October has Arrived

Autumn is here without a doubt and October seemed to sneak up on us! Where has the summer gone?!

Fall beauty- Mountain Ash tree

September was a blurr in passing. Sadly, my mother passed away and we had to travel back to Manitoba for 2 weeks for the funeral service and to deal with all of her affairs. We packed up  and gave away most of her belongings and we vacated her apartment. It was all very sad and extremely stressful, but was necessary to do.  Now we can deal with the grieving.

Crabapple splendour

Now that it's October, the fall clean up is happening in earnest.  We had some frost in September, but luckily we had picked most of the tomatoes off the plants beforehand.  The garden is all rototilled now except for a few areas where there are still some carrots and some red beets.  I planted 2 iris plants there last week (which I have been caring for in pots all summer for my daughter from the garden in her old house,) into our vegetable plot temporarily.  She wants to plant them in her new garden next summer. I also planted, pot and all, a big Mojito mint which I want to keep. Because of the hard frost that we get here on the prairies, we can't keep anything alive outside all winter unless it is in the ground.

Cleaning up fall flower beds- ready to wrap burlap around the roses

For that reason, I also dug 4 raspberry dianthus plants out of my flower pots and found them homes in my flower beds. They are quite hardy and should make it through the winter to bloom again. I hate to let things die!

For that reason I also dug out 4 geranium plants, potted them, clipped them back and brought them inside to make a total of 7. The dahlia tops were black after the frost last week, so I dug the tubers up and left them out to dry overnight. Now they are in bags in the laundry room waiting for me to add some peat moss and put them away for the winter.  I have 2 big clumps of Firebirds (which bloom orange and yellow) and only 1 clump of red Thompson dahlias, which I have been over wintering for 11 years now.  Next year I plan on finding some additional exotic dahlia bulbs and growing a lot more. Starting them indoors and then transferring them to the greenhouse in early spring gives them a head start to bloom.

Chickadees getting ready for the cold weather.

The big winners of the "Gigantic category" in my graden were the cosmos! I have never grown them 6 feet tall before! They were covered in numerous blossoms and bloomed all summer in spit of the fact that I neglected to deadhead them. A gardeners dream!  Because I grew them from seed I was especially partial to them. I harvested some Cosmos seeds so I will try and grow them again next year.

Fall asters defying Jack Frost

One of the few things still blooming in the garden are my fall perennial asters. I'm so pleased with them... at last! They were so puny and half dead, barely growing at all for the first 3 years I had them. I moved them twice in the meantime, but finally found a spot where they would not only grow properly, but actually bloomed for the first time last year. Now they are looking really magnificent. Another added bonus: the deer don't like them! :)

With the colder weather we needed to drain our small pond for the winter. We rescued the goldfish out of the pond to bring into the house. Their new quarters, the 2 fish tanks in the laundry room, are very small compared to the freedom of swimming all summer in the pond. We hauled out every last goldfish that we had put in, (no casualties all summer- a first!) plus 4 tiny grey goldfish babies that managed to avoid getting eaten.

The fish had grown a lot and I don't want to overcrowd them in the small indoor tanks. It causes stress to the fish (causing disease), plus you have to clean the filters more often, I job I dislike. Rule of thumb is 1 inch (2.2 cm) of fish per gallon of water in a fish tank. My fish are close to double that amount...

So..... I took 4 big white goldfish (yes, I said white) and released them into our nearby lake!   They will likely become a meal for a big lake pike, but at least they have half a chance of survival. (The gold ones would be spotted too readily.) Now, imagine the surprise on the face of the ice fisherman who catches one of my goldfish this winter!!! :D



Next job:

Add leaves to the compost around the rose bushes, and wrap them snuggly in burlap and string. That should help to protect them from the coldest winter weather and allow them the chance to bloom again.

(I am up to 6 rose bushes now, 2 pink Morden Centennials (1 in my long perennial bed, west end), 1 Morden Ruby, 1 Morden Sunrise, 1 Winnipeg Parks, and my newest addition, 1 pink and white John Davis rose.  We will skip mentioning my huge Hansa rose and all the wild rose bushes that keep popping out all over the yard and flower beds.)

Angel bed -half trimmed; The tall grasses will be left till spring.

Patio Pests- Wasps and Ants

 We had company a few weeks ago and wanted to have a picnic out on the deck. We had put the food out on the patio table and were about to put the umbrella up when we discovered a big problem. WASPS! They had built a huge wasp nest inside our patio umbrella and they were very angry about being disturbed. They came buzzing out in a stormy cloud looking to do battle!

Fast-thinking husband grabbed the umbrella and threw it out on the back lawn as far away from the deck as he could manage, then he dumped the nest out of the umbrella and stomped on it. I don't know how he managed not to get stung! We all ran into the house for a while until things settled down...

The wasps continued to circle around the corner of the deck where the umbrella had been stored looking for their nest. Then they proceeded to start a new nest at the same spot in a metal waste bin. Determined or what!  Diligent husband put on his long sleeved coveralls and a cap and proceeded to put the can in a large black plastic bag. He tied it shut and left it out in the hot sun by the garage. We think they all got baked in there, although many of them had escaped earlier.

We made a wasp trap out of an empty 2 litre pop bottle. We just cut the bottom off about 6 inches tall (16 cm) and filled it with cocoa cola; Then put the top spout part in upside down. The wasps are attracted to the sweet drink instead of the food on your patio table. They crawl down the spout to the coke, but can't get back out so they drown.

We went to town the next day and bought a new fake wasp nest at the hardware store to hang in that corner of the deck. We also bought a wasp trap and some bait cubes to attract them to the trap if our homemade version isn't sufficient...

We have a lot of ant nests around our property and for once they were being a benefit. The ants found the squashed wasp trap on the back lawn in no time and they took care of all the wasp larva, carting them away (to their own nests as food, I guess.)  :)