Today in my garden it is bitter cold - 35 degrees and a sharp wind. I toughed it out though, planting tulip bulbs before the ground freezes. My fingers froze through the thin gloves. I tell myself it will all be worth it in the spring. Unless the deer eat them. That's what happened last year, sigh . . . . Gardening is an act of faith in tomorrow.

After I was done I went inside by the fireplace, had a cup of hot chocolate, and read books with the kids. Why does it feel like winter already?

Debbie ~ It's nice to see a bit of changing colors and falling leaves, as in fall.

Brenda ~ I do hope the deer pass your bulbs by. Your day sounds just wonderful to me, planting bulbs in anticipation of springs blossoms, a cup of hot chocolate and reading with your children in front of the fire. A lovely picture.

We are having bouts of rain and lots of wind this morning. At least it is not a hurricane. : -) We do have some palm fronds blown down, that's the extent of our falling leaves. I went out with the camera to see what's blooming. I no sooner came in and it started pouring. {{gwi:766632}}

Rose ~ Borderer
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Cassia
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Duchesse de Brabant
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Spiderwort

Today I viewed my almost dormant garden from the window. The rain has not stopped. Weather report says two more days of this then we should get back to our typical northwest rains. I'm worried about one of my rose babies that is sitting in standing water. There must be a low spot. Yesterday the wind carried big leaf maple leaves from the forrest below us covering the landscape with gold, brown and yellow. It seems that fall has come and gone quickly this year. The trees are so bare I can already see glimpses of the lake through the branches.

I hope you are all enjoying your November in your gardens. I enjoy hearing what is going on in the gardens around the country and beyond.

Hi Debbie. Pat tea and I are getting hit by the same 'Pineapple Express'. Wet, wet, wet.
Frosts were severe enough last week to kill the dahlias, so that's a single of approching winter for me.
My garden consists mostly of 3 colours; green, brown and black. As always, there are bits of blooms here and there.
The cornflowers, which reseeded themselves this year, have decided it's spring and are beginning to bloom. Very cute.
There's lots to do but it really is far too soggy.
It'll be a slow clean-up from now until early Spring.
I still check here often just to see how everybody is doing.

Today... I didn't get to see my garden but to throw some water on a few container plants before rushing off to work. The weather is a dry 91F and feels like July - except that it's dusk at 5pm. Yesterday, I made a list of the roses that are still blooming or putting out buds - it's well over half.

Flowerlady, I love your lavender corner with the cassia.

Pat and Libby - could you send a bit of that rain our way? Pretty please?

It has been such a beautiful and breezy day today. I am rebuilding the path around the garden, picking up and bringing the stepping stones closer together, so it matches my stride (I am 5'3"). My son, who is 6 feet plus said the stones are way to close together. It is true for him. However, since I am the one who is sweating there on a daily basis, planting my flowers, love, and faith into the soil, I will determine how close the stones should be :-).
Can't wait till spring! A week ago I've planted hundreds of spring flowering bulbs, and want to see the fruits of my labor.

We've had a couple of beautiful days, but today my boss pronounced it a "blustery day". Very true, and a little nippy too. I noticed yesterday I had an abundance of late roses blooming, they were so gorgeous...but this is what I took a picture of:

Lisa

Beautiful butterfly!

Yesterday when I was out I saw a preying mantis that appeared to be covered in sooty mildew. What do you think, was the poor guy on his way out of life, or can they change color that well?

Today in my garden I...KICKED BUTT!
One year ago we had nothing at the house next door. I had renovated the interior, but had done nothing to the garden. There were a few climbing roses and WAY WAY WAY too much monkey grass.
The monkey grass is ALMOST GONE! I have one more hour or so of digging it out, and it's gone.
In it's place are some simple foundation plantings, a new miniature pond. On the "lawn" there is a potager wtih 5 raised bed gardens, a coldframe and 6 filled black tree pots ready for summer vegetables.
The big front tree is now free of all vines (well, some vines still hanging in the tree but all are dead), all weedy shrubs, orange daylilies, monkey grass, trash and rocks imbedded around the root system. I had to mulch to keep the weeds out (I know you should mulch a tree so closely, but heck, this one is a liberated tree!!). The same with the ever flowering "K-Mart" rose smack in the middle of the yard. I'm afraid if I move her I'll lose her so I'll try propagating this winter. Even leafless she is in flower. She now has a lovely pine island to herself, filled with loads of yummy leaves and pinestraw.
This week I also dug out almost all the rest of the monkey grass and began lasagna gardens where they had been. Loads of huge chunks of cement I find around the yard are becoming the "rock" border. The entire fenceline is now clear inside and out of weeds! That took an entire year of smothering and digging!
I'm exhausted, but thrilled at the same time. I can see things coming to fruition. I've dreamed about gardening this property for 9 years, and now I can! The soil is so much nicer than over at our "live-in" home too!

GGG

GGG, we will be eagerly awaiting the photos I'm sure you will be taking as your efforts come to fruition. You always have such a wonderful sense of color and design!

The yellowing maple and walnut leaves are slowly being stripped from the trees. I was surprised to come upstairs and see that it rained a bit during the night. The wind is starting to pick up too. Looks like our rainy season has indeed started here in Northern CA. We haven't gotten much, but just enough that I haven't had to water -- hooray!

My cherry tomato 'Sungolds' are gamely hanging on. I'll try to keep them going as long as I can. The taste of these turned my tomato-hating DH into a tomato lover!

The short bouts of unseasonable cold we kept receiving in the late summer/early fall have totally confused the spring-flowering bulbs and plants, because we'd get just enough warm days in between to encourage the rest of the garden. So my rhodies are budding and my freesias are sending up leaves, all a good 3 months early. Other CA gardeners have reported the same thing, so I'm not alone in this unusual scenario.

You can garden all year 'round here, but we don't get those beautiful displays of fall color due to lack of consistent winter chill. Where we live there are 3-7 frost days per year -- not snow or real cold, just where the temps dip below 32 degrees overnight, then warm back up to the fifties in the daytime.

Still, the dampness saturates the colors and makes the yellowing leaves of the Japanese maples and sweetgum trees stand out in the grey overcast:
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My beautiful bearded iris are blooming again, which they do 2 or 3 times a year. Best free gift I was ever given!
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The coral passiflora vine is happily invading the neighbor's yard. Fortunately it's a rental house now and they don't seem to mind that it's winding through the tops of their nandina and bird-of-paradise. It flowers all year long so at least it's a pretty intruder:
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Lovely pictures here everyone. In my garden there isn't much colour left, but we've had a warm spell the past few days that will continue into next week. Hard to believe we had snow a week ago! We've been having double digit temps (Celcius scale) and lots of rain the past week. Today was lovely, though.

I managed to clean up the last of my garden ornaments, place mouse and snow guards on my shrubs/roses, dig parsnips, clean up the greenhouse, and plant the last few daffs I bought on clearance a month ago.

I thought about my grandfather and all the other war veterans and current soldiers all day and am humbled to think that enjoying my garden is a privilege I enjoy because of the sacrifices others have made.

I luuuuuuuuuuuuuv that coral passion vine. It's gorgeous!