Garden Diary
October 31st, 2009

Finally, blue skies and sunshine and a few hours to work in the garden.

Out with the snippers and I plunged right into the middle of all the confusion. Cut back the roses, especially the ones that were so badly damaged and have come up from below the graft, healthy and green but with no blooms.

All the sunflowers that sprang up in the garden have served their dual purpose, - first for beauty and then for food for the small birds, so they got pulled up, or snipped off, whichever was easiest. All except for one great potted one that had grown right through the pot and into the soil underneath. I got the pot up out of the soil and Charles managed to get the sunflower out of the pot. We will leave it in a handy spot for shelter for the birds, and any seeds that might linger.

The delphiniums and the lilies gave up their dried leaves and stems, and the shastas. I cut off a few peonies, and by this time the wheelbarrow came into play, hauling everything away to the compost heaping and leaving the garden considerably neater than when I started.

Charles brought some pumpkins around to the front steps, in honour of Halloween, and I hung up a black dress that a witch might wear, and a pointy hat, along with some witches shoes, a black umbrella that would be useful in the rain that came along about noon, and the witch's transportation, = a kitchen broom (the handle of which she flies off of when she gets frustrated....)

I took some pictures of the last of the leaves that glowed in the sunshine, and was grateful for these few hours of enjoyment as we put the garden to bed.