It's that time of year again when daily work in the garden has given way to occasionally running out to water dried pots after work and trying to keep up with everything else during the few free hours of the weekend. It's kind of messy right now with leaves beginning to fall, branches, once tied back, now flopping into paths, pruning needing to be done, squirrels and racoons continuing to dig up some newly-planted things. Yikes. In addition, there are many powdery mildew-infested begonias in pots on the patio awaiting their fate. Should I continue spraying, keep the tubers and hope for the best or just throw the whole lot away, keeping only the ones that avoided the summer of mildew mania? On the bright side, soon everything will be covered with fallen leaves, including the koi pond that also needs to be cleaned again already. The heaviness of the garden presses in as the daunting task of relocating so many plants for the winter looms. At the moment, I'm not thrilled with the garden and think that if a nice Californian showed up with a Uhaul, I'd let them take most of the tender plants away, to live out their lives happily planted in the ground instead of cooped up in pots. At such times, it's fun to think of the growing season to come and stir up ideas for spring.
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Some years, I remember to Order early from bulb catalogs and, truth be told, it's not too late to do so but I'm not sure I'd have the time or energy to plant several hundred bulbs in the next few weeks. I tend to order way too many bulbs from catalogs when there are quantity discounts. No, this year I'll just add a few locally-purchased bulbs to those already in the garden. That'll be enough to stir up some excitement for spring. This year I'll plant Narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête' because you can never have too many of them, Orange Monarch and Yellow Monarch crocus because there are swaths of purples but the yellows have dwindled for some reason, and Tulips 'Christmas Orange' and 'Gavota.' There may be a few more bulb purchases once these are planted. We'll see. What spring blooming bulbs will you be planting this fall?
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