Inside the Shed

Here is the main floor all tidy with plenty of room for more stuff. This is the first winter that we could actually walk into the shed! Usually we have to climb over stuff. (As an aside, a ground hog has dug a home under the floor boards of this shed. It comes back every summer. I love having it around because it really likes to eat the weeds in my garden and it scares away the neighborhood cats. And a few neighbors, as well!)

Here you can see the loft area. Notice the particle board? This roof was literally caving in. In fact right above the access hole, there had been a HUGE hole in the roof; so we had to re-roof. They put the loft access hole in just the right spot. The windows are right there, so having the hole there lets in a lot of light to the whole shed. This shed doesn't have electricity hookup - so we need the natural light.

And here is the loft. We had stored some extra lumber and our sleds up here, but there was so much space, I had to take advantage of it. I just wonder why I had waited so long! Notice the rustic lumber. This shed was built when they were still using square nails! Tear it down? No Way! It's an antique!!

Whew! I Actually Did Some Gardening Today!

It finally was warm AND I had time! Well, it also helped that I downed a pot of coffee. Yeah, being wired on caffeine can really help you get things done.

I cleaned up some of the sunflower plants that had been knocked down. I like to leave the sunflowers up during the winter for the birds, plus they look real nice in the snow. I just took down the really messy looking ones.

I also cleaned up all the gourd vines. I had not even realized how far those vines had gotten. I still have to get out there and pick up all the gourds that were left behind. There has to be about fifty pounds of the buggers.

I put a few insulating cones on some of the plants that I am a little concerned about, like my hibiscus and the Astilboides tabularis. I still have to cover my roses, but amazingly enough, they are still quite green and thriving. My white rose still has a couple of flowers on it! It seems a shame to cut them back when they seem to be enjoying themselves so much.

I also finally got my shed organized so that all the stuff that I have to pack away for the winter will actually fit in there. I have a loft in the shed that I have never taken full advantage of, and today I was able to pack it nearly full leaving the main floor very spacious. But even with all the stuff in the loft, I still have room for all the camping stuff that I still have to pack away.

When we got the house, my neighbors and our insurance company tried to convince us to tear the shed down. I loved the rustic look of the little shed and I knew that we could use all the extra storage that we could get. Besides, every gardener needs a garden shed. They did have a point in wanting it gone. The roof was rotten and caving in and the whole thing was leaning out into the alley. But we took care of all that. We reinforced the frame and re-roofed the whole thing. It is now a sturdy little work horse for my garden. Isn't it cute? (Oh, BTW, this is a picture from earlier in the season. I forgot to take pictures today.)

Procrastination

That gazebo that you see in the picture below has been needing concrete pads under the legs since we put it up for graduation in the spring. Well, we finally got it done today since it was such a nice afternoon. For concrete, you should have a hammer drill. It goes in like butter! Luckily I bought one a few years ago for another project I was working on. It was $25 to rent it and about $100 to buy it. I wasn't sure how long I'd need it so it just seemed like a reasonable thing to just go ahead and buy the drill. I was so glad that I did. It took us about an hour to get the whole thing done.

We have been putting that off for so long and it ended up being so easy that I feel silly now...as I usually do after getting something done that I have been avoiding for too long. Especially when it ends up being not such a big deal after all.

Oh, well. Now I'm off to avoid the rest of my garden chores!!

Fall Garden

AH!! I LOVE FALL!!
Even though it means that I am nearing the end of my gardening season. I have a lot of chores to do. As usual, I probably will put off many clean-up jobs until next spring. Did I mention that I am a lazy gardener?

I like to leave some plants up for winter interest: Autumn Joy sedum, garlic chives, echinacea, Goldsturm blackeyed susans, various grasses, and even the tall garden asters. The birds have a great time picking at them during the winter months and they look so pretty with the snow covering them.

This is the first year since I have live in this house that I haven't planted any bulbs. I thought that I would feel lost, but I don't even really feel a desire to plant them. What is wrong with me? I have this feeling that I will have an overwhelming urge to plant a couple hundred at the end of October- like when all the stores try to get rid of the bulbs they have left and I just can't pass up such fantastic deals!! Then I'll be out there in the cold scrambling to get them in the ground. I'm sure some of you know what I am talking about.

