Got all the shrub and tree caging done, just in time. I found the PG Hydrangea with rabbit nibbles on a stick, bud gone. They have SO MUCH else to eat, why the PG? They ate it to the ground last year, had to resprout from the roots and finally was looking nice. It is caged now, no more snacks. Funny how other Hydrangeas never get any nibbles, even when it is really cold. Also caged the new tree saplings in sunken pots, out in the holding garden. They are TINY things, probably real tasty, so best protected. Got the field trees caged, used plastic mesh and tomato cages because I ran out of wire. Have to see how they do against rabbits THIS year! Pulled in all the decorations still out, statues, big pots, emptied dirt, stacked in the shed. No frozen dirt in pots like last year!! Felt bad because the plants were still blooming despite the cold, but waiting was what caused problems last year. Got the couple dahlias, two cannas dug up into sawdust, potted geraniums, down in the basement. Only put in a few new tulips, replaced what the puppy dug up. Will probably do more bulb work next year. I may have to redo a bed then to put in a new path. Have to collect seeds from Marigolds, striped Zinnias, Cosmos, fancy Sunflowers still. With rain last week, everything has been slow drying out to collect. Still some trimming of plants, lily and peony leaves to remove. Roses I moved recently seem quite happy, even blooming. I need to pull some trellis', going to just trade locations with tall and short. Should be a quick job. Pond is netted, set until filter needs changing on the bubbler. I leave that run all winter because it keeps the water cleaner, prevents the ice from freezing so quickly. Small pond, so not much work. Water squirter put away and lines drained. Puppy is turning into a nice garden dog. She drags trimmed branches around, likes laying by me as I work in the yard. Luckily she seems happy digging in the empty tomato bed. That will be easy to fix with rototilling in spring. SEEMS to help with keeping holes in the same location! Maybe she likes easy digging, that is nice dirt. The barn cats have been coming out to supervise, rolling around in the garden, wanting to be petted as I work. They tend to stay behind the fence on beds, so dog runs around and around, watching them. Both seem to be having a good time. We still haven't got half the leaves down, so not raking them yet for shredding. Still need to wrap the plastic around fence surrounding the Japanese Maple. Plastic cuts the wind on tree, seems to help prevent as much die-off on the tree top. One of those zone border-line trees, needs no extra work beyond the plastic on fence. Love the curly little leaves it has. Hoses need to be picked up and coiled, put away for winter. We were gone on vacation last week, so coming back after a break makes it more fun. Did have a lot of fun looking at all the plants, trees, gardens as we drove along. Very attractive plantings of wildflowers, mostly Cosmos now, in the dividers of Highways in North Carolina, West Virgina. Ran for long strips of road, bright colors really perked up the view. This warm weather is sure great for being outside, finishing off the yard jobs. After the outside stuff, the garden shed will need sorting. I keep tossing everything in there, run off to do something else, so order needs to be restored!

My flowers are giving me their last best efforts with blooms of the season - Roses, Lantana, Salvia, Cannas, Periwinkles, Cosmos (again), Ageratums, Zinnias (still going), sunflowers, Morning glories, Cypress Vines, Snapdragons, Vincas, everlastings, tall Nasturtiums, and others. My Rose of Sharons are blooming for the first time. So beautiful! They are white with pink eyes and two have very large Lavender-blue blooms, as big as the hardy Hibiscus blooms were. I am just thrilled! Blue and white asters, Creeping Verbena, Geraniums. My Pentas are readying to bloom. My Blue Fortune "Agastache" Hybrid Anise Hyssop is still blooming and smells yummy. The colorful Coleus-es have spectacular Fall colors and bloom spires and all the Chrysanthemums are either blooming or they are budded and ready to burst forth any day. Mums of many colors. The wildflowers that are blooming are white & Blue Bonesets, Asters, Liatris, Yellow Prairie Gaillardia, Tickseed Coreopsis, Tall Goldenrod, Sunflowers, Sunchokes, and many of the prairie grasses are blooming. Days are very warm with cool breezes, but nights have been cool and sometimes chilly. The Cedars put on their powdery blue berries and bittersweet vines turn golden yellow and show off their orange-red fruits that close up to form berry-like seeds. We need some rain so our trees and shrubs will attain their pretty fall colors, otherwise they will just turn brown and fall to the ground. I love Fall. The Virginia Creeper leaves change from deep green to gorgeous Autumn colors of red, yellow, light greens, purples, pinks and oranges with their pretty blue berry clusters. I love the cool, crisp air and the smell of wood smoke in the air. I love seeing golden hay bales or rounds in mown fields and hazy, foggy, cool mornings, and the riotous racket of young rooks that fill the tree tops. Golden leaves that shower in a whirl to the ground and the crunch of them under foot. I love the smell of decaying leaves and fungi that spring up out of the ground through the dewy grass. I love the big, fat garden spiders who weave their massive webs at the end of summer. I love being wrapped in cozy blankets with mugs of steaming, hot cocoa and sitting around a crackling fire on a chilly night when the skies are so clear and the stars so bright that you can almost reach up and touch them. Every season offers its beauty. Fall gives its all to dazzle us.

Nice to see you back, Silvia. I started a year and a half ago with a 4X4 bed, then two of them, then added a 3X6, and have just filled 2 4X8 beds. My sweet peppers and an Ancho are up, as are my 8 tomatoes. They will transplant in a few weeks. Next week green onions and beans go into the ground. My fall squashes are waiting for the sweet potatoes to come out. The ground is swelling in the bed, so that should be in a week or two. I will also start broccoli and onions next week. I've had celery in the seed starter for almost 2 weeks, but no show yet. I have heard that it takes a long time to germinate, so I'm still hoping. I am using the seed starter contraptions from the box store that has a water wicking mat in it. It seems to work well. I have them under the overhand on the West side of the house, and in the screen room. They get about 2 hours of full sun each day (when its not raining). I may have to get a light for the mid-winter starts. The plan is to start things like broccoli and cauliflower a couple of plants each week. I don't end up with a huge load one week and then nothing for months. Larry

Thanks, everyone! "Pull" definitely meant "pull and eat" - I won't let anything go to waste, just wondering what might continue to grow over the next couple of months and how much/what kind of protection would be most beneficial. There is plenty of room, but I have about 200 cloves of garlic to plant (this will be my third year of planting garlic) and I'd like to rearrange the rows from 4 narrow rows with wide paths to 3 wider rows (30 inches) with a bit narrower paths, to maximize growing space. So I'm working out how I can redo the rows, have enough space for garlic now, and still have a row left for a summer crop next summer... All of your advice fits what I thought - I'll leave the kale and chard in and harvest the arugula (for pesto) and the remaining lettuce. If the row configuration and garlic planting allows it, I'll leave the cabbage plants, just to see what happens. If no heads ever form, I'll still eat the cabbage leaves! I've been gardening over the summer for about five years, so that experience is helping with the fall garden. But for my first attempt at a fall garden last year, I just tried direct seeding everything after I harvested the garlic. Since that resulted in about two tiny swiss chard leaves, this year I started seedlings and transplanted them :)