I took 3 days off from work after the holiday and worked on my foundation plantings. I pulled out roots from the old, overgrown shrubs that were there and planted a few things that dh got on sale. I hauled trailers full of mulch and compost...lifted many big sacks of cow manure. I was going to spend at least a season or two amending the bed and working on the soil but I had to accelerate the process to accomodate those beauties dh bought.

It is looking so beautiful already. I am thrilled with all I got done during this amazing warm spell.

I haven't done alot of actual work in the yards, a little tidying up here and there, but have been soooo enjoying this wonderful warm spell. Afraid tomorrow is forecast to be the end of the warmth, but spring is really close now.

Yards are just so pretty now - this elongated fall has allowed much more appreciation of the colors and gradual slow down of the plants. A bit of rain tonight has everything positively glowing - just stunning. I think my 'Garden Elves' are going to be doing winter shut down and spring wake up practically simultaneously this year - nothing has gone dormant, so the major prune and limbing up is yet to happen.

I have let a few things get a tad out of control, so the Elves will earn their keep this year. Biggest surprise was when a crepe myrtle shed its leaves, I found that on the back side the five leaf akebia had been misbehaving very badly and is well on its way to taking over! The Elves are going to need tall ladders to tame this beastie!

Looking around the 'hood, many have Christmas lights/decorations up ....... I can't do it quite yet - autumn is not finished, and I'm not hurrying it away.

Think I'll go walk the pup and drink in the final fall colors for, maybe, the last time this year.

LEAVES LEAVES LEAVES

Also collected seeds and made cuttings of tender salvias.

Last year my big success story was the hoop house I constructed from Home Depot components - as large as a bedroom, heated by a simple electric heater and just kept above freezing. It didn't cost much to operate and plenty of my larger plants loved the extra light and stable humidity, and many long term residents finally bloomed (who knew a winter cool down was essential to so many tropicals!). So this year I have that hoop house fired up again and it is fully stocked with cuttings and seedlings. I take a lot of cuttings in the heat of summer and I don't feel that they are strong enough to endure harsh winter weather so I protect them in the hoopey. Don't get me wrong - it ain't a perfect system, plenty of my tropicals hate the cool damp conditions and I always loose something before spring shows up. But for the cost of running a space heater and a box fan and the cost of building the hoop house in the first place ($300) make it well worth while even if I loose a few plants.

This year I built an additional structure - sort of a second hoopey if you will. Only this one is made by draping greenhouse plastic over a canopy tent (the kind used at flea markets - which is where I bought it). I don't heat it at all except when it is really cold and I am standing in it (portable kerosene heater). I do have flourescent lights set up and tables so that I can pot up cuttings and sow seeds at night when I get home from work (late in the evenings). It is amazing how much work you can get done after the sun sets. I have potted up thousands of bulbs and divisions - I'm kinda ahead of schedule. It's as if I can garden regarless of the weather or time of day. The difference really shows in the health of my plants - everybody looks ready for winter, no one seems to be struggling.

This past weekend besides playing in the hoopey's I sowed more lettuce in the cold frame and divided my artichokes and picked more raspberries.

Decorated the house for Christmas, shared a cup of coffee with DH at 5 am, enjoyed fall/winter in the South. Shannon/Dirtrx

This week I've been:
Dividing sedums and potting them up in little cans to fill up by Spring - love those little gals. Some Winter sowing (gonna try one more time). Found a lot of volunteer Italian parsley, Romaine, Dill, and Chives in the veggie garden; Gloriosa Daisy, Verbena on a stick, Hollyhock, Spiderwort, Ajuga, Clematis, and perennial Sunflower in nooks and crannies in the landscape beds. All are being repositioned to rows or pots and mulched thickly. Happily I found some baby Fire Twig Dogwoods spreading themselves around so they got chopped from mama and potted. Surprised by Forsythia, Pink Achillia, and NY Aster blooming! Ordered 4 dump truck loads of manure compost for the veggie garden/orchard so a whole lot of shoveling is planned and groaned about in advance. Picked newbie weeds out of the strawberry beds and ordered their seeds to die immediately! Went out this morning in the 70 degrees air and burned Asparagus fronds to appease the gardening gods and ask for a short cold spot to kill the bugs, a long warm spot for our hearts in February, and the most glorious spring we will ever see. (Note: I like to look at the winter fronds but DH swears that his garden mentor told him to chop 'em down and burn them away from the garden so the bugs and diseases won't come back. Well, I've never had those Asparagus problems but I'm sure the gardening fairy was pleased that she no longer has to wend her way through the green brown mist to get to her favorite fig tree to rest.) Ya know, just writing all this down made me tired so I'm gonna go sit on the deck and watch the bats dive bomb for awhile.

Nancy the nancedar

I ended a long month of nothing but work this morning. Bought a microwave at Home Depot to replace the one that died the first week of Nov (very bad timing on that), and then went out into the garden to watch the clouds race by and rejoin the world. This is what I found blooming still: Salvias (elegans, puberala, 'Rosebud', 'Tula', Carribean Dreams, Purple Majesty, Black and Blue, Indigo Spires, Hot Lips, Maraschino, El Cielo Blue), Roses (Unrootable China Red, Marie Pave, Knockout), Tradescantia, Tinantia pringleii, Coreopsis triptera, Leonotis leonurus, Asters (caroliniana and ?Miss Bessie), Bulbine, Forsythia, Chrysanthemum Virginia Sunshine, wild goldenrod, Torenia. There were fat buds on hellebores, edgeworthia, winter iris and daphne, the first open flowers on witch hazel and mahonias, and one lone bloom on Lychnis coronaria. I was happy.

