New Article Posted!

New gardening article at the Examiner, about shrubs for autumn color:
http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-spokane/shrubs-for-fall-color

The frantic autumn harvest

Frost is predicted, so we ran out and harvested:

The green things are tomatillos, not green tomatoes. This go round, we only picked the tomatoes that were at least half ripe. Hopefully they'll keep til tomorrow.

New Article Posted!

Second half of the autumn garden chores is up at Examiner.com!

http://www.examiner.com/gardening-in-spokane/fall-garden-chores-part-two-1

New Article Posted!

I have a new article on Heucheras over at Associated Content:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5836886/heucheras_wide_range_of_color_in_a.html?cat=32

I love heucheras; I have an urge to collect them all!

The House is Painted!

Long radio silence due to illness and business; one of the things I got done was finishing the trim on the house. The pink turned out to be much brighter than I expected.

What can I say; I've always wanted a Victorian house with lots of trim and a bright color combo; it's not my fault it doesn't look nearly as good on an old mobile home!

New Dark Red Flowers!

Two new dark red flowers in the garden today:

I don't know what the name of this hollyhock is. The only thing I can think of that might be close is the double scarlet from Germania, but I think of 'scarlet' as being a lot lighter and brighter than this. It's beautiful, and I hope it has time to set and ripen seeds before winter hits, because I really want to keep this one around. I don't know how much cross pollination has taken place, but there aren't any other hollyhocks on this side of the house.

Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy'. It's been around a few years now, but the seeds have always been too expensive for me. I sprang for a few this spring, and they are just as gorgeous as the catalogs make them out to be - so often not the case! Hopefully they'll make seeds I can capture before the birds get them, and hopefully they haven't crossed with the other kinds of rudbeckia I've got going around the house.

A Dreary End to August

It is not quite September and I am about to put the winter blankets on the bed, because I’ve spent the last two nights shivering despite having the electric blanket on high all night. It’s almost gotten down the freezing on those nights, but so far no damage to the tender plants. I’d be quite upset if, after the late, late spring we had, we had an early frost, effectively making our summer less than two months long this year. No, ‘quite upset’ doesn’t cover it. ‘Seething ball of anger and frustration’ would be more accurate.

We never got the hanging baskets made, so I am finally putting those petunias into the garden. Seems silly, but they’re pretty tough. I’ve had petunias blooming on Thanksgiving before, so I could conceivably have three months of bloom from them. I’m assuming we won’t have three feet of snow in October, but after the earlier part of the year, nothing would surprise me.

I didn’t get anything entered in the fair this year because I didn’t read the premium book and they moved the entry day from Tuesday to Sunday. The fair people *never* do anything on Sunday, because the churches complained about it the one year they did. I discovered this little fact about ½ hour before entries closed. Bah. I have some consolation in knowing that I wasn’t the only one who got surprised by this and missed the boat. No one had any jewelry entered. There was a lot less needlework entered, and there was only about ½ the amount of art there usually is. Disappointing.

This is the clearest picture I was able to get of this Guinea hen. Her head just never stopped moving.

This was my favorite quilt at the fair; I voted for it for people's choice. I love the Japanese crests appliqued on it!