Debbie - busy, yes, AND lazy! :)

Hi

It was cold and wet on Sunday. Got some flakes around 4 a.m. but they didn't stick on the ground. Some of the plants got touched by frost, but the petunias by the back door are still blooming.

I have been busy packing up, now I just have to hope that I'll be able to lift the suitcase up off the table I have it setting on while I pack it. *LOL*

Here are some of my roses that are still trying to bloom. This is Morden Blush, {{gwi:2100519}}

This is Winnipeg Parks
{{gwi:2100520}}

My Teddy Bears are still blooming like gangbusters.

{{gwi:2100521}}

Here are some of my asters that I grew from seeds.

{{gwi:2100522}}

And here are the petunias that are still going strong by the back door. {{gwi:2100523}}

Take care everyone
Debbie :-)

Morning! I'm up early because my son's ride to go back to Thunder Bay came at 6:00 a.m. Yawn! The temperature was right at 0, but there was frost on the windshield. Yesterday afternoon, it looked more like this:

{{gwi:2100524}}

Disgusting!

But, things are still blooming like crazy out there. I'll have to take some more pictures this week, as the weather is supposed to be a lot better. This weekend was a real bust gardenwise, except for the two shrubs i bought in town. I found the Sambucus "Sutherland's Gold" i had been looking for in the summer, and a viburnum, "Emerald" or something like that. It was too cold and wet to plant them, but i'll have to do that this week. And i still have dirt to haul and bulbs to plant. No rest for the wicked! LOL

Debbie, everything is looking good for you, it seems. I love your baskets. Those yellow petunias don't look as "washed out" as others i've seen. I would never have thought to put them with white ones, but it's very striking. My Morden Sunrise is still blooming too, though Martin Frobisher and Simon Fraser have kind of petered out. Maybe if it warms up a bit as it's supposed to, they'll put out a bloom or two. Simon really shot up this year - he has a couple of canes about three feet high. He was only about a foot high up until now, then zoom!

Are those asters annuals or perennials? Mine perennial ones are blooming now, and it seems that every year, they get darker in colour.

Eep! The other day i said my computer was acting funny, and AVG just detected a virus. I'd better go and see what's up!

Ttyl!
Marcia

Hi,
Just thought I'd pop in before I got to bed, have to get up around 2a.m. to catch the shuttle at 3:50 a.m. Will be back on the 15th. Was going to take my laptop but thought it would be too much of a worry.

Marcia, the asters are annuals, they usually just start blooming and then we get frost, this year I started them quite early so they bloomed early.

Take care and stay warm
Debbie :-)

Have a good time!

I'm from Sudbury, Ontario. Even though it rained a bit today, we spent most of the day outside, cleaning up the green bean beds, the cucumbers, and onions. We planted our garlic and ate some of our concorn\d grapes. They are good this time of the year. I dug up a few dahlias. But all in all, I still have the black-eyed susans and red dahlias still flowering. I'll have to repot my oxalis triangularis. They stayed outside all summer but now I have to bring them in.

I kind of like this time of the year but I worry that we won't be able to do all the things we need to do. The more we do now, the less we'll have in the spring. As if that ever happens. We all know there's always something to do.

Ta ta for now and I hope the weather is conducive to working outside tomorrow.

HI,
wow, i checked your page to see where you are in northern ontario. i didnt find the city but i see you like hosta!
i cant believe how many hosta you have! your yard must be beautiful.

i am from ssmarie. today was a spectactuar day. the trees are peeking and the sun was out today. what a beautiful time of year in our little corner of the world.

It was pretty spectacular here too - like this:
{{gwi:2100525}}

Welcome, Lizzie and Claubill! Claubill, i know what you mean about trying to get everything done in the fall. There always seems like so much to do and not enough time. I had to waste this great day cooking a turkey! Of all things! LOL Actually, i did do some deadheading and planted a primula that i got from a plant exchange and a trumpet lily that has been in a container all summer. I still have a shrub to plant - Sambucus "Sutherland Gold". Was looking for it all summer and finally bought one a couple of weeks ago. I still have some more vegetable garden clean-up to do, and potatoes to dig. Hopefully that can get done tomorrow, because after that i have to go back to work, and the weather is supposed to get worse.

The house renos continue, slowly, slowly, slowly. But the siding is mostly done, finally. Dh thinks he'll be short a few sheets - nothing but trouble with suppliers all summer! With any luck, he can get enough to finish the house. I dug out a foundation bed on one side of the house so he could work there, and i'd like to get that back together again before it gets too cold.

