Monday, October 25, 2010

October Tricks And Treats

The weather here in October always runs hot and cold. This year it has been so changeable that the plants are confused. These two bunchberry plants are the same age, planted right next to each other, but one is still green and the other has turned red.  It's the same with the trees. Some still have green leaves, some are beautiful fall colors and many are naked having completely dropped their leaves.

The day that our bulbs arrived in the mail the weather here was frigid. All morning we watched the white wall of snow squalls blow across the valley from the north .  So far at least, the ground was warm enough to melt it.  Finally in the afternoon the snow stopped. Ed braved the cold to plant some of the bulbs. Here he is planting purple dog toothed violets. We tried these before, but something ate the bulbs. There are several suspects to choose from including mice, chipmunks and a particularly guilty looking red squirrel. This time the bulbs are protected in a wire cage with a top buried just under the surface of the dirt. 

Most of the annuals in the garden are dead from the cold. There's lots of cleaning up to do in the garden. Sometimes though, other things push themselves to the top on our to do list. Ed loves to dig in the garden, but digging to expose a broken septic line on our 6 year old house doesn't hold quite the same appeal. Today was a beautiful day for digging. He will need more just like it to finish this job.

1 comment:

Northern Shade said...

It's funny how the bunchberry plants can have such different responses in the same location. Their fall colour really catches your eye.

Good luck with your new bulb plantings, and keeping them safe.