First Day Of Fall In The Garden

Greetings and Holykisses,

Finally it's here for real:  Autumn! 
The days are getting shorter;... a pot of orangey bronze mums is on the porch and even a pumpkin too.  They've been there for days... just waiting -- anticipating and so hopeful.  Change-  so welcomed.

Yesterday I mowed and mowed and mowed.  All around the old goat pen, barn, yard, fenced in yard, the garden and even up at my Happy Place.  Grass and weeds were flying let me tell ya. 

At this point I never really know what to do with my garden??    So many flowers are reseeding:  zinnias and morning glories mostly; so I let them have their way.  But that makes it hard to take a mower through there.  I hate deciding which plant lives or  dies, and ... if a baby marigold was spotted; I'd run for the shovel to dig it up and find a new home for it elsewhere.  Thankfully it's all done... until it's all needed again.  When the pole beans died off in July, I left them and later on found several seed pods that the critters didn't find so planted them.  They're now growing again at the base of the bean fence.  I'm hoping they'll have enough time to give us a mess or two of beans.  And when the four oclock flowers got tired out during the drought; I mowed them down.  They've all come back and it looks like they'll have time to rebloom.  This weekend, they'll get a good  drink of "Bunny bear tea."  -- Walking around the garden got me so excited and hopeful because it looks like we'll have several Fall blooms soon with all the zinnias, four oclocks and even Gardenwoman's giant chrysanthemums that look like cotton. 

Recently; I planted two more hills of zucchini.  They're looking faaabulous and I can hardly wait to have fresh picked again.  -- Yesterday I planted beets, spinach, turnip greens, lettuce, carrots, and a few packs of flowers I'd bought on Ebay and forgot about.  I don't know if they'll have time to do anything or not before frost but ... we'll see.  Mrs. Potter and Brussel Sprouts are anxious for fresh Fall carrots and lettuce- I've been telling them I'd plant them some.  They've been getting fresh pears amost everyday.  Inspite of the drought the tree up at my Happy Place is loaded. 

In the photo pictured above you can see two special Irises planted.  I bought them at walmart because they're  a ruffled "apricot"- salmon color. (I love salmon colored flowers.-- Notice the donks in the photo?  They're complete pests when it comes to planting because if they "see" something new they'll pull it up and just  and toss it ontop of the ground.  I've taken basketfulls of bulbs/irises, daffodils ... lilies, etc out in the pasture to plant in surprising places in the past and walked out there the next day or two and found so many just pulled up and laying ontop of the ground.  Even little trees.  It's hard to get too mad because they're quite adorable and   comical  when you see them standing there with something in their mouth nodding their head.   They'll carry a lead rope, halter or even large rubber tub an acre away ....just because they can.   :)  So when it comes to bulb planting anymore... I'm getting sneakier to cover things up with dead leaves etc when I can so they can't find them so easily.  In Spring when everything comes up, they're more interested in just eating fresh grass than messing with flowers- thankfully. 

Behind the potting shed- the planted chairs are coming back to life.  I can't remember the name of the flowers but they're kind of sparse.  They need a marigold or two for a pop of orange.  And the prayer closet .... ohmyword:   I'd say an armadillo got in there.  It was just a month or so ago that the chickens discovered the thick mulch to their liking and tore up jack.  The thing is; below the mulch I used several thicknesses of old newspaper for a weed barrier.  You can imagine what it looked like when scattered.  Well, I spent a great deal of time trying to clean it up and relevel it... but now?... it's been definitely armadillo'ed.  :(  What a mess. 

Well the sun is up.  Time to get to the barn and turn the little bantys out.  So far they haven't traveled all the way to the garden and prayer closet like the big chickens do.  -- They don't tend to scratch anything  up near as bad either.  (I love those little bantys)

The kids will be here soon so I better get ready!
We'll be enjoying much of the day playing outdoors I hope. 
Hope you have a wonderful weekend! 
Happy Fall! xoxo
L