It's a cold one - relatively - at the farmette. Only 5C. We even have the furnace on. Yikes, fall is definitely here.
Yesterday I started my fall flower bed cleanup in earnest. I'd already tackled the veggie garden on Friday by cutting the last of the glads and digging up all the corms for drying and storing. I also put away the climbing fence where the long-gone peas produced their sweet little emeralds. Tomato plants and pepper plants were sent to the compost, cages cleaned and put away.
I actually might get a second crop of carrots though. Had to find them in all the weeds. I tend to get 'tired' toward the end of the season.
This is why my beds are in a bit of a mess.
But the first order of the day was taking the limelight hydrangea that had been in a pot on the deck and transplanting it into the back yard.
Now, it has pride of place where we can see it as we look out from our sunroom. It sits in front of the clematis - which needs trimming back, too, as you can see.
This variety's blooms will go pink and then a deep burgundy before the end of season, and they're already starting, so can't wait.
My irises are WAY overgrown. All the gardening sites say you should split the rhizomes every two to three years, and I haven't done it yet (six years). Man, those things are like a chunk of cement when they're massed the way they are in my beds. The trouble with leaving them like that is that they'll rot from the middle. So, there I was hacking and slashing away so we'll hopefully have a decent show next year.
In my floral frenzy, I inadvertently disturbed a snail civilization. They were piled on top of one another, nestled into the base of the big iris leaves. They didn't seem to be harming the plants, so I just left them to find cover on their own.
One little tiny mollusc actually hitched a ride on my wrist. Can you imagine what it thought?
"What the heck is this pink wrinkly stuff under my foot?" 'Why am I being waved around high above the ground?"
But it wasn't too upset. As you can see the antennae were out and it was doing a fairly good job of exploring the new terrain. It's now back, safely ensconced next to the back steps where it picked me up.
I'll be out with the shovels and clippers again today. I only got about half of the back yard done, and I still have the west and east beds to tidy. I also need to split my overgrown hostas and sprinkle them around the property. That's okay. Working on the farmette beds feeds my soul, even if it makes my muscles ache. The tradeoff is worth it - for now. Until next week.
