Winter

I love this picture. I took it very early in the morning, walking up the hill from my house in the snow. Up ahead you can see both the full moon, and a stop sign.

Brown Gold

It makes me sad, driving about and seeing big brown Home Depot bags along the curb, waiting to be picked up to go to the landfill. I am always tempted to pick them up myself for my compost pile, or as extra winter mulch. My soil is lovely, black and crumbly, from years of using chopped up leaves as winter cover. Looks a whole lot better than that awful dyed red stuff, that so many people pay a fortune for.

I sometimes wonder, would anything sell if you could convince the big stores to carry it? Could an evil gardener start a trend for say, huge plastic blow up figures to disfigure front yards . Oh wait, someone already did that.

November

Beautiful weather we've been having, warm and sunny. Pansies, violas, Montauk Daisies, blue salvia and coneflowers still going. Russian Sage also, this is my first year with that, and it is a great addition to my garden.

More Halloween

Halloween

I grew some pumpkins this year, and brought some to my daughter's pumpkin carving party. They were pretty on the vine, but really cool after they were carved.

The October Garden

Many of the flowers, vegetables, and herbs are gone, but not all. It still looks attractive out there, the stone gives it a shape even in winter. I'm trying a shortcut this year, using the dead leaves to create compost right where I want it, in this case the new pumpking patch, and the ongoing side yard/stone wall project. This will save me a lot of hauling. My neighbor dumps his leaves for me, then I'll add the usual vegetable peelings, old fruit, the soil from my many containers. It is all right out in the open, no composting bins. This way, they'll get wet and be easy to turn. By spring planting, it will be nice rich soil.