Early October

The daytime temps finally took a turn a week ago. It had just been too hot for too long. The days are now in the 70s and nights in the 60s. We've plenty of rain, the skeeters are still abundant and the fall peepers are peeping. The almanac says we will have a warm October, perhaps a late frost, but I don't want to pretend it isn't coming. I need to start pack-ratting it all away.
Today I began taking cuttings. A few big leaf hydrangea cuttings I made this summer did very well, so I've decided to try some semi-hardwood cuttings from the native Hydrangea arborescens.

I haven't decided where I will overwinter these- indoors or in the coldframe nursery. I'll have to do some research. I can't recall how many years ago I first bought this Alabama Sunset Coleus, but I've been taking annual cuttings from it for years. It's my favorite coleus. It is such a different looking plant in full sun. 

These cuttings are just placed in plain water for the winter. 

Occasionally, I change the water, but that's it. Doesn't get easier than that.

New Bed/New attempt

I've been wanting to redo the strawberry beds and the time finally came. I didn't know there was such a thing as fall planted strawberries, but the reviews were better than spring planting so I thought I'd give it a go. Finding fall plants isn't as easy as spring ones, but they are suppose to produce more than spring planted and have better health due to less bugs and disease over winter. I ordered two varieties from Indiana Berry and they arrived in the mail THE VERY NEXT DAY! Holy cow, I wasn't ready so I had to store the bare roots a few days in the fridge while I built and compost loaded the beds. 

 

Every single plant has leafed out. I'm already impressed!

Below: The new beds made from Cedar fenceposts.

And planted between the rows of strawberries are another first: 

Fall blooming Crocuses including Saffron Crocus! 

Natives in Bloom

Gray Goldenrod Solidago nemoralis

 Aromatic Aster Symphtricum oblongifolium

 Hackberry berries and a Question Mark Butterfly

Went to the Native Plant Sale at Schlafly Bottleworks 

last weekend and got some more and new natives, including:

Wild Oregano, Fame Flower, Pussytoes, Sedum, P. Poppy Mallow,

Common Milkweeds (for the prairie), a Phlox and more

A new (first) Sassafras

Sean got some Paw Paws, Elderberry & Serviceberry for

his folk's place.

Do again/successes to repeat next year: Impatiens

I was happy with each of these, although we did get a lot of rain this summer and it helped that I hardly watered them. Next time use all light pink in these as it shows best in the shade.

Foodstuff

White bread flour mixed with 7 grain hot cereal

Very good

 Roasted cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes

and garbanzo bean pilaf

 Veg fajitas

 Chicken of the Woods in a cream sauce over polenta

and a pepper potato soup

Basement Foodstuff

The winter greens have begun. Seeded more yesterday- cilantro, frilly mustard, lettuce mix, dwarf siberian kale.

Hoophouse update: Seedlings are coming up- kales and frilly mustard. Leeks returning. 

Orchard raised beds: lots of seedlings of greens coming up in these. I've also been working on the new house for the old ladies. I think they will be safer and warmer in a new house, plus I want to work on the woodland garden and be chicken-free in that area. 

Chuy Sanchez says

The End.

Mom! She's doing it again!

Gardening. In Winter. Again. Because I may have an addiction. Plus there's Climate Change and El Nino.

Unseasonably warm early winter (tied for warmest year on record, warmest November/December and wettest- 2015 for the region (61 inches) ~40inches is the norm) kept me at it. 3-4 days of continuous rain caused a lot of flood damage, levee breaches in the MO-Il area. Luckily, we are on higher ground.

Planting in December & January?
Nature taught me to plant potatoes in fall/winter. Nature corrected what I thought I knew- what I had been taught about planting taters. I've since read others who are doing it. My dad still says I'm doing it wrong, but he should know I don't listen well. So, these 15 sprouting in the pantry were the first to go out in a 10'x3' bed topped with 6 inches of leaves.

 Garden Row 1 (above)

In row 3 were potatoes unharvested. I wanted to move them

because I had taters in this bed 2 years, so I dug and this is what I found:

 Potatoes DO grow in winter (here). 

You could even leave them for occasional harvest so long

as the ground doesn't freeze and become impossible to dig.

 It never fails that I unearth a toad whilst

winter gardening and I feel awful about it.

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the 40s. This one

slowly opened eyes, a worm slithered around without

occasion and I plunked a tater in the hole and covered him or her 

back up. Hope she/he is fine. 

 You can easily tell the purple taters by the sprouts.

Dug taters (41) were planted in Row 2 and strawed. I still have

some left. I'm thinking I'm going to plant more in row 1. I cleaned more 

of that bed this morning. 

Updates

I can't remember if I mentioned this, but I made this terrible discovery that plants could be purchased through Amazon. What?! Yeah, and I found 3 I had to have for cheap. This is information I shouldn't have. So, I bought a native honeysuckle shrub, Diervilla Kodiak Orange, a Caryopteris- Beyond Midnight and Sunny Anniversary Abelia. I planted the Diervilla and Abelia out and the Caryopteris is in the garage window for protection until spring. I'm impressed with the seller.  

