I thought I was behind too up til last week.

I didn't finish the fall cleanup in my client's garden until the day before Thanksgiving. The mulch pile was starting to freeze and I had to scrape a frozen crust off the ground to plant the last-minute 190 bulbs she bought (AFTER I had mulched the whole garden).

With her taken care of, I was finally able to clean up my garden. Just cut back the cold, slimy cottage garden last week. I love having garden shears in my hand when I come across a slug--snipped lots of them in half (they can't regrow like worms, can they?) Pulled out my dead mums in the container (which weren't snow-covered, but covered with remnants of that Halloween spider web stuff my daughter had strewn all over). Had to work the trowel to pull them out as the potting soil was partially frozen. Then I got my greens, but I was only able to stick them in around the edges of the pot (soil frozen). This seems to happen every year (pots outside too frozen to put Xmas greens in). You'd think I'd learn.

I have not raked the leaves that fell from the stupid oak tree, which does not drop its leaves til almost Dec. It's too cold to rake in Dec. I kicked the copper bird bath on its side as I got tired of asking dh to bring it in.

We're supposed to get a good amt. of snow tomorrow, that will cover everything up.

Sounds about where I am... though I did get the dead vines pulled off and emptied most of the urns of dead annuals. Pots are stacked upside down next to the potting bench, and I think they are frozen to the ground so I won't bother to try to put them away.

And the unraked yard is camoflauged by a little snow and ice now, so I can ignore dead leaves until we have a thaw.

I got busy with end-of-semester schoolwork in the last few weeks, and got behind on everything.

We got most of the last of the leaves up last weekend just in time for the first snow. I did manage to get the vegetable garden cleaned up, dead annuals in pots removed, and foliage that might have diseases or insect pests picked up and bagged for disposal.

Now I still have empty concrete planters on the back porch waiting for greens, the truck full of brush waiting to go to the dump, and a few leaves left on the ground and in the beds. The rest of the perennial borders will have to remain as they are until the spring cleanup at this point. Too cold to play outside.

There are mice in the basement coming in through cracks in the stone foundation, and I've got 40+ wooden exterior shutters in the garage that need scraping, repair, and painting. I'll be lucky to get the holiday decorations up before the holidays are over. Don't even check my housekeeping, I'm behind on that, too.

Why is there never enough time? Or do we try to do too much?

Uh... housekeeping? ... You mean, we're supposed to finish up in the garden AND clean the house too?

Well, I'm sitting here with my legs on fire as they thaw out from 3 hours of work in the yard. (Why is it we load on the layers on the upper body, but go out with naught but a pair of jeans on the lower half?)

Anyway, I had hoped to get more time in today, but I got my three hours in. I spread two bags of shredded leaves (that were actually meant for a gardening customer) onto my lasagna bed, and then covered that with a compost/topsoil mix that I had delivered in the spring. That was slow work as my wheelbarrow is broken (still!) and I had to haul the dirt in a bucket across the icy, snowy yard, bucket by bucket, from the pile to the bed. But at least the pile wasn't frozen solid. I was able to find enough dry leaves to shred about 2/3 of another bag, so I got about a third of the lasagna bed covered with those final layers.

I also dragged another 60-odd pots into the garage. Man, I really didn't think I had so many! I mean, some are little four-inch pots, but nonetheless, there are plants in them. I don't know how some of the newer plants in the small pots will fare through the winter, but I guess I can't worry about it now, can I? :)

Normally, I am more than happy to ignore the camouflaged, unraked leaves under the snow. It's just that I didn't shred any for myself for my beds. All the shredding I did went to my gardening customers - which I'm not really complaining about. I mean, after all, since my leaf shredder won't fit in my car, I use *my* leaves, which means basically I get paid to rake and shred my own leaves. Not a bad deal. It's just that with all these darn oaks, the leaves come down so late that I don't have time to shred leaves for my own use before the snow hits. But I did get some on the lasagna bed, which is the most important place to get them, I suppose.

I'm kind of hoping it does snow tonight like it's forecast to. The enforced garden hiatus will let me do my Christmas baking and get my cards done without feeling guilty that I should be outside doing something!

