What's up with gardening?? pictures of my POT garden

HA!! made you look!!  pictures later on, my dirt digging friends---

After another year of gardening, I have to ask these questions--

WHY, oh, WHY do weeds thrive during droughts, and the planted stuff doesn't??

Why does that daggone groundhog know how to sort out the sweet potato leaves from the weed leaves?

Why do I plant green beans when I really am not a big fan of picking or processing them?

Why is it called manure when it's good for the garden and SHI- when it's on my shoes??

Why do people insist on letting their walked dogs wander around the edge of my garden and mess it up?  Geez, people, I left enough room between the garden edge and the freakin' sidewalk, keep your dogs outa my gardens. 

Why do I like invasive wildflowers that show really pretty, but start to take over like an angry crowd by the end of two years?  Culprits are cup plant, spiderwort, blackeyed Susans, daisies.

Here is the long awaited POT garden.   I interplanted lettuce in a geranium planter.  See how nicely that works?  See how anyone with a lick of sense and some soil can have a garden, no matter how small?   I have been eating from this!!

Here are some pictures from the end of the garden season..

sideways photo of tomatoes, they are still plugging along!!!

.flowers in pots---must be watered at least once a day.  so I keep them all together along the edge of the deck, they seem more lush that way.  there were some cucumbers and broccoli in these pots earlier.

Here's a great plant for long lasting, drought resistant blooms.  Hydrangea.  I have about 9 in my front yard/garden.   Tardiva, Annabelle, Pinky Winky are a few of the varieties.  Some blooms will start white, and age into a soft tan color, I have some on my desk from last year.  I have some planted under a water-sucking maple, so they may get droopy, but one quick drink of water, and they perk right up.  These are great dried flowers, I was told they may sell for as much as $9 a stem.  I like to use them in the flower vases at church because they stay fresh at least two weeks.   I have successfully grown nasty looking clearance, $5 hydrangeas into the beauties of my garden, it's all in how you treat them.   Lots of water at the beginning, feed them properly, and they will serve you well for many years.

If you see these late bloomers, some call them Autumn lilies, or August lilies, they are a type of hosta, a great family of hard-working garden plants.  I love that they start blooming with these trumpeting white flowers just when everything else is starting to fade.  Plant in the shade with some enriched soil and some mulch, and enjoy!  They are a bit yellowed and starting to fade because we've basically had no rain since the beginning of July.   I have several varieties of hosta, one variegated one I love is "strip tease."  ahem.........

If you have a perennial garden, now is the time to start cutting back iris, daisies, daylilies, flax, faded hostas, bee balm,  columbine, anything else that is looking tired or dried out.  If you have black-eyed susans, be sure to get those seedheads out of the garden.  I laid some dried seed heads alongside my house a couple years ago, and have had an abundance growing in a place I don't like to mow.  It is not a good place for shrubs because the ice melts and falls off our metal roof with big crashes. 

IF YOU HAVE SHRUBS or  perennials, you MUST water them deeply from now until frosts start up.  If they do not get a good supply of water to their roots now, in the fall, they may not make it to spring, especially in our droughty weather.   I put out a sprinkler in the early morning, or later in the evening, and let it run 1/2 hour in one spot and then move it around.  Be sure to water both sides of plants , or the roots will be dried out  on one side.  Many trees and shrubs have shown damage from the past few years of dry summer/fall weather we have had,  and need the water to keep them going this winter.  This is also a great time to start thinking about planting new trees, with shorter days, less heat, milder weather.  We are having a huge elm in the front yard taken out in October, and have already purchased a nice sized burr oak to replace it. 

If you must weed and feed your lawn, try to find newer fertilizers withOUT phosphates, phosphorus in them.   Remember when that was taken out of laundry detergents?  Why is it allowed into a product that is going to run-off into groundwater and streams? 

Also, before you forget, make some notes on what you want to do differently, the same, or record your garden plantings, so you can crop rotate next year.  This cuts down on disease, and doesn't wear out your soil so quickly. 

And this is the best time of year to start that compost heap!  drive around and find people who are bagging their leaves and offer to take them off their hands... they're happy, and you didn't have to work so danged hard.

have a great week, my gardening buddies, and Stan, who lurks here, but probably never gets his hands dirty.

Dianne, who has probably one more weekly mowing left in her.