Bummed- fall is officially here

[Chyna]

The snow and cold rains are here so the garden is just a memory. I need to go out and rescue my geraniums and herbs before the big frost tonight. I don't want summer to end! Anybody else bummed or are you fall lovers? I know those back East have beautiful foliage this time of year but we really aren't that lucky. The quaking aspen turn golden but beyond that we got nothin!:(

Maybe my downer is because I need to put the top coat on the door trim to the porch and want to get the floor done in there too. can't do that when it isn't reaching 50's day and night. :mad: However it gives me a tickle that the trim is currently pink from the primer, probably worrying the neighborhood. had my mom concerned when she came to babysit last week. :D

[pacificstar]

Oh I'm a summer girl too! I'm giving the fall thing a try but boy do I miss the summer. Its getting chilly here in California too.

[Chyna]

I would never believe it gets chilly in CA until I went to Fresno in January a few years ago. I was prepared for short sleeve weather and darn near froze to death. Matter of fact we stopped at Casa de Fruita on the way to Concord and there was a great big dark boulder in the parking lot that I laid on like a lizard just to get the chill out of my bones.:rolleyes: By the way I loved that place, I want to go back just to visit it again. Pathetic I know. But I really liked the ocean too, my husband and his cousin sat and watched me play in the sand and surf at Santa Clara. I'm really a big water person. :)

I'm really not a cold weather type of person, can you tell?:D The weather people are saying it will warm up this weekend so guess you know what I'll be doing. I just hope it is warm enough for the paint and stain to cure properly.

[Lucille1963]

I woke up this morning to SNOW!!:eek:


I want summer back!!! :(

[Chyna]

They kept threatening us with it but the storm must have slipped south or something. I know that Red Lodge got dumped on Mon which is good unless you live there. :p

Snow, snow, go away
come back here some other day.

[Chyna]

:eek: :eek: :eek: It snowed last night!!!! This is really messing up my hopes that summer would come back. I should learn to hibernate. :( I guess snow is nicer to look at then dead brown leaves and dying grass. sigh

[Fisherman]

Yes - snow IS better than brown grass and dormant plantings. Still tottering between summer and fall here . All those gorgeous leaf color changes we never experience - only see in magazines. We have high humidity and rain. Can drop or rise 20 degrees in a few hours and you never know what to wear. Plants get confused. Only have chances of freeze and if that actually occurs then half the yard dies back and you have to prune back and try to salvage. . Aw and to have snow for the holidays. Pros and cons wherever you live. 4 actual seasons sounds idylic!

[Chyna]

I only wish we had 4 seasons. Lately it has either been hot or cold and very few in betweens. With all the fires we keep getting we might as well have two seasons. Fire season and preparing for fire season.:( yep fall is really knocking me down this year. If I didn't have so many projects I want to complete I think I'd be more ok with the cold weather lately. I swear it was summer and then BAM it is snowing.

My dad bought me 50tulip bulbs for my birthday last week so my mom and I planted those over the weekend. Something to look forward to next year. ;)

[ponygirl]

I live in New England and Fall is in full swing here. The leaves are all beautiful colors and it is getting colder every day. My marigold plants are still in bloom because we have not had our first frost yet. Once we do and the blooms die, I will deadhead them and save them in a dry place in my basement. In the spring I will take the seeds and plant them. Beleive it or not they come up like bushes!! Because we had a very rainy May and June, I planted them late in the season. They are in full swing now!

[Fisherman]

PonyGirl: Envy your Fall. In New England. The original 'Ghost & Mrs. Muir'/ Gull Cottage site.. You probably experience all the tourists coming in bus loads. Good tip on the marigolds - mine also still blooming but straggly. Dry Spring and now major rains. No basements here but will improvise. Usually buy Mums about this time but our stores have very limited stock this year. Liked the carousel in your bio - you refurbish!

Aside to Tanya: Tulips will look good in the atrium!

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[ponygirl]

PonyGirl: Envy your Fall. In New England. The original 'Ghost & Mrs. Muir'/ Gull Cottage site.. You probably experience all the tourists coming in bus loads. Good tip on the marigolds - mine also still blooming but straggly. Dry Spring and now major rains. No basements here but will improvise. Usually buy Mums about this time but our stores have very limited stock this year. Liked the carousel in your bio - you refurbish!

Aside to Tanya: Tulips will look good in the atrium!

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Hi Fisherman, fall in New England is really beautiful. We get a lot of tourists here 'leaf peeping'. The really pretty area is up in the White Mtns of New Hampshire, the scenery is really spectacular in the fall.