:)
Dee

*whew*!

sounds like you have a lot going on!

Every morning I eye the window box full of mums and vinca that I keep meaning to take in the garage to overwinter. I don't think a gardeners work is ever done.

Yup. Snow in the forcast, I'm in CT too Dee, but inland expected amounts 4 to 8...baking sounds like a good idea!

Dee, if you want shredded leaves, drive on down to my place. I filled all of the wire bins, let them settle, and filled them again, and still ended up with three additional piles in various places around the yard, hidden mostly from view.

Reminds me I really should get out there and put some over the roses.

I looked at my list of "plants to put extra mulch down over winter" for borderline and new things and found that I missed quite a few when I was doing it from memory last weekend. (why do I make a list if I don't bring it out with me and use it????!!?!?)

I might have to do it in the morning when snow is just getting started. I have a large tub of leftover mulch still in the garage to use.

Maybe the white mulch will do the trick this year, but can't count on it.

Dee,
Isn't it astounding how many pots we accumulate? I never think I have as many as I do, until it's time to put them in the shed for winter. And then there are the houseplants that have summered outside... Where the heck do they all come from?! lol

Sounds like you got loads more done since you first wrote, if you hauled 60 pots.

I agree on the unraked leaves -- I would have shredded some for the perennial beds as well, but didn't have time. Now I have to accept that by the time I see them again ... after the snow we're getting today .. they will be matted, slimey and in no shape to be shredded for months.

About insulating the lower body -- I learned years ago to always wear longjohns during cold weather. I splurged on Patagonia "capilene" ones because they are lightweight and thin, but wick sweat and moisture away from the skin and fit loosely enough to trap warm air in (tights and leggings are too snug to trap warm air, so you just have a cold layer of fabric against your skin under your jeans).

Since I am working outdoors 8 hours on Saturdays until Christmas (selling Christmas greens at a garden center), having the right clothes and layers is really important.

Swore I was done. Really, truly done. Then this morning looked out and saw one more pot -- one of only a few that's too heavy for me to move myself. Managed to hack the plants out of frozen soil and get it upside down. Hope no neighbors were in their windows with cameras :-)

And as I've said before, remind me next year at this time that I gloated. LOL

Martie

Well, so much for baking and Christmas cards, lol! I spent the entire afternoon shoveling my long, long driveway. (Spent the morning watching an old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road to... movie with my son. Fun!) But it turned out to be a really beautiful afternoon once the snow stopped. Sunny, blue skies, and not overly cold - well, at least not when one is shoveling, lol!

We had at least 8 inches here I think, and I don't think there was much wind drift, because that depth seemed pretty even all over the yard. I'm so glad I got those layers down on the lasagna bed, although it's still not quite finished, but I kept eyeing all the pots - or should I say, humps of snow! - that have yet to be moved inside. I suppose I will have to shovel them out over the weekend. One area, my patio, never really sees much sunlight in the winter, and I can envision already how the snow will freeze rock solid there and I'll be mining through it to get the pots out. I guess in the meantime they'll be pretty insulated!

Funny thing was, as I was looking at the pots in my driveway along the side of the house, I wasn't thinking, "oh my goodness, I've just got to get those poor plants into the garage so they'll survive!". I was thinking, "oh, cr*p! I've got to get those darn things out of the way soon so I can put my milk cartons out!". The pots are in the same spot I put my winter sowing, so they've got to move soon!

Cady, I'm going to look into those leggings. I do a lot of outdoor work in unseasonable weather (like most of us, I suppose) and they sound like a good thing! Thanks.

Martie, gloat and enjoy it! Good for you, even if it's just for one year, lol!

:)
Dee

Well, we got 14" here yesterday, everything's buried--so anything I failed to bring in likely won't be discovered til next spring.

I'm pretty much on top of things for a change. The late unseasonably mild weather was a real help. I do still have a couple of snow covered pumpkins out on the front porch that are starting to get nibbled by the squirrels. They don't seem to relish the flesh, but eventually gnaw their way to the seeds and then make an unholy mess with pumpkin guts strewn everywhere. I better toss them into the woods for them.
Deb

Deb,
Last year each of my pumpkins mysteriously got a gaping hole in the side, and the seeds were carefully scooped out. Little chunks of pumpkin were all over the place, but not one seed. Those squirrels-- how do they know there are goodies inside?

