Happy Thanksgiving

Dad's turkey picture circa 1930's
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

On this special holiday, I am grateful for family and for my siblings who have graciously bestowed upon me all of our parents' old papers, pictures, and mementos for safekeeping.

I went through some of them yesterday and found this picture of a turkey that my Dad made sometime in the 1930's.

He made it by cutting out

Garden Fairies Guest Post on a Rainy Fall Day

Garden fairies here.

We are garden fairies and we have come inside to write a guest post because it is raining outside and we are garden fairies and we did not see that Carol was going to post anything so we decided we would come in, dry off, and impart some of our garden fairy rainy day wisdom on any readers who happen to read this post.

We are garden fairies and so we are wise, wiser than

I stowed summer away

I stowed summer away for the winter under a big tarp that looks like camouflage.

The garage is full and I don't have a shed, so this is the best I could do.

I've hidden a table and four chairs, two lounge chairs, two birdbaths, several large pots, a small bench, and other decorative garden items under that tarp.

It was windy as all get out when I tied that tarp down so I feel pretty confident

The Society for the Promotion of Mums as the Quintessential Fall Flower

Who will buy these?

The Society for the Promotion of Mums as the Quintessential Fall Flower* would like to lodge an official protest regarding the disfiguration of poinsettias to modify their colors to allow them to be sold in the fall as an alternative to mums, which are the quintessential fall flower.

The Society is concerned that allowing this practice of coloring poinsettias in shades of

A hole in my garden - autumn-flowering snowdrops

Spring flowering snowdrops.  

Yesterday, I found out there are autumn-flowering snowdrops.

Autumn-flowering.  As in blooming in October.

And now I want some.   I never knew they existed until yesterday and now there is a hole in my garden without them.

I believe the botanical name is Galanthus reginae-olgae subsp reginae-olgae.

Every source I've checked so far is sold out, but that's okay

Guest Post from the Garden Fairies: Winter is Coming

Garden fairies here. We thought we'd post some of our thoughts about fall clean up in the garden

Fall clean up? We are garden fairies! We don't believe in fall clean in the garden!

Oh, sure, we do some gathering of stuff. We like to collect the last of the rose petals to make an assortment of garden fairy things. We like to scrounge up pretty leaves, too.

But one of our absolute favorite

There are Messes in My Garden

There are messes in my garden and someone needs to clean them up.

The corn stalks are still standing, though barely.  I would like to plant some garlic and shallots tomorrow where the corn was growing, but someone needs to clean up that mess first.

Corn is a heavy feeder so before I replant, I think I'll mix a little organic fertilizer in the soil in that bed, just to be sure the poor garlic

The Halloween Hare: Do you believe?

This year I feel certain the Halloween Hare is going to visit my garden and create havoc if I don't take preventative measures.

What? You don't know about the Halloween Hare? You must be new here.  Put down your leaf rake, pull up a chair and I'll tell you all about him.

According to ancient gardening legend, the Halloween Hare hops from garden to garden on Halloween night looking for Easter

Every gardener must decide: Cut Back or Leave Standing

Aster hiding in the Amsonia

There comes a time in the fall when every gardener who gardens in a climate with a true winter season with snow and ice and, well, winter,  must decide. Cut down those seed heads on the perennials and grasses or leave them standing thru the winter.

The proponents of leaving the perennials alone for the winter point out that many of those seeds are food for the

Guest Post: Garden Fairies Explain Fall Leaf Color

Garden fairies here. We are garden fairies and we are doing this special guest post to explain fall foliage color.

Many gardeners, as we call people who come out into our gardens and plant, prune, primp, etc. while taking full credit for what we garden fairies do but we are garden fairies so we don't mind, we actually do not like to be in the spotlight and so we have our ways to put these

I hope

I've not seen my garden in the daylight since Monday.

I hope it is okay. I was gone. It rained.

When I got home, I went out in the dark and checked the rain gauge. There was water up to the five inch mark. Is it right? I don't know, but a plastic bucket left out seems to have water to about that same depth standing in it, so maybe it is close.

I have other hopes yet for fall.

I hope for

Magical Autumn Crocus - A Story

Once upon a time, in the autumn time, a bouquet of garden fairies were sitting in a garden, resting after a long day spent painting tree leaves in the traditional colors of fall.  

The garden fairies were all covered in fall colors - gold, orange, crimson, yellow, burnt umber, brown and all colors in between.  They were tired but satisfied they had done as good a job as they had ever done

The best days of summer so far

Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies'.
These October days have been the best days of summer so far this year.

In all likelihood, we probably did have some nice summer days, but they are crowded out by the memory of one hot, dry day after the next through most of July and August.

Now that it is October, the mornings are cool and the afternoons are warm, but not hot. The sun is shining

Ten things your garden wants you to do this fall.

Your garden wants you to come out do some things this fall. Really. It does. Here are the ten things it wants you to do.

Get rid of the dead stuff. While you are at it, get rid of any plant you don't like and compost it. After all, growing the plants you love is one of the secrets to achieving happiness in your garden. Plus you will love your garden if you are at least growing the plants

The color of fall

Autumn crocus

The color of fall is gold and orange and yellow and brown and tan, right?

Well, someone forgot to tell my garden about this color scheme.

Here in my garden, we are enjoying purples and pinks and whites, and they look wonderful in the glow of a partly sunny, cool autumn afternoon.

Walk with me through the garden and let's take a look.

First up, let's kneel down and see the

Purple and Green

Seems all I can think of these days is silver and gold purple and green.

Purple and GreenPurple and GreenEveryone wishes for Purple and GreenHow do you measure its worth?Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth


Alyssum

Purple and GreenPurple and GreenEveryone wishes for Purple and GreenHow do you measure its worth?Just by the pleasure it gives here on Earth


Aster 'Purple Dome'
 Purple

The World's Shortest Fall Garden To Do List

I am pleased to present the World's Shortest Fall Garden To Do List.

It's really rather simple. 

Leave the garden in the fall how you want to find it in the spring. 

That's it. Just do that and all will be good by spring.

In my little gardening world, doing that one "to do" item involves a little weeding, raking, mowing, planting, compost harvesting, putting away, mulching, protecting,

Aster Personality Quiz

The asters are in full bloom today, September 29th, the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, which is observed by some Christian traditions.

In my garden, it is observed by remembering to call the asters by one of their common names, Michaelmas Daisies, because they are generally at or near peak bloom on this feast day.

This year, they are right on schedule and I'm thrilled, given how

Don't even think...

Don't even think that as soon as fall arrives in the garden this Sunday you'll make a hasty retreat and head inside to think about Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas celebrations.

This is no time to give in and call it quits in the garden until next spring.

If you call it quits in the garden now, you won't have a spring with all kinds of pretty spring flowers. Your flower borders will be a

Achieving Happiness in Your Garden: The Seventeenth Secret

A new season of gardening is upon us. 

Fall.

And with fall comes another secret to achieving happiness in your garden.  This secret is one that people have been told time and again, but they don't always believe it.


I'm not sure why they don't believe this secret.  I suspect part of the reason is that many people think of gardening as something that begins in the spring and ends in the fall