and I'm sure I'll have a chance to plant that last bag before the ground freezes. Monday was such a lovely day to work outside -- it was windy, but 65 degrees (F) and sunny; I actually had to take off my fall tweed gardening jacket.

But it's a good thing I took advantage of that lovely weather on Monday, because this was what my Front Border looked like on Tuesday morning, to my (and the weather man's) great surprise:

I sure didn't see this coming, nor did the weather man. This is what my Front Border looked like Tuesday morning, and it hasn't gotten above freezing all week. Gotta love Iowa weather: 65 degrees one day, the high 20 degrees the next day. Brrr!

Yep, winter's definitely here now and it's time to spend some cozy time inside. I hope you're all keeping warm too. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Our Swank New "Grand Chicken Hotel"

Some of our chickens, staring toward their newly arrived accommodation.

My husband has kept chickens since we moved out into the country more than six years ago, but we have never had a permanent structure for them. He has, over the years, built them several shelters out of lumber, small-gauge wire fence and blue tarps, around which he stacks straw bales in the winter for protection from wind and cold.

These have worked well enough most of the time, although they aren't very roomy in winter, and don't provide any protection from gnats in early summer, which can kill chickens in bad years (we lost three during this year's wet, gnat-filled May, which was really sad and upsetting).

So we resolved to spend the money to get a better structure for them before winter came. I contacted a local builder who has listed a number of small chicken sheds on Craigslist and he built us one to order in a "mini-barn" style and delivered it to us the other day.

The new chicken shed arrives by truck...

...is backed up to the right location...

...is unloaded...

...and is set in place. Puppy looks on approvingly.

A new grand chicken hotel worthy of our noble birds. The screen door can be locked to keep out foxes, etc., while the outer door can be left open for ventilation until the very coldest (or gnattiest) days.

There are two other windows, which can also be opened for ventilation, four nesting boxes and two roosting bars.

A thick layer of wood chips makes it a soft place for the inhabitants.

And a closeable run door affords entry to the fenced-in chicken run.

A very nice addition to our Kitchen Garden area.

Our chickens were a bit suspicious of the new shed for a few days, but they have started making short incursions into their new accommodations and have already laid a few eggs in there. I think they will be happy in their new digs, and we feel better, now that we are able to provide them with a nicer home where they can be snug in winter and safe from gnats and larger predators.

Thanks for reading! -Beth

Going, Going.... Gone.

This morning's sudden frigid temperatures.

We had our first killing frost last night. I'd been dreading it because the flowers were still so beautiful, but we don't get to tell Mother Nature her business.

Some illustrative scenes from my gardens: Before (a few days ago), this morning in frost, and After (this afternoon after the sun rewarmed and destroyed the structure of the plants):

Before: My delphiniums, starting their third flush of bloom. I was hoping they'd flower more
fully, but I don't think that's going to happen this year.... 

Frost this morning...

After: Not so pretty this afternoon. Cosmos totally done.

Before: Another part of my front border, a few days ago...

...and today. Over and done.

Zinnias and a surprise reblooming iris in my North Border a few days ago....

...and voila! Fifty shades of grey this afternoon.

The Rainbow Border a few days ago (sorry about the harsh light -- the longer autumn rays make it hard to take photos of this west-facing border).

No harsh colors this morning, only frosty shades of black & white.

Dahlias and snapdragons and zinnias in the Cutting Garden a few days ago....

P.F. -- Post Frost.

I couldn't find a recent photo of the four o'clocks, so here's one from back in September. They weren't blooming as much recently, but they still retained their structure yesterday...

...but not after this morning. I was shocked by their total collapse today. I hadn't seen the rose bushes between the four o'clocks since July, but now they're the only things left standing here.

There are still a few flowers going: the snapdragons and bachelor buttons are cool-season annuals here and they hardly look touched, but nearly everything else is down for the count, at least for this year (in the case of perennials). Time to pull out the annuals so I can plant some more bulbs in their place.