They are insidiously clever. They make the perfect nemesis.

Phew! Finished! Well... almost!

I took advantage of the nice weather today - and the fact that I had a morning to myself - to finally finish dragging in my potted perennials. I had just a few more than the 100 I thought were out there. Final count was 243 pots!! Good heavens, it didn't look like that many! Now granted, there were many little pots (4", 6" 8", etc.) but in some ways that makes it more work than just dragging a few big pots in. I had to shovel off snow and then rake through the leaves to make sure I found them all, lol. And now my yard looks awful because of the leaves on top of the snow. I eyed those leaves wondering if they'd go through the shredder frozen, but didn't have time to find out. Maybe if tomorrow is nice outside...

Still have the pumpkins on the front steps, lol! I think I don't have the heart to compost them because I got such perfect pumpkins this year. They still look great, and are even more interesting because of the ice storm we had Friday. They look like they've been dipped in ice, just like caramel apples. Very cool. But I guess it's time for them to go. Maybe I'll have DH throw them in the compost while I'm out. Man, that's sad - did you ever see anyone else get emotionally attached to pumpkins, lol?

Moved all the pots of annuals to the back of the garage to hide until they unfreeze and I can empty the pots. My two big fancy urns on the back steps, though, are frozen to the steps. I guess they'll grace the doorstep for a while longer. It looks like Morticia lives here!

The only things left outside are two very big pots of agastache, which are just too big to move and which, at this point, I just don't care about, lol. I've got tons of the stuff and if these two pots don't make it, so be it. Then there's some milk cartons with winter-sown columbines in them buried under a bank of snow that's frozen solid. They'll have to wait for a warmer day.

I also left out a huge pot with a willow, and a pot of callicarpa - the purple berries are so pretty. I'm hoping both of these will overwinter outdoors. Oh, and two pots with cornus Ivory Halo. These overwintered on the patio last year. It was so nice to look out and see the red stems, especially in the snow. They'll spend another winter outside.

A few bags of frozen manure and topsoil to move, finish raking the leaves when the snow melts - I should be all done just in time for spring...

:)
Dee

Good work, Dee. Now you have time to do your Christmas shopping. lol

After going crazy finding all of the small pots buried in snow last year, I decided to consolidate a lot of plants into large containers. Now I have only half the number of pots to collect for winter. Of course, half of 250 is still a lot of pots...

I have a willow in a container too - the brocade variety with pink new growth. It should do okay, as it's hardy to at least a zone colder than where I am. Yours probably will be okay as well.

Well, I'm still risking my life by standing on a plastic chair in snow a foot deep, slipping and sliding, trying to hang evergreens and ribbons on the windows.

When is enough, enough?

We haven't even hung up a wreath yet. On the bright side, the lights are still up from last year. (I can't believe I'm admitting that!)

No cookies, none of my annual Christmas bread, not even any cards. We're buying gifts, but only for family members and only on Main Street, walking distance from our house.

When is enough enough? We reached that point this year, I guess. Two kids in college, my husband and I are working full time, and we both have lots of hobbies and commitments. So, Christmas won't be the frantic event that it has become for us over the past 20 years.

It's quite a relaxed feeling!

Well. I'm saying this with the utmost respect and kindness, but: y'all have nothing on me!

I just came inside from planting my last 80 bulbs. It was fun, actually (although my feet are now very cold). The ground here is frozen about an inch down. So I levered up frozen slabs with a shovel, added amendments to the cool but unfrozen soil underneath, plunked in the bulbs. I replaced the frozen crust, then jumped up and down on it a few times to settle everything. Easy--and I'm sure all of my non-gardening, home-on-vacation neighbors found it highly entertaining.

Tomorrow, I have to finish my "fall" cleanup. I left the hose out--thankfully, I had the sense to disconnect and empty it--and the garden is strewn with a variety of pots, some planted and some not, all of which have to go...somewhere. Then there are a few things left to plant: a peony division, a few day lily divisions, and so on.

