autumn

The weather has been glorious. Perfectly blue skies providing a backdrop as the leaves change to their brilliant autumnal colors. It makes my heart sing--and mourn.Not because winter is coming, per se. I live in a cold climate; winter is supposed to come.But not before I get through my gardening list! Yes, by the time [...]

When we first started the process of buying our new house, I thought we'd be moving in August. In early July I started digging up colchicum corms as the leaves died down, indicating they were going dormant. It turns out the first date proposed for closing on a house is usually wildly optimistic, and my [...]

Five inches of rain fell here in roughly 24 hours. After a multi-week dry spell where my constant promise to my garden was, "As soon as we get some rain, I'm going to…", it finally rained, big time. Casting an eye at the seasonal clock and acknowledging that we really should have had a frost [...]

After two days of much-needed rain, I decided to walk around the garden to see what I could see. I wasn't really expecting to see colchicums blooming, because they usually start in September. Perhaps the extended hot and dry spell, followed by the cool, rainy weather encouraged them to break dormancy early. At any rate, [...]

It is a family tradition to walk up the hill and into the woods this time of year to seek out the witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) blossoms. This is a native shrub or small tree that prefers moist, acidic soil--which we have in abundance. This is a plant that has romantic connotations for me. (Narcissus [...]

Last night it snowed. That, in itself, is not unusual for the second half of October. But normally we get flurries mixed with rain, and no accumulation. Yesterday a weather record for snow accumulation was broken. The official new record is 1.2 inches accumulation. The old record was "trace." And unofficial reports coming in tell [...]

Yikes! Snow predicted for Friday! This is happening too fast for me. Just had first hard frost (26F) last night.

Last night the National Weather Service issued a frost advisory for our area, and we did indeed get a frost. They are issuing a freeze warning for tonight. What's the difference? I contacted a member of the local weather station staff. He told me that Both [the frost advisory and the freeze warning] are only [...]

Spent 2 hours cutting dead stuff down (mostly peony foliage), revealing weeds that will have to be pulled another day. Sigh.