Once I get my last two plant orders in the ground, I hope to build a cold frame. Just one small enough to hold over some of my scented geraniums and maybe be able to keep some tender herbs and grow a few of the cold hardy veggies until deep winter sets in. I have no luck with keeping the geraniums and potted herbs inside. I have killed more rosemary plants than I want to remember. Someone told me that my problem may be my gas range. Even tho it is only about 5 years old and I never small gas, the plants may not like it. My house is also quite small and there isn't a lot space for plants. So having a cold frame will hopefully extend my gardening opportunities. I also want to try some winter sowing to get a jump on next season's veggie garden.
Kat

My big fall project is bringing some kind of order to my kitchen garden...the one with all the weeds! LOL

This year, I tried tomatoes around the arbor with benches, which didn't work out so well. As you can see, they tried to grow through the benches.....

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I also tried morning glory and moonflowers on the arbor itself, but they didn't do much. This fall, I'm going to plant clematis, which has done much better on the arches. Hopefully, next year, there will be some shade on the arbor.

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And finally, I bought two more arches, like the one in the front of the garden...I'm a little arch happy and there was a 1/2 off clearance sale :)

The birdbath is now centered in the long bed by the horses and the open area between the front arch and the arbor will be a little potager for the nieces and nephews. The new arches will run perpedicular to this arch and form a tunnel for purple pole beans and emerite beans (purple and lavender flowers...very pretty) and at the base will be lots of mini-veggies and a few flowers.

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I'm glad to see someone else's good ideas don't work out quite right (the tomato growing through the bench). I mistakenly thought I could train a hyacinth bean along the railing by my basement stairs. The silly thing has grown beyond the railing and is trying to climb in the kitchen windows. DD says it looks like something scary from a fairy tale.

Totally Confused

Totally confused- LOL! I'd love to see a picture of your vine. Sounds like something out of Sleeping Beauty. Maybe I should try one in the fairy garden :)

Cedarglen- Are you on the west side of the state? I'm about five miles from Idaho. Your cabin is just beautiful :)

Rosewitch- Scented geraniums are something I'd like to try, but they'd be annuals, here. Your cold frame sounds like a good idea!

My Fall project is to turn part of my curvy bed off the patio into an octogan shape bordered by brick pavers, will use the lasagne method which seems to work well here.

This winter will be to clear out a weed ridden bed on the side of the house, it's a mess, overgrown with mint (before I knew better) and oregano and a million weeds!

But what I really am dying to get started on is a 60' long bed along the side with a very wide bed that will tie in with the bed on the side with just a path through with arches through to the back yard. LL, where did you get your arches? We get some heavy winds, so need something pretty sturdy. I plan to put roses that will cover the 6' chain link fence, and further out some "Texas Lilac" trees so I still get plenty of sun, and will go from there!

I entered a flower show for the first time in my life and I can't think past that right now, LOL.

After next weekend, it will be over and I can think about what I want to do with the remaining nice weather this fall.

Lois in PA

Totally Confused, I have one of those monster hyacinth bean vines too. I can't believe how thick the vine got and how far it's traveled. Saw the first flowers today. What a gorgeous sight! Janie, if you're lurking ... thanks again for the seeds!

Still waiting for cooler temps here. Have a few painting projects on the list. Want to put a solid stain on the porch swing and paint the shed porch rockers and table Cottage Red.

Just putting in a new rose garden. I have the graound ready for planting when the roses I ordered arrive.
kay

Hey Cedarglen, hopefully Gardengranny2 will not mind my putting a link to a batch of photos she posted on GW. Her garden is gorgeous and she does have a patchwork of sedum. There's a good shot of it in the 6th photo down in the link. I can't even imagine where you get your energy from, having a new baby and even "thinking" about pouring flagstones for a new patio! After my son was born I wasn't thinking of anything except sleep! LOL! Somehow I know you'll do it too, based on your photos in your other thread. You are a gardening machine!!! Yes, it is a disease!

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardengranny2's sedum

Ogrose- I get my arches from Fred Meyer. These arches are usually $49.99, but they were on sale for $24.99. They're fairly easy to assemble, but sometimes they have to take a little coaxing, especially the older ones. LOL

I've gotten arches for Mom from Lowe's, but they're a little more expensive and don't seem to have as much metal ends to stick into the ground.

I don't think they'd be strong enough for roses or anything heavy, but so far climbing peas, climbing beans and clematis have all done well. I've only tried the President purple clematis, which doesn't seem to get very heavy...at least not so far :)

For this fall, just planting some bulbs I ordered (happy birthday to me!) And figuring out how I want to redo my leaf storage area. It had chicken wire around 3 sides (backing to the fence), but it has gotten all chewed up over time and I ripped it all out a few weeks ago. I haven't decided what I want to do, but I need to decide before the leaves fall!

I have plenty things I want to move around. I sure seem to do that alot. I also have quite a few daffs and tulip bulbs to plant. I have never tried tulips before, but these were cheap, they are red. In this area, they say they are annual, but I also read that sometimes they do come back. What the hell, I'll give it a shot! I had some weedy areas in the lawn that I've weeded and now I'll dig some clumps of good grass from where I'm widening some borders, and plug those in. Each fall and winter, I re-dig and widen my trenches around my beds/borders. Each fall, we shred leaves for mulch. I'll wait til mid to late October to November to do the moving. Last year I did that and the plants tolerated the moving very well, and several that were not doing well, came to life in spring and summer, to my surprise!

The past couple of evenings I have been sitting out in the garden with my clip board and writing down all the things I have to do in the spring. Like what plants I have to add, divide, move or eliminate. If I don't do this I'll totally forget in the spring.