It's not my fault! :) I suffer from the delusion that I live in northern England, and I learned a lot about gardening from a former neighbor in Cambridge (MA, not England). This lovely, intrepid/crazy lady routinely planted bulbs in late December and had a collection of vines growing up supports she's super-glued to the apartment building next to hers. She planted her bulbs in the "verge" (area between sidewalk and street), which was prime dog-walking territory in that neighborhood. No matter, she had a grade-school-age relative draw graphic pictures to illustrate a number of "This is Not a Dog Toilet!" signs. Anyway, her garden thrived, and mine does, too. I like to push a few limits in it.

So you can all relax, and feel very organized and on-schedule.

Amanda - And hey--I've got pansies blooming!

got the pottery planters in yesterday morning.
Our tree got one string of lights. That's it. No ornaments, no tinsle. We just ran out of steam, and the kids didn't care, so there it is. Quicker to mulch this way.

I'm actually eyeing this patch of warm rainy weather as an opportunity to get the rest of the potted perennials and shrubs I have in the garage into a holding area in the ground. Bulbs? Not this year.

Sue

Okay Amanda, I'm crying uncle, lol! You've got me beat! Although I do still have my winter-sowing containers (from last winter) under some leaves and just a tad bit of snow that's left. I should dig them out and see how the columbines fared and if they're still alive. That jumping on the frozen crusts of ground is quite an image... :)

I hear ya, Idabean. I got the lights put on the tree last Wednesday. By 7PM on Christmas Eve, I said to the kids, if we don't decorate the tree tonight, it ain't getting done! I will not decorate a Christmas tree after Christmas, lol! I was half hoping they wouldn't want to bother - it would save me digging out the ornaments and then putting them away again. But we decorated, and I'm glad we did. However, we also have no tinsel or garland, and two days after Christmas I stopped pretending I'd put the star on top and just threw it back in the box!

Almost went out to rake leaves the last few days, but I have to clean out the basement for some remodeling work, and since I'm on the "call list" where they may call me any day and come early to start, that's gotta be done. The leaves aren't going anywhere - unfortunately, lol!

But the good news is my lasagna bed has resurfaced from beneath the snow, so I can continue that - as soon as I find some DRY leaves to shred!

:)
Dee

"But the good news is my lasagna bed has resurfaced from beneath the snow"

OK, I give. Do you have to keep the pasta plants separate from the gravy/sauce plants to prevent cross hybridization and undesirable combinations? If it occurs, do you just get something like SpaghettiOs? Do the cheese plants ever suffer frost damage, and, if so, do they end up tasting like freezer burn? Can you eat the meat fresh from the garden, or do you have to cook it first, like store bought? Do you plant in rows to match the layers of the finished product to make harvesting and assembly easier? Is the difference between fresh and hard pasta a matter of how long you leave it on the plant?

So many questions, so little time.

narcnh

LOL, narcnh! I've been trying to think of a witty comeback, but I'm afraid I'm just not creative enough, lol! I'm afraid I'll have to leave you to ponder the answers to these questions on your own!

:)
Dee

Wellll, I really wasn't joking about the fact that I didn't have a clue what a 'lasagna bed' was. Finally googled it and learned something new.

According to the website I read, Prego is much better than Ragu for the bed. But, I think they are biased.

narcnh, I believe the cheese plants are epiphytic and are usually grown on top of the sauce plants. This arrangement provides them with the moisture they need and helps prevent any problems with dried-out edges or freezer burn. It also makes for easier harvesting and assembly.

I love this forum. Thank you all for making me feel normal. Sue seems willing to plant in any month, narcnh seems to think like I do, and Dee, Queen of the Pot Ghetto, you are my kind of gardener!

Happy New Year to all,
Amanda

lol! Enjoying the last few days worth of posts. I finally did some fall leaf cleanup on Sunday! That's how far behind I am. I rounded up my pot ghetto and got everything planted or brought indoors before the ground froze, so Dee does reign as the undisputed Queen for the season.