Flower Gardens in November

 I've been delinquent on keeping up with my blog during December. I have a good reason though...I'm an academic and was being crushed with grading and end-of-the-semester demands. I have been keeping a mental list of new blog posts that I would like to make and thus, I begin.

Unless you keep a garden, (as I had not for most of my life), you'd be inclined to think that there isn't much going on in gardens in November. But, in fact, there is a lot of magic to gardens in November and in the fall, in general. It's a time to prepare for the new and to appreciate the old.

Just as everything is fading from its glory and I start to miss the blossoms, I begin to plan for next spring. Last year I planted 300 bulbs. I think that the squirrels and skunks got to them and only about 50-70 came up. It was disappointing. This fall, I planted 450 bulbs and this time, after I mulched the gardens, I put down chicken coop wire. As usual, I did a lot of my fall plantings in the dark, because I ran out of daylight. It's not the best time to plant, but in the spring, the flowers assure me that it made no difference at all.

Here I am with some bulbs from Reny's. In fact, I  still get all of my bulbs from Reny's, despite living in Massachusetts.
Boy, do these bulbs look cute. Can't wait to see them in the spring.
Here is one of my flower beds. All ready for winter. See you in the spring!
Here's another flower bed. This is also home to a large dahlia bed. I can't count how many times I took a picture standing in this same spot - looking into the dahilas - July through September.
The other wonderful pleasure of gardening in November is seeing the beauty in the old. I think that this is a blessing that comes with age, life experience, and (more) patience. I used to tear up old plants and throw away blossoms long gone by. But, so many of them continue to offer beauty throughout the remainder of year, which offers a different kind of delight. 

Our tall grasses left us with this pile. I also love our gravel pile in the background.

The Dorothy Wycoff Pieris still looks wonderful, even in November (and now, even in January).

The yucca plants are still a radiant yellow - even after a hard frost.

I have always wanted a snowball tree, in part because they keep their blossoms all winter long.

Our wonderful Silver Grasses continue to inspire us.

This is the time of year when we can really start to see and enjoy our river without foliage to block the view. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Would Scam an Oboe Teacher?

Image
Apparently someone named William Clark, or someone who uses the name William Clark and whose email address is: wclark200@yahoo.com . Last week Neil mentioned to me that he had received an unusual request from "William Clark," for oboe lessons for his 13 year old daughter, Mary. He stated that they were out of the country, but would soon be coming to the United States. Mr. Clark failed to answer any of Neil's usual questions for new students, such as how long Mary had been playing, inquires about her instrument, and whether they would be taking lessons at USM or Dartmouth - the locations of his two teaching studios. Neil usually asks if the child has, in addition to playing oboe, any other tendencies toward self-injurious behavior. Silent on all of these matters.  Then Mr. Clark wanted to pay for several weeks of lessons upfront. Neil had never encountered this before, but why would a free-lance musician say no to a parent wanting to pay for lessons in advance? Then N...
Read more

What Happens When a Stress Fracture Won't Heal?

Image
That's right. I have at least two stress fractures that won't heal. I've had one for about 15 weeks and a second for at least 18 months. When a fractured bone won't heal, it's called a non-union fracture . I get quite a kick out of this. Makes me think of my bones slaving away in a sweatshop or something! What do we do to try to get non-union bones to heal? First, health providers put you in a surgical boot. Say good-bye to the surgical shoe. It's all about the boot now. My boot looks just like this one. I don't really want to know how long I have to wear it. Despite it being clunky and a miserable fashion statement, it is much better than the surgical shoe -- in terms of walking. It also seems nearly impossible to re-injure oneself in this contraption! Driving a standard is definitely a no-no. Photo from Ortho Tape Second, we get a bone stimulator. I know, who knew there was such a thing?  Apparently before the days of bone stimulation, there was su...
Read more

Limping All the Way to Five

Our first black Labrador Retriever, Blackberry, had health problems. He started having seizures between 6-9 months of age. We discovered that he had epilepsy and successfully treated his condition with  phenobarbital  for 9 years. The bad news is that it slowly destroyed his liver. We made that trade-off because alternative medications were much more expensive. So, we lost Blackberry when he was 9. I still think it was the right decision. Blackberry lived a happy life. He was the center of our family and even part of the community. Everyone seemed to know him. Neil was once exercising Blackberry in the Saco River in Biddeford and a school-aged girl with a fishing rod passed by them and commented to her father, "That dog's name is Blackberry." Neil had never seen that child in his life or since. When the UPS man would arrive at our house, he would hand us a package and look in through the door, saying, "Hi, Blackberry!"  Despite this condition, he had a pretty ...
Read more