Photo Dump 9/22

As much as I love to plan, plant, and harvest my garden, I'm always ready to put it to bed for the winter.  I'm a fair weather gardener.  You won't catch me mucking about in the freezing rain and mud.  This is half of the middle garden.  When I had pulled the last of the lettuce, I weeded, composted, and manured.  Then I gave it a cover of leaves to break down over the winter.  This worked really well last year.

Check out these crazy zinnias!!  Just how tall are they going to get, anyway??

Zinnias are the perfect cutting flower.  They have long stems and last pretty good in bouquets.

Poppy, looking innocent.  All the critters got a bath today.  Who knew that if I just put a piece of cheese where they could see it that they would hold still for their bath??

This is the second rogue sunflower to come up this year.  This one is shorter and smaller since it came up through the potted coleus on the deck.  My sister, Miss SmartyPants, is queen of the sunflowers so we should be getting pictures soon.

I got this tomato start this spring from Midori Farms and it is called Koralik.  Prolific is its middle name so if you are going to grow just one red cherry tomato, this is the one for you.  Koralik will be in the mix again next year.

I grew dill from seed this year and it is beautiful in its seedy stage.  I've been putting it in bouquets because I like the way it looks so much.  In the past I always used dill starts and they did absolutely jackshit nothing except grow to about five inches and die.  I read over the winter that dill does not transplant well.  I can tell you from experience that this is certainly true.

This is probably the end of my cucumbers now that it is starting to cool off.

I found this little hot devil when I was picking tomatoes.  I thought that I had gotten them all.  Even though it was a hot summer and these starts lived in the greenhouse until July (where they flourished) the minute I put them in the ground they were just not happy.  Maybe I will try them from seed next year.

Last year I posted a picture of my sedums with the floppsies and you can see it here.  My daughter-in-law, Miss PeggyRae, told me what to do to fix this.  It seemed extreme but what you do is prune it by about a third in June.  I didn't want to do it because it was in bud and I was afraid I wouldn't have anything in the fall but I did it.  I think that the results speak for themselves and I will be doing it again next June.

I've been going berserkers buying sock yarn and here is my latest.  This one is by Lorna's Laces and it is from their Shades of Gray series and it is called Red.

The yarn on the right is also from Lorna's Laces and it is called Christmas at Downton.  The skein on the left is from Poste Yarns and is a striping yarn called Buckeye.  The two Lorna's Laces are 80% Superwash Merino wool and 20% nylon.  The red yarn is 75% Superwash Corriedale wool and 25% nylon.

I will be doing a garden summary and critique this year.  I'm thinking that if I analyze my garden and make the required changes I can improve on it next year...although, it sure was a good garden year because of the wonderful summer that just ended today...and it is looking like a big storm is coming in just in time for the Seahawks game at 1:00.  If the power or the dish go out again, I'm packing up and heading for the Valley Tavern.