Green in the Winter

Well, I've shared in several posts about the front beds that bloomed well into the fall and stayed green even after!

The front border at the end of November:

 In mid-December:

And in mid-January:

As mentioned, I had finally gotten in and cleared out the cannas and other bulbs along with various other dead-things-fall-clean-up-that-actually-happened-in-winter.

And so it looks respectably normal for winter - the evergreens staying green, the mums never making it more than a week (so I'm 0 for 2 two years in a row. Think I'm giving up on them and putting the pots to better use), the cilantro thriving, but then of course this year's there's the very not-normal green of snapdragons.

So I research snapdragons because, what the heck?! Are they an annual or not?

Ok, according to gardeningknowhow.com, they are actually considered a short-lived perennial. Huh.

(Dear nursery: why you label as annual?)

Note the other thing I highlighted. Accidental gardener gets mighty nervous when "a little preparation" is mentioned (although keep in mind my new theory about instructions to gardeners).

And then there's this excerpt:

Hot summers, check. Mild winters...uh, actually depending on the year, no, not really at all.

Supposedly they bloom in spring and fall only. 

Or try all spring, summer and fall...or is that just mine...?

And then what's that part about foliage dying back and plants "melt[ing] into the ground"??

Take a look at the photos above...no melting. Snowed on and frozen and drenched, yes. But not melting.

Ok, so in theory, after my plants melt into the ground, they will come back in the spring if I mulch. Eh. Mulch isn't my thing, so sorry, guys. Guess I could put down some compost. But composting in my front yard scares me now.

And then I go on to read these little highlighted gems...

Uh oooohhhhhhhhh.

Haven't you always wanted a snapdragon border?! :-D

So, what a spring it shall be! Can't wait to see what it holds.

A Moment of Silence...

[Taps playing on a lone trumpet]


Well, as mentioned in my December update, I did get out one day in mid-December after we had gotten a few frosts and I thinned out the cannas and left the ones I wanted to grow next year in the ground.
In their usual form they did multiply like crazy and I basically had my whole edible garden covered in them! I didn't get a picture, though :-(

I then left them out in the garden to dry because I just don't have space inside.

And then it rained.

And finally when there was threat of heavy freezing a few days later, I ran outside, scooped them up and dropped them in a 5 gallon bucket which they overflowed and so the rest just sat on a towel on the floor inside the door.

Several weeks later and we're cleaning the downstairs "slash" room (laundry slash workshop slash mudroom slash gardening center slash...etc.) and I finally got my summer bulbs into mesh bags, hung them in the utility closet which stays a few degrees colder than the rest of the house and went to do the same to the canna bulbs in the bucket and ... ew!

Guess what happens when you put damp bulbs still covered in dirt into a bucket and leave them there for weeks where air can't get to them?

Mmmmm-hmmm. Grossness, that's what.

They were all fuzzy and awful. And it was 10 degrees outside (ok, maybe 30, but all cold feels like 10 to me!) So I just chucked them on top of the compost pile, covered them with leaves and their stalks/leaves I'd previously chopped down and there they shall stay to rot away or - knowing my history - hopefully start to sprout a bit!

It's no great loss because I had to severely thin them out and have nowhere else to put them. I was just going to do my annual "who wants canna bulbs?!" and try to get rid of them that way.
But I hate, hate, hate wasting growing things! (Which has absolutely nothing to do with letting a 30 foot vine grow in my front yard...ahem.)

Plus, my coworker had offered to do vandalism gardening with me (she had a far nicer name for it which I can't remember...but I think mine is appropriate: you just find out of the way places along roads, near woods, etc. and plant bulbs and voila! Beautiful! How on earth did THOSE lovely growing things just spring up randomly in the woods?! No idea!!)

Alas.

Rest in peace, canna bulbs.

Though, I fully expect at least a partial resurrection come spring-time!
Stay tuned.

Christmas Flowers!

Obviously in winter there is little happening in the world of gardening, but not nothing!

In the summer my coworker asked if I wanted a spare Christmas Cactus she had.

Ok, class, what do you say when you're offered a free plant?
Let's all say it together now, boys and girls:

Um, YES!

So home I trot, the proud mama of a Christmas Cactus which I know nothing about other than don't overwater it...?

'Round abouts October I (or in all probability, my husband) remember that you actually have to do something with this plant if it's going to bloom in the winter. Great.

I look it up and realize that what you're supposed to do should have started in September - off to a great start - and it involves dehydrating it, storing it in a cool place, with just the right humidity level, leaving it in the dark, but not too dark, but only overnight and then boiling toads under the full moon and sprinkling the plant with that liquid mixed with droplets of your blood and essence of...yeah, anyway...basically a process that didn't bode well for this accidental gardener.

Stop watering? Check. That is the one step I notoriously succeed at.

And put it in a dark-ish place...apparently it needs some light, but not directly and absolutely under no circumstances should it have any light overnight!

Ok, a thirsty, vampire Christmas Cactus. Check.

I moved it to our lower level where it's cooler (but, like 62, not 50 with less than 40% humidity or whatever they say it's supposed to be) and at least we keep the shades closed all day down there. So I figured, what the heck, it's better than upstairs in full light, so we'll just see.

And see we did!

Right around Christmas-time it DID start blooming!! I was amazed!!

It was sooooo beautiful! A wonderful pop of color with so much deadness around outside (well, sort of...that'll be a later post).

So my conclusion in this whole craziness is not that I did everything right, but in fact that most articles and care instructions are meant to scare away people who hate plants and be a self-esteem booster to those who love plants, but suck at them. "Yay! Look! I did it right! I'm so good! Go me!"