At least a few flowers will keep going inside for a little while. These geraniums looked so floriferous that I brought them into my kitchen to enjoy for a time before putting them in the basement to overwinter. The hibiscus will stay in this spot until next summer. (Sigh. I like the sound of that already: "Next Summer." )

Time marches forward and stops for no one; certainly not for the flowers. It's time to move on to different things. Thanks for reading! -Beth

Autumn Colors

The Yellow Garden, with a glowing yellow-foliaged silver maple as a yellow backdrop.

 Things really look like autumn around here: leaves turning colors (and some trees completely having lost their leaves already) and mums in bloom. We haven't gotten frost yet so the annual flowers are still going, but they don't look as vigorous as they did six weeks ago. Here are a few scenes from my gardens:

The tiny trees in the West Island, which I planted this year, are dwarfed by the same maple as in the previous photo. I can't wait to see which of the new flowering and evergreen trees and shrubs will make it through the winter, and what they will look like in 5-10 years when they have reached a good size.

Orange mums and marigolds blaze in the corner by our front porch.

The North Border still have lots of zinnias, cosmos and petunias blooming, but they're starting to look a bit more scraggly than they did back in August. It's nice to still have some flowers to see from my kitchen windows though.

Pumpkins harvested from our own gardens, with a few last roses of the season and some dark pink mums.

A closer look behind those mums: look who's found a hidey-spot: It's Little Kitty!

The view of the same silver maple, from inside our house. Autumn leaves are scattered around the pergola, and most of the surrounding White Garden flowers are finished blooming. This room in our house is the one where our wood burning stove is located, and I'm looking forward to spending some cozy days in front of the fire here.

Hope your own autumn scenes are easing the transition to the non-flowering months for you too. It looks like we might have frost this weekend, but I hope nevertheless that we all have a few more warm days to enjoy. Thanks for reading! -Beth

A New Google Earth Aerial Photo!

The newest Google Earth aerial photo of our property, taken in June 2014. Click for greater detail.

I've been waiting for over a year, hoping since last fall that Google Earth would soon have a new aerial photograph of our property, and I finally noticed one has been added! The last photo had been taken in September 2012, and we have made some significant changes to our gardens and added several new areas since then. I could hardly wait to see what the changes would look like from the air, and the new photo clearly shows all the major changes we've made this year and last year.

The previous photo, taken in September 2012.

The changes can be seen if you compare the two photos:

1. The Kitchen Garden and chicken pen, lower left, hadn't been laid out yet, although the lumber for these was waiting on the edge of the driveway in September 2012.
   
   

   

   The Kitchen Garden.

   
   
2. The Gazebo, bottom right, wasn't in place until Spring 2013.
   
   

   

   The Gazebo, in the distance.

   
   
3. The new West Island and North Island, to the left of the house, were laid out and planted in Spring of this year.
   
   

   

   The West Island.

   
   
4. One of the two ash trees behind the house was removed this spring and the border on the north side of the house was extended into the new Yellow Garden.
   
   

   

   The Yellow Garden, with the North Island at right, and West Island
   at left, in the background.

   
   
5. The North Border, behind the house and in front of the windbreak, was extended and redesigned in Spring 2013.
   
   

   

   The North Border.

   
   
6. The Rainbow Border, to the right of the driveway, has filled in since it was planted in early 2012.
   
   

   

   The Rainbow Border.

   
   
7. The mulched area near our LP tank, to the right of the house, was extended this year.
   
   

   

   The LP tank area, with Herb Garden in front and the Rainbow Border
   at right (taken from an upstairs window).

Seeing these changes from the air has been very exciting for us. Google Earth is a valuable tool for gardeners, giving us a bird's eye view that helps in garden planning, as well as in making garden maps. Do any of you use Google Earth to help in planning and designing your garden areas, or for any other uses?

Thanks for reading! -Beth