Cold weather's back, but I finally made it out to the garden this weekend. Ten bags of (very heavy) shredded leaves/grass clippings later, I am satisfied with what I accomplished. Whacked a path through the dead weeds to the old compost "bin" made of chicken wire, and filled it with four bags of the leaves/clippings. Will add to it as the winter progresses and my horse manure sources "deliver." Also spread another 6 bags of soon-to-be compost in the old pumpkin patch, after cleaning it out a bit. Morning glories had taken over, so there was a lot of vine-pulling involved. This will be my new veggie patch in the spring, since it has a nice, sturdy fence around it. Saw a large, healthy rabbit as I walked the old paths, so the fenced area will be a blessing.
The baby leeks are doing well in the original patch, as are the sugar snap peas and mixed lettuce. For now, anyway.
Cut some holly sprigs and hemlock branches for decorating.
Picked up a garden book at Tuesday Morning this afternoon and am already dreaming of spring! Can't wait to start winter-sowing all the wonderful new seeds for next year!

Did some cleanup in the largest bed and finally planted a Lorapetalum after digging the grass out weeks ago. It's been too wet to plant the last few weekends. It will be interesting(?) to see what's left this spring now that the voles have taken up residence. They sure made it easy to pull up all the wild ageratum.

Not much,...but I did cut back the Tara ginger in the strawberry bed and start getting that ready for bedding down. Found something big enough to cover my biggest elephant ear stumps. Been working on some crochet projects for the holidays and just got over a stomach/intestinal bug that was no fun at all. Meanwhile I'm just looking at and deciding what needs to be done out there after the holidays. And last but not least keeping the inside plants going and free of bugs, so far!

When I posted earlier in this thread, less than a week ago, Indian summer was winding down. My not-so-little-anymore Japanese Maple in the raised back garden had suddenly - like in one day! - turned a gorgeous crimson and was just too stunning, beautifully flanked by the gold of the spireas beneath and the deep green of the mondo grass perimeter. It rained that night and everything was just glistening in the floodlights. I snapped some pics, they're a little dark but serve as a wonderful reminder.

By the next morning, all the crimson leaves were on the ground. Sigh ..... Think the cold is here to stay now - the hanging Boston ferns out front have finally succumbed. Think I'm out of excuses - gotta do the Christmas decorating now!

ZigZag you don't give a description like that, tease about photos and then not post pictures!!! I've got a picture in my mind but I would love to see your real pictures. Shannon/Dirtrx

Oh, Shannon - your are so right, and I am sorry, that was a dirty trick, huh? I honestly just don't know how to use all my techy equipment to post pics - here or anywhere else, for that matter. Would love to post pics - for braggin' rights and critiques !

My New Year's Resolution is to take advantage of winter days to learn. (subtle hint, hint ... anybody who wants to provide a tutorial will be greatly appreciated !).

Mighty cold here, huh? (I'm in Raleigh too) Brrrrr ....

Zigzag/Ellen

zigzag -- you can go to www.Photobucket.com and create a free place to upload your digital photos. Once the pics are uploaded, you can "generate html code" to include in your post, or share your album. Just click the little square box beside the photo name under the pic. Go to the bottom of the page and click on "generage html and img code". In the second box that shows when you generate your code, just copy (highlight) right-click, copy the script. Then, come to your post, right-click paste the script. When you preview your post, you should see your photo.

{{gwi:590171}}

What did I do this week???
Ran around the yard getting all the tropical hibiscus, rubber tree plant, etc in the greenhouse. Then I mulched, with pinestraw, my 2 banana trees, 2 queen palms and one tropical hibiscus that's in the ground.
Got it done before the bottom fell out of the temps. Hopefully, it was enough!
Barb

Wonbyherwits - hope I spelled that right! - Muchos Thanks! Quirkpod emailed me a similar solution, seems Photobucket is the place to be. Before digital cameras I used to be able to scan, then copy & paste or drag & drop w/success. Whole new learning curve now - stay tuned, I'll be posting pics soon!

Thanks again - ZigZag

zigzag -- looking forward to the photos. Good spelling. The 'real' Won By Her Wits is our greyhound. :-)

My ornamental cherry trees have BUDS! My Encore Azaleas have buds! No! Not Yet!

Did some tending to the stream today and assessed the deer damage to the St. John's Wort. If you see flying deer, they don't belong to Santa, they are the happy ones from my meadow!

Wonbyherwits,

Tthat is a gogreous garden photo - makes me want to stroll down the path and sit down on the bench so I can take it all in. . .

Rosebush -- Thanks. Those are just Knock-out shrub roses in our front cottage garden. The photo was taken in October.

wonbyherwits: I would like to get in touch with you but your page does not allow other members to email you. Thank you for your reply and photo. It is exactly what I am planning to do at my MIL's house. May I print it and use it to go by? She needs to see this photo. BTW, the link to your photos at Shutterfly.com is not working when I click on it from your page. It may be a good idea to edit your page so we can get in touch for sharing photos and ideas. I'd enjoy emailing. I hope to hear from you (reply enabled, naturally) to discuss further. What part of NC are you in? Your page doesnt say. I am hoping you are near W-S so we can see each other's gardens and do some plant and seed swapping. I plan to build one of those bridges like you have. Tips welcome.

Well, I had my first trip to a plant nursery here in Charlotte and got some potting mix and plants and i'm potting up some plants for winter color. And frankly--having just arrived here from the frigid North--
I actually feel kinda 'naughty' Love it ! mary

quickpod -- I am in Chapel Hill. I just updated my page to accept emails and I shared my photobucket album -- which broke the previous link since I moved things around.

I can't be the only one still planting bulbs!

Kaky,
I still have things to plant/transplant too. Last weekend was just too cold, but I can't wait to get out there Saturday and play in the dirt! :)