And then there's me, who knows myself well enough to realize it's all a hoax and that Christmas Cacti apparently just bloom beautifully all by themselves (with a tiny human effort, perhaps!).

Just for Fun

Oh how true!

Garden Finale

It's fall.

So time for things to die away, leaving only mums to bloom. Time to dig up the summer bulbs and meticulously store them for winter. 

Except, oh wait - you're supposed to wait until the greens die back since the bulbs need that nutrients, but THEY WON'T DIE!!

Seriously - end of October, here's what it looked like:

Not only are the summer greens not dying back, but many of the others (perennial hardy geraniums, which are my new favorite because they totally made it into the fall like they said they would and annual snapdragons, which weren't supposed to last the whole summer!) are still in bloom!

The cannas (you can see a bit of one in the top right of that picture) are one of the biggest offenders. Finally by November a colder day had stopped them blooming, but still green as ever. I was about to leave the country for 2 weeks...needed them out!

Oh well, fine, I'll leave those and the still green calle lilies and at least get out the gladiolas...except oh wait, they started growing again!!!

I give up. I'm going on vacation, ya'll can just freeze!!! 

So I did.

Came back to 35 degrees and windy as all get out; leaves all blew off the trees, but still bloomed my garden! Not quite as vibrant as the photo above, but color nonetheless. 

[sigh] Oh garden, garden, garden.

Left town for Thanksgiving weekend, and when we came back got a few really cold nights and mornings with frost on the cars and finally - finally the summer greens are withering (kind of...?)!

Snapdragons, still in bloom, though! But yes, the cannas finally did wither into a horrid-colored green. Still not brown and falling over, but I think it'll be as good as it's going to get!

It's going to be rather cold, but I really need to get out this weekend so I can thin stuff out. Seeing what happened with the last batch, we'll end up with a canna apocalypse if I leave them all underground with their 2016 offspring!

Mondo Carrot

Every year in the garden plot we plant carrots and they are usually pretty sad and tiny.

For some reason, this year they all decided to unite into one giant, mondo carrot...

We waited and waited and finally at the end of October decided to dig it up and see what we were dealing with.

Well, the digging part was the first fun step; I didn't want to slice into the carrot, but wanted to dig as close as possible; so much scooping and "are you kidding me? How far does this thing go?!!" We finally pulled it out along with another, more normal looking one...

What a horribly ugly carrot! 

We definitely grew a mutant, that's for sure. 

The size of them compared to my coworker's hand is quite something!

Unfortunately, in addition to being ugly, the mondo carrot was also bad inside :-(

The other, however, was quite perfect and made for a wonderful curry...

Produce Update

I'm sure no one has forgotten the saga of the accidental butternut squash (and others!)

Here's it's final chapter.

Here's what it looked like in mid-September about a month after I wrote about it: 

Insanity! 

Husband was looooving getting to mow that little section.

I'd get home from work and have to gently (or not so) direct the vines into the grass, not the driveway and also move the squash growing on the grass so it didn't kill one particular spot.

It's like having a needy, stubborn, lazy pet!

We had friends over for dinner at the end of September and I decided it was time to try some!

I picked the two biggest from the front which were a good 9" long or so and made delicious rice-filled squash boats.

They were a little stringier than what I'm used to with butternut squash (then again I misjudged timing and cooked them longer than I meant to. I know, you're shocked. Someone as with it in the gardening realm surely couldn't be scatter-brained in the kitchen!), but delicious nonetheless. And considering they were free, well even better.

(Scooping the innards / seeds back into the compost bucket made me really happy as well...ready for next year's harvest...? :-D)

Success!

And then there was the back garden with all manner of vines growing who knows what. I originally thought the little yellow ball on the right was a cantaloupe; it looked like others I'd seen growing. But then it changed color and got more defined ridges and a real cantaloupe developed on the left and so not a cantaloupe and I was confused.

By mid-October most of the leaves and vines had died away in front leaving just the squashes peeking out from other still-blooming plants (Yes, in October. The garden won't die. See next post. Which I'll write...soon?). 

When we had a sudden burst of 80 degree days I decided it was time to bring my little stock inside to keep them from rotting.

And so there you have it; the stash...

(the one standing up is the one that grew hanging inside the tomato cage thus making him my favorite!)

None were particularly impressive in size; the biggest being only as long as my hand. I have yet to sample their edible-worthiness.

The cantaloupe definitely wasn't ripe, however the vine had completely died away a week or more before so that was a good as it was going to get. That was sad. Too little sun in back, I think, which is why most of these were the size they were.

That weird yellow thing I originally thought was a cantaloupe? Well some kind of acorn-like squash I have no memory of purchasing. This is not surprising, though, since I try to find one odd or exotic piece of produce to try each week. (The ants sure liked it, whatever it was :-/ )

So there we have it; the finally vine-less front beds which are still in beautiful bloom in the 3rd week of October...

Meanwhile across town in the garden plot, we harvested a watermelon!

It was a bit overripe (my fault for leaving it there :-/ ), but was still quite good for being such a random, late-grower!

I have a bunch of hot peppers growing that I can't use fast enough, random green beans that keep showing up on the plants, and the peanuts that need to be harvested, but the leaves won't start yellowing! (Have I mentioned we're having a super warm fall?!)

And the cilantro is finally coming back!!

Just in time for winter! Which would usually scare me, but do you know my cilantro?!!

But other than those, it's just some withering herbs and that's it. The gardens are closed for the year.

Except flowers. Oh, the flowers!!