Autumn Tasks – Page 2

Autumn blooms from my garden

It’s started to get cool here in Toronto and I suppose it’s time to get the garden and yard ready for winter even though I’m dreading the arrival of snow and ice! Ah … too soon to think of those things isn’t it?

Anyway … Last weekend I decide it was time to get a start on preparing the garden for winter so we got to work at putting away our patio furniture and tidying up the garden beds to some degree. We still have a lot of work to do, but at least we got things started.

While I was working in the garden I noticed that quite a few of my fall flowers were blooming so I got out my camera and took quite a few pictures. Here’s a few of my favorite garden photos from last weekend:

Toad Lilies! The only time of year that I can see lovely Toad Lilies blooming is in late September through October. Aren’t they absolutely lovely?

Then there are these lovely chrysanthemums. I have a large planter of them on my front porch blooming their pretty little heads off.

Sedum always shines at this time of year. I always think of it as kind of a filler plant in the spring and summer, but come Autumn it’s a star when it begins to bloom and turns lovely colors.

Monkshood is another Autumn favorite of mine. I have two types of Monkshood growing in my backyard garden. I believe the type in the photo below is Monkshood Azure.

This last photo is my favorite. Of course it’s a rose. This rose is Chicago Peace. It’s not as colorful as it would be in the Spring or early summer … but it’s still lovely. If it weren’t for the little tiny green leaf on one of the petals I think this would be an almost perfect picture of this rose.

Do you still have flowers blooming in your garden? If you do what’s blooming?

Our roses don’t know when to quit!

by Tricia

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Can you believe that I still haven’t finished putting my garden to bed for the winter? Ok it’s not that bad … we only have a little bit of gardening work to do, but still … it’s almost the end of November and we could have our first snow fall any time!

We still have to cut down the sunflowers in the front boulevard. They are starting to look raggy and they need to come down. We also have a few plants that have died down that I should cut down as well, like the balloon flowers that have died down and who’s stems are now falling over onto our front walkway. LOL

Thanks to the much warmer than normal temps we had about two weeks ago (hey it reached 20 C (68 F) two or three days in a row) we have roses blooming! The Breath of Life climbing rose, both of our Iceberg roses, Octavia, Lavender Dreams, Baron Prevost and Jacques Champlain are all blooming. Full true roses!

They are lovely, but it’s a shame that they are blooming because it’s getting colder and I don’t doubt that we’ll have snow within a week or so.

Here’s a photo of Lavender dreams that I took a while ago. I still can’t believe that the plant is putting out more blooms even though it’s reached zero a few times in the last week.

Is anything still blooming in your garden as we approach winter?

Just about time to put the garden to bed for the winter

by Tricia

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It’s hard to believe but November is here.

It’s starting to get colder and the leaves are falling off the trees and my garden plants. It’s time to start putting the garden to bed for the winter.

As far as gardening goes I dislike this time of year the most.

Yes I still have some flowers blooming, but it won’t be long before the first snow arrives and my garden will be awash in white. It’s a long wait until spring and new garden life – isn’t it?

In the last two weeks I’ve spent some time closing down the garden. Trimming plants and removing plants that have died down. We’ve put away our patio furniture and just this past weekend all the solar lights and torches were put away for winter. Tropical plants such as my Passion Flower vines, Hibiscus and Jasmine have all been brought inside as they can’t withstand our very cold winters here in Toronto.

There isn’t much left to do, other than cover the garden beds with tree leaves that have been falling heavily over the last few days. Soon the trees in the area will be bare – but their leaves will be protecting my garden beds.

I still have to cut down the sunflowers that I grow in the front boulevard …

They are still blooming and most look pretty good – but I know that won’t last. Perhaps next weekend we’ll chop them down … oh yes I mean chop, normal garden pruners just don’t do the job on Sunflowers thick stems.

Have you started getting your garden ready for the long winter? What do you do to prepare your garden?

Autumn blooms from my garden

Our roses don’t know when to quit!

Just about time to put the garden to bed for the winter

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