Howdy dear friends,

It is a beautiful morning here in northwest Indiana. It's the perfect morning to do a bunch of mulching. I hopped out of bed early today and made a bee-line for the free mulch pile and filled up my car twice, which was enough to mulch one bed nicely. The daylily bed along the road needed new mulch bad as what I had put there when I planted it was almost all gone now.

Yesterday i spent time in the garden doing other chores. The Latham raspberry twigs I planted in the spring are getting tall and floppy so I went to the hardware store and bought some metal stakes and wire to make the trellis I had been putting off for too long. After i trellised them, it looked a lot neater. The layer of half broken down compost I'd mulched with in early summer has kept the weeds at bay nicely. Then I used the old bricks from a neighbor to line the bed and finish it all off. It looks almost professional now. I'm pleased with myself.

I cut down the yellow scabiosa plants. these plants were considered 'weeds' by the evil association here, but I ignored thier dyer warning in the form of a ticket requesting that I "weed". Surprisingly, there were no consequences and the butterflies and insects got to keep loving the scabiosa flowers. Now though, I decided to go ahead and cut them down as they were starting to look very ragged and unkempt. Though as I was doing the deed all kinds of butterflies kept visiting the flowers as I worked, making me feel guilt ridden, even worse as they visited the growing pile on the ground of cut plants. If you want LOTS of butterflies, plant yellow scabiosa. Bees, hover flies and butterflies can't seem to resist them.

While I was out in the garden, I decided to share with you some of the very pretty leaves I have right now. (See the picture). Top: Blueberry, Hydrangeas. Middle: Coleus, Heuchera. Bottom: Ornamental sweet potato vine, native tulip tree.

In the veggie patch, I harvested a moon and stars watermelon. I read that you should harvest when the tendrils nearest the melon have dried. I'm hoping this is right. I'm too scared to cut into it yet to find out.

Well, have a wonderful Sunday!

Nickie

And things return to normal...

Dear Friends,

Things are high and dry now here at my place and almost all the roads are open once again. For a while there I was quite frazzled with it all. I was worried about the animals who were constantly wet despite changing bedding every day and trying to keep the wet out. I was worried about my father-in-law who lives in Munster, IN. which is still under mandatory evacuation. He's OK by the way. I was worried about my neighbors, and worried about how I was getting to work everyday as the traffic situation was very bad taking 2 hours to get around instead of the normal 45 minutes.

But now, things are getting back to normal. I cancelled my mini-vacation plans because of this storm, and as upsetting as that is, I have the opportunity to help out my not as fortunate friends, neighbors and family that were affected by this storm by helping them dry out and clean up. Considering I could of gone fishing from my steps the other day, I count myself lucky just to have suffered problems in the garden only.

In the garden I lost my Brussels sprouts, most of my pepper plants, a conifer shrub which I replaced today with something much more interesting (Burgundy Star Ninebark), and my parsley.

Today as I was feeding and cleaning and brushing the rabbits (who are shedding like I've never seen them shed ever before) I noticed that the buckwheat was already blooming (See the picture if you don't know what buckwheat looks like). I'm tempted to let it go to seed and maybe have yet another crop pop up from that since it seems to grow so fast and green. I'm still debating as I feel like I should be planting greens and such right now even though I KNOW there won't be time before the first frost. I forked up a good wide row of the buckwheat turning the soil so that I can at least get my garlic planted.

I need to get the trellis for my raspberries in this weekend while the ground is soft. I had no idea they would grow so fast and they are starting to get long and floppy. Luckily Mike won a home depot gift card that should cover the costs of the project easily!

To cheer up, I've decided to do some fall things. I'm roasting pumpkin in the oven for pumpkin pie right now and afterwards the seeds which I'm soaking in oil and spices will go in next. Those little sugar pie pumpkins have a LOT of seeds for their size. I'm saving a few seeds for next year's garden. Tomorrow I think I will go apple picking at the orchard down the road (providing that road is open tomorrow) as my favorite apples are ripe right now. MMMMM. Nothing cheers me up like a fresh picked apple! :)

Have a great Friday all!

Nickie