I bought some isulated covers for a few plants: my two rose bushes (this time, I will NOT kill them!!), the Plum Crazy hibiscus, and the experimental Astilboides tabularis. I have been debating covering my rhododendron since it is the first year and I have had bad luck keeping them alive. Any of you cold-weather gardeners have any suggestions?

The Glory of Bagging Mowers

This spring I got a new mower since SSB insisted that the old one was broke. I didn't argue too much since I had been dying to get a bagging mower to replace that mulching piece of...Well, let's just say that I really don't like having to clean up after a mower!

This picture shows exactly why I was so hot to get a bagger- the green, grassy area used to be just as leaf covered as the other areas, until I mowed that is! NO MORE RAKING!!! I thought that it couldn't get any better than just not having to rake up the grass after mowing, but the added bonus of no leaf raking has me forever sold on bagging mowers!

Beware the Gift of Fruit!

I had a friend over in July for a sewing get-together. We had snacks of chevre and Triscuits as well as some apples and caramel. She had brought, as her contribution to the goodies, a couple of pears. We ate one, and I kept the other in the fruit bowl to use up later.

Well, it wasn't two days later my house became infested with fruit flies! There were dozens of them flying by the kitchen sink, in the bathroom, and attacking my other fruit. I threw the pear away and proceeded to kill every one of the little buggers that I could.

Fruit flies are so tiny that the very act of trying to swat them blows them out of reach of your weapon of choice. I'm pretty accurate at clapping them to death, and I can even manage a good one-handed catch-n-squash every now and then. But it is now October, and I am STILL battling an army of them!

My dogs think that I'm trying to correct them for naughty things as I clap away, yelling and cussing. They are very concerned and nervous. As I'm typing this in the living room, I have had at least three of them fly right up to my face. This is ridiculous!

Help! I promise to never keep gift fruit again, but what can I do to get rid of these pesky little bastards?

Fabulous Freaks

This echinacea started itself this year. I almost pulled it up because it was in a place that I didn't want it and I had so many other echinacea already growing. Once again, something stopped me. I am glad that I left it because I almost bought an echinachea that had this horizontal petal feature, and now I don't have to! The flowers keep their petals horizontal to the very end too. It is even better than the ones that I almost bought since the flowers are over twice the size of normal echinachea as well. They are HUGE!

Evening Hummingbird?

Several years ago as we were approaching the house coming back from dinner, there was something hovering around the flowers in the front of the house. It was late dusk. We thought at first that it was a hummingbird because it was the same size, moved just like one, and was feeding on the flowers. But it was practically night. If the porch light had not been on, we probably would have never seen it. But we still would have heard it because it sounded just like a hummingbird too.

I tried to get a closer look. It did not seem to be too concerned with me as I got closer. It continued to rapidly flutter around feeding on the impatiens that I had planted in the front flower beds.
It wasn't a hummingbird after all. It was a moth! I had never seen anything like it. SSB and JD had crept up behind me to get a look at this strange creature. It didn't seem too concerned about them either.

I was listening to public radio this morning and learned the name of this particular wonder: the white lined sphinx moth. It is common in my area.

These are pictures I pulled off the internet. They show the hovering manuevers. In the second you can even see the rotating wings that help the moth maintain it's position in front of the flower.
I was amazed at the mobility this moth had. It flew FAST!! And these pictures show how really beautiful this moth is too. The insect expert that was talking about them said that they are most active in late summer to early fall. They are found in Central America and the West Indies into most of the US and southern Canada. They are also found in Eurasia and Africa. So the next time you are out at dusk and you see something flitting around your garden, you just might have a white lined sphinx moth visitor.

End of Summer Blowout

It was a good thing that I took that picture of my sunflowers when I did! We had a bad storm rip through here last night and this is what that plant looks like today. Oh well, they were beautiful while they lasted!

Sunflowers

Here are some of the last of my sunflowers. I think that these by far are the best.