Here are a couple more pictures of things still blooming:

I just LOVE this plant! "Dendranthemum Rubrum Dutchess of Edinburgh"
{{gwi:2100526}}

Geranium platypetalum:
{{gwi:2100527}}

Echinacea:
{{gwi:2100528}}

Asters:
{{gwi:2100529}}

Bedtime soon! Ttyl!

Marcia

Hi everyone

As usual I haven't been by for ages to post. I've been busy at work, in the garden, and running another Canadian Gardening group. The gardens have been 'put to bed' for the winter. However the weather continues to be lovely. The fall colours are gorgeous and I am really enjoying my drives to work. But the rain is on its way by tomorrow and that will probably cause a lot of leaves to fall. Enjoy the outside while you can.

Not much really happening here, except for (groan) physics... and chemistry... and math homework :'(. I had the opportunity, however, to take a few shots of a chrysanthemum (currently the only blooming thing in my backyard).

-Audric

Hi everyone! *waving*

I'm home again! We got home yesterday morning, the train was late, but we are here. It was cold and pouring rain when we got back.

It was great to see the family again and to spend Thanksgiving all together after all these years! I had forgotten how loud we are. *LOL*

Mom has hurt her back again, she thinks she fractured another disc so she called her doctor and her doctor thinks they have crushed down on each other, so Mom is going for a MRI to see what is going on. She did that the day after we got there. Today when I called she said she wasn't in so much pain as she was yesterday.

We stayed at friends house in North Bay to give our bodies a rest from the train for a night so that was nice! The trees around there were so pretty, lots of red colours and in Guelph too! I miss the red fall colours up here, we don't have too many reds.

I came back to yellow leaves on the crabapple tree and hostas. I thought the leaves would all be off the trees, but we still have lots of leaves left on ours.

I went into Chapters in Guelph and looked at the Colour Encyclopedia of Hostas and ordered it online yesterday. Saved me from lugging home a heavy book buying it online.

The motel we stayed in was two driveways away from Tim Horton's so that was great and 3 driveways away from McDonalds,,,though we didn't seem to get to McDonalds,, my body always seemed to turn into Tim's. *L*

I also bought a carpet steamer when we were in Guelph and had that shipped up here. I will be busy cleaning carpets for the next few weeks when it gets here and son helps me assemble it. I have wanted one for years. I'm glad I got it at a Sears store and the lady there could show me different features of differnt models, made the choice much easier and it was on sale too! *S*

Hello Claubill and lizzie *waving* Welcome!

Claubill, I didn't know concord grapes were hardy to zone 3. I would love to be able to grow grapes! Where do u get your garlic that u plant? I have tried McFayden's garlic, but that didn't grow so I use the stuff from the grocery store.

My rudbeckias are still blooming and so are some of my sunflowers and my purple phlox have a few blooms on it too. I haven't been outside very long, just long enough to feed the bird feders today, in between rain showers so I don't know if anything else is still blooming.

I'm hoping that we will get some nice weather as I have rain barrels to dump and I'm thinking about cutting down the sunflowers. I was going to leave them hoping they would develop seeds for the birds.

lizzie, I do have a fair number of hostas and this summer I moved quite a few of them. Next year I will be moving some more of them into new beds as they are growing to large. I didn't think they would grow so big in my zone 2. *L*

Marcia, I love the pic of your fall colours, how beautiful it looks! I heard that u got snow the day we were in union station waiting for the train home, which was Wednesday. Did u get much? They said we got some too, but it was just cold rain when we got home. My petunias by the back door are still hanging on, so I guess we haven't gotten a killing frost yet.

Sorry to hear that u are still having trouble with your supplier. I hope u have enough siding to finish the house. Did u get your painting done and your floors done? Weren't u going to do new floors?

I love that red plant of yours and the asters too! I have only grown annual asters. My coneflowers are finished, all yellow.

