I thought it might help those of you who deal with issues of “closure” if I provided some updates on recent events here at May Dreams Gardens.
Moles. As it turns out, I am as poor a trapper of moles as I am of rabbits. Once I set that mole trap last Saturday, the moles seemed to disappear. I’ve not seen a new mole tunnel show up anywhere. I checked with the neighbors on both sides and neither one has noticed any new evidence of moles in the past week. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, Mr. Mole, I spent $40 on that trap, just for you.” If I don’t trap the mole, I have to assume he’s still out there, somewhere, and will be digging again soon. So, the trap remains set, waiting, and there is no closure, yet.
Time Capsule. I most definitely want to put together a gardener’s time capsule and bury it or hide it someplace so someone either digs it up or finds it in about 75 years. However, there is a lot of seasonal work to do in the garden right now, so I’m making it a winter project to decide what to include, what container to put it in, and where to put it. Then I’ll finish it up in the spring, because spring in the garden isn’t so busy, right?
Vegetable Garden. It’s been over a month since I posted anything about the vegetable garden, and nearly that long since I spent any quality time in it. I miss it, it misses me! I’m not much of a fall crop gardener, though I want to be. The vegetable garden is pretty much finished, except for some small-ish tomatoes and oodles of peppers. I pick enough tomatoes to eat, but since I’m not all that fond of peppers, I haven’t been as faithful about picking them. I’m planning to do some more clean up in the garden this weekend, and will pick as much as I can because I heard the words “patchy frost” in the weather forecast, but I didn’t catch when.
Terrarium. Many of you may not remember when I wrote about my terrarium, that has been sitting empty since I bought it. Sorry, I can offer no closure on this, either. I still haven’t planted anything in it. But it did occur to me that if I am going to mail order some plants to put in it, I’d better do that soon before it is no longer safe to ship them to me.
Are there any other post topics that I need to bring some closure to? If you’re curious about something I wrote about before, how it came out or whatever, leave me a comment or send me an email.
Now that it is actually like fall (much cooler temperatures), this weekend is the time to also start bringing closure to the gardens. My garden clean up begins in earnest first thing Saturday morning. Here’s my list of what I need to do.
1. Straighten up the garage enough so I can start to bring in garden ornaments, pots and summer flowering bulbs that would not make it outdoors in an Indiana winter.
2. Harvest some compost from the compost bins, prep them to be filled again.
3. Weed and clean up the vegetable garden, pick tomatoes and peppers.
4. Water trees (which I can do with a sprinkler, so it won’t take much time.
5. Go buy a new tree. Plant the tree.
6. Check for moles.
7. Take pictures for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.
8. Read a chapter or more in the current selection for the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club, Green Thoughts: A Writer in the Garden by Eleanor Perényi.
9. Start to put some stuff away in the garage.
10. Empty the worst of the container plantings that are more eye sores than anything else.
11. Inventory all bulbs purchased for fall planting and determine where to plant them. I won’t plant them for awhile yet, and no, it is not helpful for anyone to point out that planning should have been done before buying.
12. Dig out the forsythia that came back after I cut it down to the ground.
Then it ought to be time for lunch on Saturday.
Ha ha, kidding about getting all that done by lunch on Saturday. It will take me at least until evening. Ha ha, kidding again. I don’t know how much I’ll get done, but at least I have a ‘to do’ list. (And having provided you with a peak at the ‘to do’ list, did I just add another post to the list of those that might require some closure later? It’s a vicious cycle, isn’t it?)
What are you doing in your garden this weekend?
Other than getting my Nootka planted, I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do. We had heavy rain here this afternoon (much appreciated) but it’s not so much the weather as my health recently that is frustrating me when it comes to working in the garden. I’ll putter away at cleanup a bit–mostly weeding and cutting down things that don’t have interesting winter display or offer food or shelter for birds–and maybe put in my alliums. We still haven’t had a frost so I have a lot of tomatoes in the greenhouse, and may need to make some green tomato chow-chow!
I really need to set aside some time in the yard this weekend. So much to do, so little time. I can’t believe that we may have frost so soon after the heat.
I hope you have a very productive weekend.
Ugh… the garage. I’ll have to work my way up to tackling that one! It almost makes me glad that I’m working all weekend, or else I might feel compelled to go out and start a plan of attack.
The garage is the catchall place for me. You know, like when you’re trying to finish up a project as the sun is setting and you find yourself scooping up a stack of pots, empty bags and so forth by the neighbor’s porchlight. Where to put it all? In the garage, of course!
Carol, so much to do, so little time. I think I had better start to tackle the bulb planting…I got a little carried away to say the least.
We’ll be sitting here warm in our house, as the bulbs are all planted. We’re just happy there’s no snow storms yet! I’ve been watering the arborvitae (cedar) extra well to hopefully keep it in good condition over winter. In the next few weeks, I’ll be wrapping the cedar and azaleas with burlap to protect them from winter winds. Ourselves, we wrap in wool and thinsulate!
Carol, when you are deciding what to put in the time capsule, I think an Easter egg should go in it. Also, consider a nice little animal for your terrarium.
Kathy, the older sister.
I have a terrarium (which I spent too much money on) that is still empty, too. Glad I’m not the only one!
You’re right, there is so much to do right now to bring gardening to closure before winter.
Oh dear…the garage. We haven’t kept either car in it all summer. Right now it’s full of brugs. But that will change by tonight.
I still need to order oriental lily bulbs! Only a couple of mine came up this summer which disappointed me greatly. I love them!
Kathy’s suggestion that you put an egg in your time capsule is right on since we always have the yearly easter egg hunt in your back yard (no dog or cat messes to contend with, & it’s nicely fenced to protect the egg hunters
Clear debri from the ‘summer’ storms that the area has been getting in the last week. Thinking of the warm weather veggies that need to go in for xmas salads.
Mowing lawns that are going rampant in the heat and rain. drooling over net talk of autumnal colours from the northern gardeners.
Hi Carol,
It’s still warm [high 80’s – not 90’s!!] and dry, so mostly poking around and putting water on the hanging baskets and in the bird baths. And I’m not all that good at closure, anyway!
About that time capsule – when people buy living Christmas trees to plant after the holidays, they’re encouraged to dig the hole and fill it with straw or mulch. Sometimes they keep the dug-out soil in a spot where it won’t freeze into a block. What if you prepare the location now, and actually bury it on some meaningful date in January or February?
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
carol – wow, what an ambitious saturday morning you had planned! ha! i’m planting more bargin shrubs and building one raised veggie bed.
we had our first pre season Bulls game last night and I thought of you. it was nice to be back at the united center and to see our new drafts in person for the first time. GO BULLS! I’m glad that I’ll have basketball games to get me through the non-gardening season.
It is entirely possible that your mole ate all the grubs that were available in your garden and has moved on to “greener” pastures.