Rabbit, Rabbit, November!

Did you remember to say “rabbit, rabbit” before you got out of bed this morning?

Did you read my blog post yesterday about the killing frost we had?

I like that the first killing frost came on the last day of the month. Now, the first day of the month can be a natural clean slate. A nice, tidy way for Mother Nature to say, “It’s over, turn that calendar page over to the new month and move on to the next season.”

Then she’ll give me a swift kick out the door with the proper clothing to clean up the garden.

Proper clothing for me will be my new gardening pants and jacket that I talked about on an episode of The Gardenangelists a few weeks ago, brought to me by a generous offer to try out Duluth Clothing Company’s “midwest tuxedo” also known as their Fire Hose Workwear. The pants are awesome and perfect for fall gardening. They are made from a heavier canvas material, making them warmer and tougher. Plus, I discovered that the long pocket on the right side, which is meant to hold a tool of your choice, is the perfect pocket for my smartphone. I’ll be wearing my new pants when I head outside later today. The lined jacket is also going to be great for cold weather.

I won’t review my to-do list from yesterday or give you a task-by-task summary for this afternoon, but I will say that over the years, what I do to clean up the garden in the fall has become a little less than the year before. Truthfully, most of what I intend to do will take just a few afternoons.

The first order of business will be to pull out those annuals that don’t like the cold that are killed outright when temps go below freezing. How do you know which ones those are?

Don’t ask me unless you want an eye-roll as a response, followed by a finger pointing to the coleus in the wheelbarrow. Then I would hopefully kindly say, “Honey, you must be new to gardening. No, they will not come back, ever, even if it warms up tomorrow. That’s why they call them annuals. If you want more, you’ll have to sow seeds for them again in the spring.”

Anyway, Rabbit, Rabbit, welcome to late-fall-pre-winter, and don’t you dare get out those Christmas decorations just yet!

Thanks for reading to the end.