So, I finally joined something

I recently found a gardening site called Blotanical. Its motto is “where garden blogs bloom”. What a wonderful site.
Pat and I are the only ones who garden in our neighborhood. We joined a garden club, but it didn’t work out. We joined to improve our knowledge and only got lectures about the “right way” to garden. I trolled the internet, to some success, but still felt limited. One day I found the “Blotanical” tag on a blog and the rest is history.
I found a place where people garden for the joy it brings and want to share their experiences, ideas and pictures with anyone who’ll listen. I have visited some outstanding blogs and talked (that is the correct term, is it not) to some wonderful people about gardening.
I am not a trained gardener. My gardening style can be best described as hit and miss with a memory. I’ll move a plant three or four times till I find the right spot. The right spot is defined as anywhere the plant does well. I can tell you the general broad names of the plants I have. I just can’t remember the Latin names. I know that may seem strange with my blog name being in Latin and all, but it is.
You really should check out “Blotanical” if you are an avid gardener, a hobby gardener, a beginner gardener, or just like to look at garden pictures. I, by chance, consider myself an anarchist gardener. Become a “Blotanist” like me.
Here’s a link, so there’s no excuse for not joining, and you can meet other people as fun as me!

http://www.blotanical.com/php/join.php

I just can’t do a blog without a picture, so here it is.

almost time to mulch the leaves

This is the week we mulch the leaves. I wanted one last set of pics of the yard full of leaves. We have one hosta still going strong. The pvc pipes you see around the yard keep our water hoses away from the plants.

Mr. Rabbit

We have about 30 of these guys scattered around the back yard. Every year we tell ourselves that we should pick them up before the leaves fall. we never do it because it's an admission that winter is on its way. The concrete ones can weather the winter, the clay ones can't, so I'm starting the search once we mulch the leaves.

rain drop

We have lilies of the valley scattered about our side yard. These red berry like things are what's left after the leaves fade. I know I'm showing my lack of the correct garden lingo. I'm guessing they are lily of the valley seeds waiting to dry out. None the less, these bright red globes add a nice touch to an otherwise browner and browner garden. The water drop almost looks like it's going to fall to the ground at any minute.

alright, it's fall

But I can still take naps on my favorite chair after working in the yard.

pretty much gone

The hosta are pretty much gone. The big blues and sum and substances are wilted puny looking shadows of themselves. I'll miss them and start looking for them in March. The ligularia in this pic are 1 and 2 years old. I threw seed the last 2 falls. Our mature plants have all faded, but these new guys are still going strong. The turtle head plants are still nice and green also. This was our first attempt at eliminating turf grass as part of our back yard.

almost time to mow

We got your yellow leaves. We got your red leaves. We got your used to be green leaves. And most of them are on the ground. It's supposed to rain tonight, so that will bring the rest down. I wanted to get some pics of the leaves before they get all wet and matted down. You know, if the rain has a wind with it, my neighbors will have to leaf blow my leaves and I won't have many to mow. The lawn looks so good with a capet of leaves.

why would you want to leaf blow this

The best part of fall is the color. All the leaves on the ground make a beautiful mosiac that is so peaceful to look at. While Pat and I were working on the garden today we were seranaded by a chorus of leaf blowers. Maybe there's a law that eveyone has to own a leaf blower. We don't and I hope the lawn police don't find out. We spread 10 tons of sweet peet a year in our beds, so baging and trashing leaves seems kinda misguided (I usually use stronger language). I'll mow the leaves to mulch in the yard and compost the ones in the paths. Until then, I'll enjoy the sights.

view from the yard

The contrast between the golds, greens and reds in the yard make the inevitability of winter a little easier to take. Some of the heartier plants will be going strong until the first killing frost. Hopefully it will snow first. Snow without a frost makes for some cool pics.

around the yard

Even when we're working in the yard, there's always time for pics. The ladies mantel is still holding up. The big blue is no longer so big or blue. It's gold leaves are still striking.

I need help with this plant. I picked it up at a garden club plant sale and lost the tag immediately. The major domo of the garden club told me that it was a ground cover. I guess that is strictly true. It's just that it reached over three feet tall this summer. That's one of the reasons we gave up on garden clubs. Is it a type of petasitis? We have it planted in an area where the clay has been amended with sweet peet. The soil is moist year round. The plant is in the shade about half the day.

fall gardening

It didn't rain today and the sun was out. It was a perfect cool fall day for gardening. Pat emptied pots and condensed others with hearty flowers. All the plants went into the compost pile. The excess dirt got dumped where we can use it later. I dug ligularia out of the nursery bed. The ligularia grew better than planned. We have 17 good sized plants for our friends and neighbors. As much as I love ligularia, I'm at a loss where I could put another plant. It is such a cool feeling giving plants away. We filled the nursery with hosta that were in pots. They wouldn't survive the winter in the pots. We'll either leave them or find new homes in the spring. We want to use the nursery for distressed hosta. Deer chow down on the first hosta that pops up in the spring, so we rehab them in the bed next to the sun room. I hope weekends are dry and sunny till December, but this is northeast Ohio, so it can snow tommorrow.

soil tiles

We use soil tiles and chimney flues for flower pots in the back yard. We found a supply house in Akron that specializes in construction tile about 5 years ago. The guys in the shop looked at Pat and me like we had a third eye or something, but they were happy to take our money. The tiles have done a marvelous job for us. The vinca vines we planted in one of them defies logic every year and keeps coming back, like the perennial it isn't supposed to be this far north. The last couple of years the dappled willow has grown so large that the tiles near it are under constant shade. Well, I don't know why we decided to move them today, but we did. Our best ideas come to us when we're in the yard working. So right in the middle of two seperate projects, we moved two tiles into the light. When we got done, Pat and I both wondered why the tiles hadn't always been where we put them.

it glows

The yard has taken on a golden tone. Even though its been raining all day and there's no sun (probably won't see it again till April), you needed sun glasses in the back yard. The leaves just shimmered, especially when the wind blew. I thought of a line from that Tom Waits song, "Franks Wild Years". The yard was "all Halloween orange and chimney red".

Most of my neighbors are out using leaf blowers to clean up their yards. It's fun watching them out every day just to do it all over and over again, and again. I like the look of the leaves all over the ground. If it dries up, I'll mow the leaves to mulch. It's better for the yard and the environment (alright, alright, I haven't gone all gooey eyed). It's also so much easier.