How Grows It?

You Have To (Re)Start Somewhere!

My garden adventure this year was curtailed by a bit of a health scare, and I missed being out in the Dirt!

But this blog isn't about that; it's about restarting my garden and the ongoing process of keeping it blooming and fruitful. I plan to post daily updates and pictures of both my progress and the garden's progress.

I guess the best place to start is NOW.

Fall is clean-up time in the garden. The things I've been doing include:

Emptying and cleaning out pots —

         The smaller hanging pots get emptied completely and washed, allowed to dry, and are packed off to sleep in the garden shed.

         Larger pots, those that held patio planting, get their plants removed with as much root as I can get out. The soil gets left behind, and the pots are moved to a storage place. In the Spring, we'll add soil amendments and a bit of organic fertilizer and replant in the same pot.

The Garden Shed needs to be cleaned out —

         Need to discard old fertilizer (yes, it can expire)

         Pots that were cleaned need to be organized, stacked, and shelved.

         Tools need to be cleaned and sterilized. Cutting edges need to be sharpened.

I'm almost finished spreading the mulch in the planting beds. Normally, that would have been done by early Spring. But I was a bit distracted this year and not as energetic as I normally am. The good news is that it's almost done, and next year I will just have to reapply with a light top coat.

I still need to apply the last lawn feeding and possibly reseed a few bare spots. Given the choice, I would forgo grass; it's high maintenance, costly, requires a great deal of water, and serves no real purpose. But Lenore LOVES her lawn, and I LOVE her — so Grass It Is!

Well, I'd better get out there; that mulch, fertilizer, and bush trimming isn't going to take care of itself.

And the Happy Garden Gnome is lazier than I am lately.

...I'm only the trombone player!