Preparing for the future

Oh my goodness, I am pooped! I used to think that gardening was a hobby for little old ladies and gents but it's a LOT of hard work. Thank goodness M is around (and kindly willing) to haul huge bags of compost and pull out tough weeds or I'd be back-broken by now. As it is, my back and feet are killing me. On the plus side, there's dirt under my fingernails and bulbs in the ground.

That's right, I'm preparing for the future.

Last week, M and I dumped six bags of compost on top of cardboard along the back fence. I've been wanting to turn that area into a wildflower garden all summer and failed spectacularly in doing so. Now I'm going to pop some bulbs into the soil and top 'em with more compost and all of the chopped leaves that fall.

I also cleared out nearly all of the planters on the back deck. A few (the blueberry and raspberry bushes as well as a few pots of mint) will either go under the table or covered and hidden next to the house for winter.

The deck looked so bare once all the plants were gone, which filled me with melancholy for a while. That sadness soon lifted, though, when the trees surrounding the yard began to turn fiery red, pumpkin orange and bright yellow.

Gosh, I love the Fall.

Today, we cleared out the weeds surrounding the small rockery in the front of the house. After putting down fresh compost, I grabbed my handy dandy new auger and got to work. An hour and a half later, I'd planted 50 Carlton daffodils and 75 Hokus crocuses. If we stay in this house, the flowers I plant now will give us great beauty and joy next spring. And if we end up selling the place and moving north, then all of this hard work will provide extra curb appeal.

Tomorrow, if it doesn't rain and my back has rested enough to do so, I'll head to the backyard and plant 50 Mount Hood daffodils, 100 flaming red-yellow tulips, 100 red tulips, 100 white tulips and the remaining 25 crocuses.

I may have gone a bit crazy with the Colorblends catalog this year. Ah well, live and learn!

Lastly, I ordered our Christmas trees yesterday. Due to the pandemic in 2020 and continued climate change, there were few trees to be had. So this year, instead of driving around from one empty lot to another hoping to find good trees and few crowds, we decided to pick out our trees in advance and have them delivered. I used to do this when I lived in Brooklyn and was always happy with the results. 

Can you believe that I visited four local tree farms online and three of them had already sold out for the year? It's only October! Apparently, I wasn't the only one thinking ahead. One farm had a few smaller trees left but were charging $100 for each tree and $300+ for delivery.

Ah, no.

In the end, I bought two larger Frasier firs from the Bishop Christmas Tree Farm in Springfield, Vt. (one for the living room and one for the library). They should arrive at the beginning of December. I can't wait!

Weather: Low 45/High 63 degrees, mostly cloudy, 44% humidity, 14 mph wind. UV index 2 of 10. Moon phase: Waxing gibbous.

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