The Last Roses

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, I am spoiled by being able to say that a lot now. We're actually supposed to get some rain tonight and for part of tomorrow. I had to go and water a few things that were looking peaked from their transfer today, in case the rain doesn't happen. It's the first time that I've had to actually water things in a while.

The Gnomeslayer and I went out and she got some tricycle riding time in. I cut down The Mum That Ate Alabama today, and those are the remains in the wheelbarrow. Yes, that's one mum plant. I did some weeding in the front bed and it was amazing how easy it is to keep it up when you have a good setup.

The picture above is my 'Joseph's Coat' rose, and I honestly think that it is one of the best pictures that I have ever taken. The lighting was perfect and I like the angle. The flowers look like they glow.

'Neptune' has a bloom opening on it and it smells heavenly.

'Elle' also has several buds on it.

Rocks

My Gnomeslayer loves rocks. One of her favorite things to do is to pick up small rocks while we are on walks, and we have quite a collection of them. So last weekend when we went to Across the Pond she was in heaven. They have a stone yard there, and I wanted to get some decorative stones to make the little streambed in the back yard. I have some flat gray/silver ones that were edging on the pond, but I wanted some other interesting ones to have on the sides. So we spent the morning climbing around pallets and digging through them to find *exactly* the right stones. They aren't that different, just some differences in coloration and shape that looked neat. I also got some black river pebbles that GS promptly dumped out of their bag when we got home. The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend so I think I'm going to do some work on it tomorrow.

Battle Scarred

Sigh....another notch in the Gnomeslayer's belt.

He fell victim to her while we were chasing the bullfrog around the garden. I think I can put his foot back together with some superglue, hopefully I won't glue my fingers together!

Froggy Bottoms, Take II

We had a very productive weekend, so much to cover. The main objective was to keep working on the backyard garden area since the front is taken care of. The Gnomeslayer and I went to Across the Pond yesterday, and picked out some accent rocks for the streambed that we are going to put in. Today the objective was to get the current pond cleaned out, get the filter/pump cleaned out and get the fish ready for the winter.

I will go into a flashback sequence here and say that probably two weeks ago, we noticed some very large frog eyes in the pond. Today we plugged a drain hose on the pump and started draining it out. I had a bucket that we were going to keep the fish in while we got the liner cleaned out. Q started fishing around with the net to try to catch them as the pond went down. We have four ornamental goldfish in the pond. He caught the first pretty quick, but then was having problems because some of the edging stones had fallen in the pond. So I got on the pond gloves and started to pull them out. There were a couple of times that I must have brushed against the fish before I got the rest of the rocks out. And then Q said "What the *bleep* is that? I looked down and there was a bullfrog peering up at me. Now our "pond" is 40 gallons. A bullfrog in a 40 gallon pond doesn't leave room for much else. GS took that opportunity to grab a slimy rock from the side of the pond so I took her in to wash her hands. While I was gone Q kept trying to catch the frog. As we were walking back outside, he netted it and brought it over to show me. I grabbed the camera to try to get a picture. The frog hopped out of the net and started hopping around the patio. He doubled back and landed on my foot (which wasn't covered since I was wearing moccasins). I will admit, I shrieked like a little schoolgirl, which must have really made our neighbors wonder about me. He hopped through the garden area and lodged himself between the fencepost and a slat on the fence.

We finished up our work and discovered that three of our fish were missing. To be honest I wouldn't have thought that a bullfrog could have eaten fish that big. When we got finished I went in and looked through my water gardening books and lo and behold, discovered that bullfrogs will eat anything that they can stuff into their mouth. This includes goldfish, mice, small birds and frogs smaller than themselves. I didn't want the bullfrog to get back into our newly cleaned pond, so I went to pull him out of his hiding spot. Unfortunately he wasn't cooperative, and his belly was pretty big, probably full of our goldfish that he was digesting. I ended up having to push out on the slat and keep poking at him to make him move. I finally got him, and went to hold up my prize to show GS and Q. In retrospect I should have had him get the camera and take a picture but it was getting dark and I wanted to get him moved. He took a big (assisted) hop over the back fenceline. Anyway, that was probably the biggest excitement of the weekend. My poor little fishies...RIP.

Monte Sano Visit

We spent the morning up at Monte Sano park, and enjoyed the beautiful fall day. The colors have already peaked but there was still plenty left. The Gnomeslayer got to kick around leaves and pick up sticks and rocks. It was a fantastic day. :)

Fall

I was finally able to get outside and get something done today. I took some pictures but haven't gotten around to downloading them. It was a beautiful fall day - the sky was clear blue and the sun was shining. It was cool outside, especially in the shade. I took the Gnomeslayer outside with me, so that she could get some sunshine and exercise. We started with a wheelbarrow ride to the backyard. I finished digging up all of the plants that were going to be moved to the front yard. I was able to get them all up, with only a few minor interruptions. Mainly when I had to do a highspeed chase across the backyard when I realized I hadn't closed the gate and GS found it open. Running in steel-toed gardening boots isn't that easy. ;)

All of the plants moved to the front got planted, the beds cleaned and the mulch laid down. I still need to go sweep the sidewalk, but ran out of daylight and energy today. The backyard garden is mostly empty now. I need to move the plants that are staying and rearrange the beds. I also need to drain and clean the pond. I was going to move the unwanted plants to the back fenceline, but when I got there to plant everything I decided that I was going to get rid of them and plan out what I want to plant back there when I'm ready. Also, the fence was built right in front of the treeline, and there are roots everywhere. I think I'm going to have to do raised beds along through there. So everything is getting tossed into the compost pile. I've seen the results of putting together plants haphazardly and not planning, and I intend to do better next time. :)

So I hope that everyone else had a productive gardening weekend. I baked some gingersnaps yesterday and think that I need to go sample a few!

Heavy Lifting

After the false hope of an extended forecast that showed sun for all of this weekend, the sun finally came out today. Friday and Saturday were both overcast and chilly, with heavy showers on Friday. To say the least it was depressing, although we did get some work done in the house. Having to wait until Sunday to get outside work done usually means that it won't. Friday and Saturday are our errand and shopping days, and Sundays we usually relax and laundry is about as productive as we get. After taking a long nap this afternoon I finally headed outside to get some work done. This time of year it's almost like a scavenger hunt in the garden, trying to see what is left blooming. Today I found blooms on the honeysuckle (above) and the Veteran's Honor rose (below). Veteran's Honor has been such a workhorse, and the blooms are do dramatic and fragrant. It has a place of honor (no pun intended) in the front flower bed.

My main objective today was to get the boxwood bushes moved from the front flower beds so that I can finish moving the plants from the back garden that I need to move. At least the ground was pretty moist, so it made it easier to pull them up. The soil here is very heavy clay, and digging up the bushes is hard because the root balls are so heavy. I'll be lucky if I'm able to move tomorrow - wrangling big prickly bushes with heavy rootballs can suck the energy out of you. I took the bushes and placed them along the back fenceline. So now that the bed was cleared of the bushes I moved the camellia and azalea in. I moved the Gingersnap rose in front of the garage, and moved Welcome Home to the middle of our bedroom window. I'd wanted two roses there, but Gingersnap ended up being a very short rose so the display was lopsided. I've come up with a tentative plan on what to do with the pond in the back, but I have to get everything moved out of the beds there first. So here's hoping for a sunny weekend next weekend!