Sounds as though you had a lovely day, Balsam.

The leaves have fallen completely off the Crepe Myrtle. The Black Ash are just about done with shedding leaves. With the few rains we've had my weeds have turned a beautiful green and with mowing it looks as though I have a lovely green lawn *lol*.

I've gathered the fallen leaves, clippings and what I've mowed to start a new batch of compost.

I've yet to prune the roses which is on my to do list.

The weather has been sunny but very chilly. I fear we are in for heavy frosts this year. My beautiful black colius died from the frost last night. I shouldn't complain as we've been fortunate to not have had frost for the past two years.

December 21st is the beginning of the winter solstice and I'll be starting my seeds from the seed swap.

Violets are popping up all over the place. The sweetpeas I sowed last year have self sown themselves this year.

Ed-

Last week I actually got to play around in the garden. The end of November and I was in the garden- it was great! I just did some fall clean-up and got everything ready for winter. That will be my last garden chore until winter sowing starts in late January.

Tracy

Not a darn thing! LOL! And it looks it. I have so many roses that need deadheading, leaves everywhere, perennials that need cutting back, and don't even mention weeds to me! I've decided not to worry about it this year. The cold nights have set in and I've found that most things will eventually die back on their own without a lot of fussing from me. It's just that things would look better if I got out there and did a bit of cleanup. Maybe next week (I think I said that last week).

Balsam, your Thursday garden walk sounds idyllic. Wish I was there. : ) Good luck with the homework. I don't miss those days.

Ed, sorry to hear about your coleus. My geraniums are shutting down and that makes me sad. But just thinking about your spring sweet pea pics puts a smile back on my face.

Tracy, Thursday in the garden in your neck of NY - whoo hoo! I hope old man winter stays away a bit longer for you. But a white Christmas would be nice. We've just had a few flurries and now back to warm day temps. I'm of the opinion if it's gonna be cold, it should snow! : )

Di

I picked the last small bouquet of white mums for my mom this morning. Noticed the ground gave way a bit beneath my feet. Further investigation shows LOTS of somekind of tunneling in and near my garden. RATS! Or rather VOLES I bet! I hope I have a garden left in the spring!

I usually leave clean-up of the garden until spring, but I think I'd better get started on this right now, so as not to give the little varmits a cozy place to spend the winter.

Patti

Sounds as if you've been busy, too, ladies! I'm sure you've had other things on the go, angelcub. I wouldn't worry too much about the garden stuff not getting done. I've had a couple of years of "shoulda, woulda, coulda" due to returning to school, but I'm usually the only one who notices that everything is not PERFECT in my gardens. Everyone else still ooohs and aaaahs when they visit. Makes me wonder why I'm such a fanatic about weeds, etc. ;)

Patti- hope you get that varmit problem looked after. Good incentive to do fall cleanup, I guess. I used to clean everything up in fall, but last year we had an odd winter with almost no snow and I ended up losing a lot of plants. This year I'm leaving most of the debris until spring, just to protect the gardens. I hope it won't invite critters, though. Most of the mice in our county have moved into my chicken house so I shouldn't have to worry about them!!!

Tracy - your zoning must be similar to mine. How is your weather this weekend? Our forecast for tomorrow is snow. With more snow later in the week. No huge storms, but cold, snowy, and windy.

Edna - I chuckled when I read you will be sowing seeds on the Winter Solstice! We will be attending a Solstice party complete with pot-luck, bonfire, and sacrifices to the gods that be. We will all be bundled up warm and drinking hot chocolate and cider (or other "warming" beverages;)) 'cause it's danged cold here now! This morning it's -10 deg. C - can't translate this one, sorry. Quite a shock from Thursday; a twenty degree temp. change. I won't start seed sowing until January/February. I have a grow light set up in the basement (8 lights) for this. In April/May I move everything to a big unheated greenhouse.

I got the first seed catalogue in the mail last week! I look forward to those cold January days wrapped in a blanket by the fire with my hot chocolate, dreaming about the coming spring and all the fabulous garden plans I have. Of course, half of it never sees reality. Gotta dream, though.