We had to call our contractor guy tonight, our parquet floor in our kitchen has lifted and I have a chair over it so I remember not to step on it. He is going to come over next week, after he comes back from hunting to fix it for us. I hope he gets his moose so he is in a good mood. *L*

I have been doing work since I got home. DS was suppose to bring down the two pots off the balcony and put them in the garage when he was here babysitting, but he didn't. He did manage to mess up the house though and leave dirty dishes all over the place! I don't know what is wrong with him. Are all young guys like him? I only have one son so I don't know. *L*

Hi crafty! My garden is almost put to bed, just a few things to bring into the garage, but most of mine is done. Now it's time to get the Xmas lights up before the snow comes. *LOL*

Audric, I love your Mums! Very pretty! Saw lots of them around the motel in Guelph. I have tried to grow Morden Mums here but they never winter over. I wish they would as I love mums.

Well that is all, sorry it was such a long post. Take care and keep warm.

Debbie :-)

Evening, all! And welcome back, Debbie! Glad to hear you had a good time in Guelph. At least you got to have some decent fall weather before heading home to the cold stuff. We didn't get s*** (can't say that word yet!) on Wednesday, but did have some overnight last night. The forecast isn't very promising either, and that makes me mad because my order from Dominion Seed House just came in! I've been wondering what to do with them because it's so cold out, and i think i'll put them in the cold frame tomorrow. Not so much of a shock. From what the forecast says, it might be a touch milder later in the week, so i'll plant them out then.

I love Audric's mums too! Love that yellow! Someone is sending me a "Morden's Canary Yellow" in the spring and i'm going to plant it near the red one. The aster is really weird - it was a lot lighter in colour last year. I wonder why that is. Last weekend was so nice that i got a lot done outside. Aside from a couple of containers that should be dumped, i got pretty much everything done that i wanted to do. Well, except for re-planting all the stuff taken out of the foundation bed on the one side of the house.

Now, it's gotten almost too cold for dh to do the siding. He said he had to bring some of it inside before he could cut it because it was too brittle in the cold. We still haven't picked up the last box from the lumber store - don't know when that will happen. He has one side of the house entirely done, and it really looks nice. Not sure what is going to happen now that the weather has turned so cold.

Anyway, i could write more here, but two people are talking to me now, so i'd better go and concentrate on conversations.

Ttyl!
Marcia

Hi everyone,,,

We had snow Monday, but it is almost gone now, it got up to a balmy 4c today. *S*

The petunias were looking pretty good even after the snow, but it was -11c windchill last night and they were pretty frozen,, I think they are finished. I just don't have the heart to take the pots down yet.

Son came over today and took down the tomato pots off the balcony and put them into the garage, we also dumped the big metal rain barrel in the front. That took both of us, the ice was still in it, so we had ice flows in the driveway. *L*

Marcia, I had the Morden's Canary mum, they are very pretty, it will look great by that red plant of yours. I just wish I could get them to survive here. Maybe they would do better if I planted them up against the foundation.

I hope it warms up there so your hubs can get the house finished.

Take care
Debbie :-)

those flower pictures are lovely. the mum pictures are spectactular!

marcia, ive taken down the name of your red blooming plant. i love it too. what is it in lay language? it looks like a pinks or dianthus family plant, but there is the word mum in the end of that really long "d" word.

did you shear back your cransbill to have it blooming like that so late in the year?

my late summer/fall garden just falls to pieces. and i guess i just sort of let it go. every spring i say im going to put up better supports and make sure to water better... but every year i underestimate the supports and every year whenever we take holidays happens to be the really dry spell and ...

the leaves were spectactular this fall. maybe too because we had some really nice days to get out and enjoy them too

Hi Lizzie - thank you for the compliments! The Dendranthemum is a chrysanthemum - apparently the Plant Naming Powers That Be changed some names a few years ago, but someone told me it's a chrysanthemum again now! Maybe it's hard to tell in the picture, but it's actually a couple of feet high and is a fairly large clump.

As for the geranium, no i didn't cut it back, just deadheadeded it well after the first bloom. It wasn't quite as prolific in blooming as the two "phaeums" in the same area, but i liked it better than them.

Perhaps you could concentrate on later-blooming plants next year, and your fall garden will look more like what you think it should! Mine did the same the first few years - everything would be finished blooming by July, except for a few lilies. Then it would look so blah. Now i've ended up with quite a few long-blooming and later-blooming plants and things look much better.

