Halloween Decor

It took me until 4 p.m on Halloween night, but I managed a little garden decor for the holiday. (The overturned pots kept the pumpkins out of the leaves.) We had perfect weather and a ton of cute trick or treaters. Good times.

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Last Look at Autumn Blaze

With the (ugh!) snow showers and high winds predicted for today, I took a photo of the Autumn Blaze maple in our front yard on Friday afternoon.  Good thing, too, because I doubt the maple will have many leaves left after today’s storm. Of course, the snow specks are melting the minute they hit the [...]

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Bloom Tuesday, No. 25: Finis

Monday night’s hard frost (23 F at the Stanton Airport early this morning) slayed my last standing tomato and damaged most of the plants in my containers. Covering things seemed like too much effort for the 20th of October. That said, a few things continue to bloom, including these Stella d’Oro daylilies. If you look [...]

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Survival Instinct

Here’s something cool. One of my tomato plants sprouted roots all along its stem. I discovered this Saturday while pulling the tomato up. It was a Beams pear tomato plant I bought at the Farmers’ Market and planted late in the season. In July, we had a hail storm. The hail split the plant right [...]

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Time to Plant Bulbs

It’s not too late to plant bulbs for spring blooming. With some help from my 16-year-old, I put more than 100 in last Saturday, and we plan to plant a few more over the MEA Weekend. One reason we planted so many is that the tulips I planted about 8 years ago have pooped out. [...]

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Saving Seed or Saved from Seed?

A week or so ago, I pulled down a large morning glory vine near our garage. I like morning glories. They are easy to grow and have pretty blooms and heart-shaped leaves. Sometimes they are a little too easy to grow, however. This year I decided to save some seed for morning glories for next [...]

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Bloom Tuesday, No. 24: Encore, Encore!

Due to a busy work and personal schedule and a drenching rain last Tuesday, I failed to mark last week’s Bloom Tuesday. Not much was blooming anyway, but while walking around the garden this weekend, I came upon a couple of surprise blooms. The Penstemon ‘Husker Red’, right, which first bloomed way back in June, [...]

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Sudden Fall

We’ve gone from what felt like a long end to summer to a sudden fall over the weekend. I gauge the arrival of fall by the ash tree outside my kitchen window. A week ago, it was green with a few yellow leaves peaking through the canopy. By Saturday, it was engulfed in yellow, and [...]

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Bye-Bye Baby Bees

The babies in my bee condo have flown the coop. I noticed the mud plugs that have been in place since August are broken open now and the tubes of the condo appear empty. If the bees hatched, they are entering a cold world. The other alternative is not so great either: Maybe a predator [...]

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P.O.V.

One day last fall, my neighbor from across the street stopped me to say how much she liked the Autumn Blaze maple in our front yard. Her son had recently commented that it was the biggest tree on the street, she said, and they really enjoyed watching it turn red in the fall. Her comments [...]

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