I took cuttings of a butterfly bush. I'm hoping to plant

these in the orchard without the chickens killing them.

 The garage window with sheltered plants- catnip, butterfly bush cuttings, 

caryopteris, a blueberry, verbena bonariensis. All is well here. (below)

 The pineapple is finally rooting!

The coleus cuttings are nuts. 

I'll probably need to trim the leaves back soon.

The geranium cuttings are flowering!

 Geranium cutting roots (below). 

 The fig cuttings, taken in November have rooted in the bags

on top of the fridge and were transplanted into this pot (below). 

That was too easy. Now the dilemma to plant in pots or in ground. 

This winter parsnip was shredded with carrots and

put in a wrap. Yum. It was spicy!

Still killing grass...

Kiddo and I turned over the soil along this side (42 ft long) of the property &

garden to plant in native grass/wildflower seeds. Pollinator Palooza is

the mix, from Prairie Moon Nursery. I decided to do this

after reading 5-10% of the garden should be in flowers- to attract both

beneficial and non-bene insects. Non-benes, because the good ones

need something to eat, right? 

The asparagus and blueberries beds were cleaned

and mulched.

*Not pictured- the pepper seeds I started in baggies germinated in 5 days! I transplanted them into soil yesterday. 

Food

Veg pancakes, fav roasted beans and the obvious.

So glad I bought this fresh and prepped if for the

freezer/winter from the local farm last spring! 

Gorgeous broc.

 With mushrooms and tofu.

 Walnut, lemon, parm, parsley...

 tossed with Angel Hair

These are going into muffins today!

Trouble coming?

I bought this at my school's plant sale and was told it was a tropical passion vine. It isn't. Ha. It grew super fast and tall, covering the garage, didn't bloom and then failed to die. This is what it looks like today. So, naturally I am worried. I'm wondering if it isn't P. caerulea, from S America. It can be aggressive in the south. I've posted to an Illinois Botany group to see if anyone has experience with it. It may have to die. 

A closing shot

The Kitchen Window in Winter

Happy Fall

We finally are seeing rain and cooler temps. Today is sunny and upper 60's and we recently received around 5 inches of rain within a week. The mushrooms popped and plants started growing again. Revival.

I get pretty excited about disgusting fungi and the Elegant Stinkhorn has graced us with its radiant odor. After about a week of smelling it I'd had enough, but it is still pretty cool to look at. Many of these popped up around the fountain at the backdoor, which insured I could smell them in the kitchen. This gem was in the front bed.

The Elegant Stinkhorn

A coworker shares an interest in fungi and has been bringing me samples of things she finds to taste. Here are the last 3: Cauliflower, Purple-Gilled Laccaria and Ceasar's Amanita mushrooms.

A few native flowers from seed I collected from a hill prairie last fall actually bloomed. I had transplanted them, after stratifying in a flat of potting soil last winter, in a wrecked wheel barrow. This goldenrod has been shown a lot of love by the bumbles (*note: plant lots more!).

Solidago nemoralis- Old Field Goldenrod

Brickellia eupatorioides- False Boneset

Schtuff in the garden:

Yellow Morning Glory- Ipomea

Deformed 4 O'Clock

Lettuce Mix transplants

Holy basil (foreground), lettuce transplants, Zucchini under tulle

Black and Blue Salvia (overwinters in the basement)

Mexican Sour Gherkin (volunteer)

Carrot seedlings

Asian greens ready for transplanting

Winter is coming. I started cutting back some annuals to overwinter in the basement and took cuttings of others. The cuttings include:

Tradescantia, begonias, dark and lime sweet potato vines, coleus: Alabama Sunset and Dipped in Wine, Lime Geranium, two other plants I always forget the name of that are great for purple and hot pink foliage (in the back of the photo). 

Got my bulb order in through Van Engelen. Planted 9 Allium- Sensation in the back porch bed I bought at Lowes. I've added some new plants & shrubs there as well including Twist and Shout Hydranga, an Oakleaf Hydranga, 3 white obedient plant, 1 Clethra, 1 varigated Phlox, 1 lime perennial Cornflower, and a multicolored False Sunflower. 

Another project: got some free bricks so I encircled my water fountain near the back porch, mulched and planted some natives I had started from seed in the nursery this spring. 

In this bed: 

along the brick path: liriope

on the right side: Horsemint & Bradbury's Monarda

on the left side: Itea Henry's Garnet, Short's Aster, heliotrope and Anise Hyssop

Bad news: Our Sugar Maple is slowly dying. Husband cut half of it down last weekend. 

Good news: We have a lot more sun in the northern end of the woodland garden, which means MORE PLANTS!!!

And that's what's growing on.