Gardens which are designated specifically to sedums are beautiful. They're easy to maintain and you can have bloom from spring to fall. Propagating them is easy, easy, easy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Images of Sedum Gardens

Good Lord, creeping sedums for $1 each? *pout* Why can't I ever find deals like that? I just shelled out real money for some John Creech sedum from bluestone perennials. I found some in the spring on sale at Home Depot and I like it so much that I need more, immediately! :)

Anyway, my fall project has been more work on my tiny front yard. Last weekend I finally succeeded in getting rid of the last of the grass and planted some blushing knockout rose, black adder agastache, rudbeckia goldsturm and hidcote lavender in the foundation beds. Where there was once a mulch path through the grass, we are putting in a stone path through the (newly enlarged) beds. At the moment my yard has a path of paving sand, since we won't get the stone til this weekend. Once the bluestone order comes in, I'll be edging the path with the sedum and some low dianthus.

Oh and of course I had to throw some bulbs into my order as well, so I'll be finding some nook to plant those!

Once the front yard is in order, I plan to totally rework my veggie beds in the backyard. Currently there are five distinct veggie beds around my yard. I want to start over and create one large mandala style veggie garden that I can then fence in to keep out some critters.

So much to do! I hope the winter weather can hold off a while longer!

Hi, I'm new here and this is my first post.

I still have so much I want to do and finish before Winter sets in. My yard needs so much work, but I can only do things as money allows.

I made a little arbour out of hazel and other branches, and I want to get a clematis to grow up it.

I also have to dig up some more broken concrete (ugh), in various places, and plant a dwarf Serbian spruce, some peonies, maybe a burning bush, and other things.

I am doing lasagna beds all over the main part of my backyard, and I need to finish those.

I have a couple more things to transplant, bulbs to look for and plant, some path "stones" to put in, and I need to remake my compost bin! :)

Sedums for $1 each would be irresistible! I think sedum gardens are wonderful. My DH did a concrete patio several years ago using a mold and it's held up very well. Link below.

My fall projects are continuing with the Spring and Summer projects that couldn't possibly have been done unless I had cloned myself! :-D Mostly that is *weeding* out the self-seeded perennials that have taken over parts of my garden and redoing beds.

I did recently buy some bearded irises locally that were half the price of the 'special' price of a collection at an online nursery so was very happy with that purchase. I planted them immediately and have also planted some of the perennial 'babies' I seeded in early summer that I potted on. I'll do the rest tomorrow. After that it's just to keep deadheading the fall bloomers as many are overblown and we've had a couple of frosts and one brief snowfall so their time is coming to an end. Still lovely warm (low 60's) temps and mostly sunny.

Here is a link that might be useful: concrete mold

For what it's worth, I've used a concrete mold to pour my own small flagstones in place to make a walkway. It worked pretty well and looked quite good when it was done. But... it was a slow process, not speedy as the ads claim.

Or maybe it was just me. I was mixing each batch up by hand in a wheelbarrow.

ThinMan

luckygal, sorry I forget your name, is it Katie? Where did you buy the sale bearded iris? And of course which ones did you get? lol

We have had several frosts, all the perennials will be cut back this next week. No projects planned for this fall. Next spring the plan is to build a huge wall structure along the neighbour from ahem side. I doubt that that will work either. We will have lost 4 ft on that side of the property as the wall has to be a structure and structures have to be in 4 ft from the property line. And then how to make this wall look like part of the rest of the yard and garden??? who knows. This is a huge project.

Sierra

Some of you have ambitious plans! I have a rather large window well that has not turned out the way I had hoped. The bottom layer is tall light orange "ditch" lilies, the next layer up is a shorter dark orange lily, next layer up is stella d'oro and the top layer is iris.

The problem is they haven't filled in well and the well keeps getting weedy and due to the incline it is hard to weed. It actually wraps around the house. There are a lot of plants there. I am going to rescue a few and round up the rest and the weeds, cover with chopped up leaf mulch, that hopefully won't wash down the incline. Then in the spring I am going to divide my native grasses that have really spread and plant a design of native grasses instead.

This was the first year I realized I probably have as much to do in the fall as in the spring. So I'll start this week digging up the things that need to come out before the first frost.

BTW, I've enjoyed all the pictures I've seen of everyone's beautiful cottage gardens. I always check this forum for pics!

Bev

Whether they come out as we'd envisioned them or not, at least we all have dreams and plans!

Having just come into a lot of plants rescued from a private property about to be transformed from a woodland garden to a sodded lawn, my own back yard is now getting a major overhaul. Several plants from my "pot ghetto" will finally be finding homes as well. Today I expanded some beds, amended the soil and planted hellebore, inkberry holly, tradescantia, calycanthus, peony, itea, iris, caryopteris, hakone grass, ferns, epimedium and some agastache. Solomon's seal, brunnera, tiarella, columbines, and huckleberry are among the plants still sitting on the sidelines. Have to be sure to tuck some spring flowering bulbs in there, too.

A quilt-type sedum garden will be beautiful. Have seen some of these in person and they are inspirational, plus drought resistant. Am looking forward to seeing them next year.

As for me, planting a multitude of bulbs is a fall activity I love, plus I'm doing many pots of bulbs since I now have my greenhouse to get them going in spring.

Also planning a couple new beds out by the greenhouse...a split round bed with a path in the center to be lined with sunfloweres and "fireworks" globe amaranth next spring.
Would love to do an herb garden design, but shall see how time goes.

Tempted to put in a new small circular bed bordered by boxwood, but not sure if I want to do it this late or wait until spring. Boxwood is on sale now.

Also have bulbs to plant. It rained overnight and has been raining all day, hopefully the ground will be saturated enough to make planting bulbs easier later on.