The weather here has been not too bad, but we did get a lot of rain on the weekend. People were saying, "Can you imagine if this was snow?!" Good thing it wasn't! LOL I even planted a few crocuses the other day. I've also been slowly getting the leaves raked, but i almost don't need to. I got such a bonus the other day! A teacher who retired at the end of last year brought me TWELVE big bags of leaves that she had raked from her yard and her neighbour's!! Woo hoo! Winter mulch! Another bonus we're getting is wood chips. Ontario Hydro are going to cut some trees around town and we put our name in for some of the chips. There'll be conifer chips in them too, of course, so i'll use most of them for paths, but the guy i spoke to said that roses love them. Never heard of that, but if it's true, i have three babies who could benefit!

Not much else going on. Just busy at work and lazy at night. :) Hope everyone is doing fine!

Take care, all!
Marcia

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven't been in here for a while, I have just been so busy having fun with my new toy. The carpet steamer *L* I've been working on carpets for about 4 hrs every day. By the time I move the furniture then vacumn, then shampoo it takes me quite a while. I have done most of the main floor carpets now and they all look brand new again. I had forgotten some of the colours that were on them. *L* Like pale yellow, I just thought it was a sort of beige. *L* The braided carpets were the hardest to do and took the longest to do, but they came out well. I took a break from carpet cleaning today and went to Walmart instead. *S* The carpets upstairs all need to be done and I will start with the one the dog always lay on, got some prewash stuff for that one today cause I know it's going to be a tough one to bring back to it's glory. It will be a test to see how well this machine really can clean. *S* I'm very happy with the way it is working out and how user friendly it is. I even had to put the thing together myself, now THAT was scary. *L* I was going to wait for son to help me, but figured I'd get it done faster if I tried to do it myself.

We still have lots of leaves left on our trees in the backyard. I figure it's because of all the rain we had this year they have the nutrients in the tree to hold on longer.

I went out into the garden yesterday and tidied up a bit, haven't cut down any sunflowers though. I thought maybe they would develop seeds, but doesn't look like many of them did. My sweet peas are still nice and green, but didn't get one flower on them this year, even the snow peas in the backyard are green. My pansies are still blooming, nice big yellow Swiss Giant ones, very cheerful looking and the little Johnny Jump ups too.

I should of been out there cutting the plants down today and cleaning up some more, but I had to go to Walmart and that always tire me out.

Marcia, do u have a lawn mower with a bag attachment, cause if u do they are great for sucking up leaves.
I use to go around town picking up leaf bags and bringing them home,,,,but I found out unfortunately I also brought home a lot of weed seeds too, so I stopped doing that. People still drop bags off here though *L* I hate not using them, I wish I had one of those sucker upper vacumn things and could just suck the leaves off the trees *LOL* That is great about the wood chips! Love the smell of fresh woods chips.

Well it's late and I have to get to bed.
Take care
Debbie :-)

Hi Debbie:

Yes, we do have concord grapes. The last couple of years, the crop has been great. The weather was just perfect for them. When we bought the house 14 years, the grapes were already. Our neighbour is Italian and he's taught us a lot and especially how to care of the grapes. Our grapes are on an arbour which my husband built about 3 years ago. Our neighbour started a baby grape for us and we planted it at the other end of the arbor. Maybe over the years, we'll have grapes growing from both sides. When we cut down our walnut tree(we have to for all kinds of reasons), the other grape vine will grow. Right now, there's no sun in that area because of the shade from the black walnut tree. Once the tree is down, then we'll have another viable vine.

Last year, our neighbour gave us some garlic to plant last fall and we got a good crop this year and we simply took some of the bigger ones and planted some more. Maybe next fall, if you remind me, I'll send you some. You do realize that they have to be planted in the fall. We also planted our onions which again came from the neighbours.

We also had an excellent crop of stringless green beans. I still have a lot bunch of them in the process of drying. They were excellent eating.

The sad news is that our neighbour found out this August that he has bone cancer and he's not feeling well at all. Last weekend, I spent all of Saturday digging up his canna lilies, dahlias, and his geraniums. He had hundreds of geraniums. They're in my basement being dried which I will have to package up. What a job. That doesn't include ours.

Sudbury truly is not a bad place for gardening and for blueberry picking.

What else can one want out of life. Tata for now. Got to work tomorrow.

Hello from just outside Thunder Bay!
Happy Hallowe'en too!
Today I cut brocoli and red cabbage out of my garden for supper. How great is that?
Also my pansies in containers on the deck are still blooming!
Geo

Hi Geo, Welcome! That is great that u were able to cut broccoli and cabbage today and your pansies are still blooming!

I'm going to start a November thread now and will post more there.

Take care
Debbie :-)