September -Remember

September -Remember

Here it is the middle of September already, almost the first day of Fall!  I am thinking back to this summer of 2015 with much pleasure. It was essentially the perfect summer! This September was quite rainy compared to most years. We had more rain all summer, off and on, than we normally get, but it was nicely interspersed with warm sunny weather, too.   With the warm sunny days in between, we actually had ideal growing conditions. And not that much really hot (+ 30C) weather, so to me, it was the perfect summer! :)

Why do these warm and wonderful days fly back so quickly (whereas the freezing, cold, snow filled days of late fall/ and winter seem to last so long!?)

We had 3 nights of frost warnings this week, September 15, 16 and 17. Out came the old sheets, pillowcases and the odd towel and we covered the 7 huge tomato plants by the greenhouse as well as the swiss chard and 2 tomato plants in the garden.

I also covered my Morden rose bushes in my stack stone bed since they have a whole bunch of buds again and are trying to bloom one last time for the year. I hate to have that kind of lovely enthusiasm nipped in the bud (so to speak) by Jack Frost's nasty tricks.

I also covered my tall stately Firebird Dahlias in the same bed and the ones in the yard barrel/tub.  They are looking so magnificent right now and also still full of buds. The red Thompson Dahlia in my Round Angel Bed got covered as well, since it, too, has a whole whack of new buds on it.  The next 7 days  are forecast to be much warmer with no night frost so I'm looking forward to enjoying my flowers for a bit longer. In actual fact we only had frost on one of the 3 nights, and it only did minimal damage on my cosmos and morning glories.

Speaking of morning glories, the ones that I had transplanted from the west end of my Round bed into the east side of my Stackstone bed loved that new location so much more than the old one. They grew in leaps and bounds and finally started to bloom. I guess there's a reason that the plants are called MORNING Glories as they sure seemed to appreciate the morning sun.

Unexpected visitor

The sweet peas that I had planted in the old Morning Glory spot (west side of Round bed) didn't do anything there either! I have come to realize that once very sunny location is now more a shady spot due to the nearby trees having grown to 40 feet tall in the last few years. Might have to find a shade loving vine or annual for that spot next year.
The sweet peas by the deck (which I started from seed) are finally looking good, though. They got stepped on during the deck reno, but have managed to make a come back.

The Durandii clematis that I newly planted this spring had a second round of a few medium blue blossoms. Not bad for a new plant, I guess. The Nellie Moser is quite disappointing though. It grew a lot of greenery, but hardly any flowers.

Note to self: Fertilize Nellie Moser clematis better next year with a high nitrogen fertilizer. That might help it to set some blossoms.
If that doesn't help, I'll replace it with a Jackmanii or Ville De Lyon which are almost guaranteed to bloom well.

Little Missy Mischief- New addition to the family, June 16, 2015

The late summer bloomer, Helianthus always blooms well

The squash plants in the garden were prolific and grew all over the ground, up and out the chain link fence. They produced quite a number of squashes this year, 6 spaghettis and 6 or 7 acorn squashes. It was quite humous to see the squashes developing on the chain link.  Next year I'm going to try and grow some butternut squashes, too. The ground cover kept down the weeds, too. :)

Giant Squash plants and new raised bed in the vegetable garden

Diligent Husband is in the process of expanding the vegetable garden plot right now. We cut down a  Manitoba Maple this spring that was shading the back corner and now we are in the process of moving the chain link fence to incorporate that corner. (Squaring up the garden plot.)
DH is also going to build a new raised bed there. It will be smaller than the first one because of the space limitation, but should do well because of the early morning sun it will get.

The peas, green beans, carrots and beets which we grew in the first raised bed all did so much better than the ones I had planted straight into the ground. More sun, for one thing, in that corner by the pond;  better soil, too.

I think we will just plant a bunch of potatoes in the east half of the vegetable garden, besides the big rhubarb, and the chives that are already there. The west side of the plot grows swiss chard, squashes and zucchinis quite well so I want to continue to do that.

Deck Renovations
This summer Diligent Husband was very busy replacing our old deck railings, the 13 wide steps leading up to the deck and many of the deck boards.  The rest he ( and our helpful daughter) pressure washed and stained. He also added lights on top of the posts and some on the side posts leading down the stairs. It looks great!

I sewed some covers for our deck furniture which really gives it a splash of colour!

New look for the deck

All in all, it has been a very productive summer!  :)
My garden is my happy place!