The walk Thursday WAS lovely and I'm going to do it again today. I won't go to the Islands, but I think I'll walk in our woods to collect some pretty stuff for Christmas arrangements. Have to dress warmer today, though. BUT before I do that I HAVE to get those danged assignments done! These are my last two - possibly ever. I'm completely finished a BSc in 13 days, exams included! yippeeeeeee

Chuckling here also, Balsam! I'm curious, what will you be sacrificing? I hope not husbands *lol*. How I would love to be a fly on the wall. I imagine the party being something out of the movie "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood".

Edna, who has a cold and thinks hot chocolate with marshmallows should do the trick right now :-)

Ew...frosts here all week and the few stragglers of cosmos turned to slime. That was gross pulling those up.
I am loving all the roses! While mums and salvia are covered in black mold, the roses are happily blooming away. The best of fall flowers I think.

I've been doing nothing in the garden *lol*, I don't have one at the moment 'cause I'm visiting our daughter here in the US!
Last Thursday Edna and her DH met with us for dinner. We had a wonderful time together! Yeah... can you imagine a two cottage-gardeners from opposite sides of the earth meet and have dinner together? It was really a legend!

Xuan (visiting the US and is being intimidated by the cold and dryness!)

Haxuan, that is wonderful! Sorry I missed out on the fun. Let me know if you ever come to Texas.

LOL Edna!!! I hadn't thought about sacrificing husbands. Hmmmmm............suppose the gods would appreciate it? They'd probably throw 'em right back, in which case I think we'll stick to the traditional wreath and maybe a holly branch or two ;) I don't know about a movie scene, but I'm sure it WILL be a sight to behold. Buncha crazy folks dancing around a fire pretending to be Druids or something! Hope your cold gets better quick, by the way.

That is so cool that you and Haxuan got to meet! I'll bet you had a great time. You get used to the cold and crazy weather after a few decades, Haxuan.

Balsam, you inspired me to get out and clean up my gardens. I spent yesterday afternoon with the large hedge shears, cutting down all the spent perennials and most of the roses. In January I'll use the pruners to selectively prune the roses but for now they have a nice all around haircut. : )

And I went back out today and emptied the compost bin, then filled it back up with most of yesterday's trimmings and some from today. The front looks decent so I hope to get out and tackle the back tomorrow. I have quite a few things to move into the potager beds for the winter while I decide where to put them.

Thanks for the motivation and for getting me out of the kitchen. I almost forgot how cathartic it is to work hard in the garden. My gardens are renewed and so am I. : )

I'm tempted to try hedge shears on the roses this year, but am not sure if the cleanup is any faster. I have things growing around the base and picking out thorny little branches doesn't sound like fun..... Tell me your method, Diana.

How terrific that Edna and Haxuan got to meet!!! I don't know how it's been weather-wise up north, but in So Cal, it's been very very dry - hot Santa Ana winds, cold Santa Ana winds.

Debbie, you remind me to try cosmos again - what bright happy colors (when they're not black slime!).

Anne, the shears i use are the long hand lopers. I start at the top and cut back about 6" at a time. I shape the roses a bit as I go just so they don't end up looking like a barber came along and gave them a flat top. I usually end up taking off at least a foot, sometimes more. The icebergs and other shrub roses can take a good cut back almost any time of year.

Cleanup seems easier to me - I let everything fall to the ground then I rake it up and into the wheel barrow. It's a lot easier on the hand and arm tendons, too. You can always go back with the small pruners and clean up the tips, if needed.

I think I was at the Huntington the first time I saw this method and have since learned that it's nothing new for growers and nurseries. It's a real time saver for those of us with more than, uh hem, a few roses. : )

Diana

I've been doing a lot of general cleanup and getting ready some new areas for next year. We finally got a fence across the front with some gates so now we can keep the dogs in the yard during the day while we're at work. And of course a fence is an opportunity to plant, right? This one is red brick(matches the house) along the bottom 20" and 4' of wrought iron on the top with brick pillars 18' apart.

I hung out some Christmas decorations yesterday before I went to work, and today I have a sore throat and earache. So my boss is letting me take Saturday off, isn't he sweet?

We had a large old native pecan tree struck by lightning about a month ago and not sure if it will live or die. It's so hard to tell if it's dead or just dormant, but it's smack in the middle of the front yard only about 50' from the house. But it's inside the fence so will be a part of the new area I will plant next Spring. I want to put lavender along the driveway. I have four large lavender plants out there already and they've done so well I thought I should just continue with that.