I love antique carousels and we have quite a few wonderful ones in NE!
I would love to restore, but all I do now is admire the beautiful carvings (and of course go for a ride! :)

You can keep marigold seeds year after year. Deadhead them and put them in a dry spot and then you will have lots of seeds for spring!

[Chyna]

I usually let mine die off then just pull the seeds right off and put into a jar or paper bag. Marigolds are the most forgiving plant out there. :) I just realized after reading your posts that I didn't plant any this year. Got too busy trying to put in poppy seeds and what-for to remember to even spread any out. Oh well not like they aren't easy to get or start. :D I did put in a few around my tomatos but they got so huge they pretty much killed off the marigolds. Silly plants obviously don't realize that the marigolds are good for them and repels some bugs. Going to have to have a long talk with my veggie beds next year. The tomatos sprawled too much, the pumpkins took over the walkways and the tomato in the tractor tire got blossom rot and was useless. And lets talk strawberry patch, those buggers didn't produce nearly enough. That could also be because my dogs kept eating them too but still I need to reconsider the type of strawberries I have in there.

Next year should be really good since I planted some blackberry seeds and all those rose bushes I put in (remember 22 plants?!) And now the 50 tulips I got for my birthday. Things are looking up, now if I could just get a real lawn and not a weed patch all would be nice and green. ;)

[ponygirl]

Hi Tanya,

My marigolds took off slow since I planted them way after Memorial day due to a very rainy May and June. They came up very slow over the summer which was had a few weeks of dry 90+ days. In September they started coming up fast and now they are like bushes! Once we get our first frost and they die I will put all the dead blooms in a basket and let them dry out for next years planting. I am hoping we actually get a spring next season! LOL! :)

Tulips are another story in my garden! Only a few of them came up this past spring. I am hoping I get a good crop of them for Spring '07!

I did have good luck with Colieus this year too!

[Chyna]

Our season was pretty off too this year. Not as rainy as yours but came early however we've been fooled by that before so I didn't start early but probably should have. I know last year winter hit us prematurely so I didn't get to harvest several of my seeds for this year and for some unknown reason my daisies didn't come back this year in full force and the violas disappeared. That one is a huge mystery since those little buggers were growing in the lawn too but this year nada. I did have some daisies but just not as full and not as many but they did pop up in weird locations so who knows what I'll get next year. :rolleyes: I tried to harvest some of my zinnias and they didn't come up either. I just don't think they had a chance to mature properly before the frost hit them. Darn that Jack.

[Fisherman]

Had big areas on our property with no lawn and then weed patches. Back in March I ordered 6 huge palates of grass. Was told I had to till first. Instead, just took a hoe to the weedier sections and then laid the grass, mainly like a carpet, used left over pieces to fill in small bare spots. Stupidity was that I had them place the palates all along the drive instead of out and about. Ended up having to wheel barrow a lot of it - aching back. Then walked over all with heavy boots to mush the grass in place and watered like crazy. You should see it now - would never know it was so recently done. I forgot all about the poppies this year - thanks for reminding, need to spread now. Our strawberries also meager output. Moth balls deter dogs...

Ants are an all consuming maint thing and still haven't found anything to control leaf miners. Nasty pests - marigolds don't deter them or those little red aphids. Think I am getting a handle on the moles. Never thought there were moles in southern climates. Always trapping those oppossums - but moles! Neighborhood kids explained crawdads to me - yes, crawdads living in the culverts/ditching. Wondered about shrimpy remains found and those little towers of dirt. Must be that Cajun influence - the kids collect them and make a crawfish boil.

[Chyna]

Have you ever tried chili powder and boiling hot water on the ants? I thought it was all huey until I had some decide to reside in front of the deck steps and a little toddler running around. P-i-s-s ants and are nasty little things so I spread chili powder around the area they were setting up shop and boiled some water in the microwave and dumped it right on the ant hill. I haven't had them come back since and that was last summer. had some decide that my new arbor and walkway would be nice to live in and I dumped the chili powder on them and some hot water and they were out of there. I saw it in one of those country wisdom magazines who knew it would actually work!

Be careful with the mothballs they are highly toxic. I don't mind the dogs eating the produce if they wait for me to pick it for them. Unfortunately the 3 I adopted after my brother-in-law died don't have manners like my dog(s). We will just put up some fencing and hopefully that will convince them to stay out of the strawberries. I intentionally plant enough tomatoes for us and the dogs so that is never a problem. :p :D Chinese cresteds are big veggie eaters, crazy breed. Mine are all the hairless version, they go well with the Dr Seuss vision I have for the back yard. :eek: