The Garden Worm blog Digging up the best dirt on gardening!

December 12, 2011

Frost on the punkin

Filed under: Fall,Grasses,Miscellaneous — Judy @ 12:21 am

Frosty mornings are the norm now, but little snow yet. I’m sure that will be remedied soon as it is almost the middle of December already. I ventured out a few mornings ago to take some pictures for you to enjoy.

Chamaecyparis 'Golden Mops'

“When the Frost is on the Punkin”
by James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then the time a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Frozen crabapples

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Hakonechloa 'Aureo-marginata'

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover overhead!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Hameln'

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yaller heaps;
And your cider-makin’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With theyr mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and sausage too!…
I don’t know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be
As the angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—
I’d want to ‘commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

And a final image for you to enjoy while waiting for the snow to fall.

Microbiota decussata

November 13, 2011

Drive-by mulching

Filed under: Fall,Our gardens — Judy @ 9:39 pm

We’re finally getting our gardens under control for the winter and today was a good day for our usual drive-by mulching routine. Most of the leaves are down on the trees in our yard with only a few left on our neighbor’s silver maple. Instead of all the effort to rake those leaves up to the road for the town to compost, we have found that our lawn mower does a great job of chopping them up into itty-bitty pieces for our own compost. After dealing with most of the leaves under the trees and mulching them into the lawn, we rake some into the surrounding gardens. Then, after cutting down the tallest or otherwise taking care of some of the more delicate plants by manual pruning, we run the mower over the remaining debris and leaves, AKA drive-by mulching. Voilà! nearly instant compost material for the gardens and clean-up for the winter.

Update: A post and subsequent comments over at The Garden Professors talk about mulching and using leaves as lawn fertilizer here.

In the meantime, take a look at a few of the goodies we still have left in the gardens.

Carex 'Toffee Twist'

Carex 'Toffee Twist'

Crabapples

Crabapples

Forsythia

Even the forsythia has great fall color!

Grasses

Miscanthus 'Gracillimus' against the blue fall sky

Lettuce

Still have lettuce coming on

Ligularia

Love the seed heads for the ligularia!

Oakleaf hydrangea

Stunning red leaves on the oakleaf hydrangea

What other colorful things do you have showing their stuff now? Are your gardens ready for the winter to come?

November 1, 2011

Fall visit to Phipps – Part 2

Filed under: Fall,Slideshows,Travel — Judy @ 10:35 am

As you might recall from the last post, we recently visited Pittsburgh and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens again. The visit continues here. Click to view the second part of the slideshows.

Phipps Fall 2011 part 2 slideshow

Pittsburgh was recently named a “Best of the World 2012” destination by National Geographic in a piece called “Extreme Metropolitan Makeover.” It is the only U.S. city to make that list and certainly the Phipps Conservatory is one of the reasons why. The Fall Flower Show is on until November 6th. Go visit!

October 26, 2011

Fall visit to Phipps – Part 1

Filed under: Fall,Travel — Judy @ 11:21 am

Recently, we took another trip to Pittsburgh to visit our daughter. After the initial driving, windy rainstorm on the way down, the weekend was bright and beautiful with lovely Fall weather. One of the highlights of the trip, besides seeing our daughter who is now a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, visiting with my sister, great food, love, and laughter, was another visit to the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

At the entrance to Phipps

You may recall that I visited there last January when the Winter Show was on. You can go back to read that post and compare pictures here. Right now the Fall Flower Show is in progress until November 6 with over 5000 mums on display. Since one of my daughter’s favorite flowers is the chrysanthemum, the visit was a must-do.

Main entrance to Phipps

We took lots of pictures so this will be a two-part series. Click to view the first part of the slideshows.

Phipps Fall 2011 part 1 slideshow

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Fall visit to the Phipps Conservatory!

« Newer PostsOlder Posts »

Powered by WordPress