I'll be shovel pruning about 8 roses this year out of the rose garden. Some have just not performed well, others I find I'm just not crazy about because of their lack of scent. Anyway, I thought I might wait till the Spring Plant Swap here in Fort Worth to take them out and pot them up, because rather than just waste them, I'm sure someone would love to take them home. They're all good, healthy plants, just not quite what I want out there.

The back acre is really our problem child. I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds out there and I have my fingers crossed they'll come up. The instructions from Wildseed Farms recommended killing off all existing plants, raking the area free of all plant material and broadcasting the seed on the bare earth. Then water three times a day till seedlings emerge. Huh! Who has time to water three times a day? I just broadcase the seeds on the raked area that still had native plants growing in it. I just couldn't bear to kill off all the native flora. I guess I'll see if I wasted my seeds come Spring.

The girls are all coming home for Christmas this year, so I'm gonna do some decking out in the yard next week. After they leave DH and I are going to Hawaii for a week vacation. THEN, it'll be time for some serious Spring planning. I'm just kind of milling about smartly in the yard for now waiting, waiting, waiting for the warm weather to come back.

Everyone in the family is coming to my house for Christmas dinner this year so I'm thinking I should probably plan to prepare mass quantities of consumables for them all. I hope it's a warm Christmas day so I can take my mom out for a "yard tour" again. It's been a long time since she has been able to come out here, she's 81 and can't drive this far anymore.

Well, I should probably write some of these things in my garden log instead of blabbing all day on the internet. But hey, you asked! Cheryl

Hi All!! Good to hear everyone so busy! I hurt an old knee injury, so my clean-up was put on hold, probably till Spring (Darn ;-)) It is -10C here, and has been for the past few days - that's about 14F, I think. (I have a bilingual thermometer)The river is skinned over to the main channel, the mergansers and the Canada geese are gone to warmer climes. The Blue jays, cardindals, juncos, nuthatches, chickadees and Goldfinches (in winter drab) are fighting it out in the feeders with various types of squirrels and woodpeckers. Great to see, as it signals the end of my outdoor gardening.

Balsam, I love the idea of a Winter Solstice party. I may need to borrow your idea.

My house didn't sell over the summer, so I have embarked on a few fixes over the winter, including renovating my well. I have always had trouble with it, and had determined to have a new one drilled. Well, like the Rolling Stones say, sometimes you don't get what you want, but rather what you need - I lucked out to a well guy who really knew his stuff. He has renovated my well, so I now have lots of pressure, without the chewy factor. OK, this really does have something to do with the thread, honest. it's the 'varmint' factor: I have a family of mink who have tunnelled from the river into the old dug basement. Scared the bejesus out of the well guy....

So, now the question: to poison what is there, or breed them till I have enough for a coat.....

Hmmm.....

Glad I could be of inspiration, angel! Gardening is indeed cathartic - I love that feeling of totally exhausted satisfaction when the day ends (course, DH tells me I shouldn't work myself to exhaustion, but spread it out over several days..........I never learn).

ntaylor - you are hilarious! Go for the mink coat! Or better yet, train the little buggers and go on tour with them - you might end up wealthy! You know, like those little dogs that jump through flaming hoops...........? OK - maybe not.

Anne,

I use lopers, too and wear heavy duty gloves. One thing I've learned to do, clean up wise, is to carefully pick up the cut branches using the lopers. It takes a delicate touch, but once you get the hang of it clean up goes pretty quickly. I bought my first shrub rose a year ago and was stunned by the amount of thorns on those branches. I am so thankful for long handled lopers!

Ntaylor,

Your Canadian Geese have arrived. I noticed a small flock swimming in a pond not too far from TX Stadium. My co-workers and I always joke that they must be Dallas Cowboys fans coming in to watch their team in the play-offs. :-) Every year that pond hosts an amazing amount of migratory birds. What's really great is that the year round resident ducks seem to welcome their winter buddies.

I don't do bird feeders for a variety of reasons but keep my bird baths filled with fresh water, and plant a variety of berry producing plants, trees and shrubs both for food and to provide shelter. We have to keep our winter visitors fed and protected. :-)

Today I am raking leaves and bagging them up for next year. I poke holes in the garbage bags and just let them sit outside. Because of the continuing drought, I have had to water the bags to jump start the decomposing, but after a year you've got a nice batch of recycled organic mulch.

Now, off to get that rake..........

Marilyn