Starting over new

 Just starting over with a new blog about life at my ranch and everyday living. I will be covering gardening, recipes, building projects, animals, wildlife and much more.  So up to this blog all previous blogs are from the past 2 years that I will be reposting from my old blog at spaces over a period of time.  So be sure and check the dates.  Some are worth visiting still for the photos and information.  

So bear with me and have a
Good Morning...   Good Afternoon...  Good Night...

Here I Am/Carrie  

As the Summer Ends

As the season  changes, my garden and flowers are still hanging in.  My crab apple tree is the 1st to bring on the colors of fall.

Nothing says the end of summer like sunflowers.

I did get a bit of an invasion from these strange beetles who
ate the petal off many of my  sunflowers and calendula. 
I just pinched them all off and they never returned. 
I am not squeamish about killing bugs in my garden with my fingers.

 

I had my 1st frost already at the end of August and wasn’t
prepared.  My squash got hit hard and all the outer leaves are
mostly all dead now.  However I have since been keeping them
covered and they are now recovering and continue to bloom. 
We haven’t had any frost for awhile now.  If I protect them they still can go another 4 weeks provided the night don’t get to far below freezing.

         

Other parts of the garden are still thriving even though it was
the worst gardening year in many years.  My potatoes were also hit by the early frost so I am not getting much off them now.  My turnips have done beautifully as well as lettuce,
but we had so much rain in May and June that slowed the growth of everything and as my season is so short many things may not have time to mature.

    

Someone else is really enjoying all my sunflowers as well.
The squirrels have manage to eat the heads off most of them.
This little lady is was very pregnant and just recently had her babies.  That is very late in the season so I have been spoiling her and letting her eat what she wants as I know she has young ones somewhere to feed.

 

I had to move all my flowers up against the house and under
the eaves for protection.   I was sooo lucky everything but a few  tinged leaves survived that unexpected frost.  When it gets real cool I will be covering them all at night with a light garden cover.

     

After the frost I thought it was a good time to trim back many of the flowers and dead head.  I have been saving flowers seeds for many years.  I find the flowers are much hardier.  These seeds are from nasturtiums.  If I had planted seeds store bought seeds, the frost would have killed plants already.  I find each year some of my tender plants are getting hardier.

        

After trimming everything back I gave all the flowers a good fertilizing or the last boost to carry them thru till middle of October,  I hope our palm tree is still going strong and will be able to with stand some cold nights to come before I have move it back into the greenhouse.

   

I bought some fuschia plants in the spring.  I hadn’t had them
for many years.   I was worried about how sensitive they use to be of the frost.  But these guys are just under the eves of
buildings and are thriving and blooming beautifully still.

       

We have been having many days of rain so everything in the
yard has turned green again.I am so happy not to be hauling
water any  more or even watering so much.  Everything right now feels so alive and fresh.

These godetias I had planted as seeds in hanging baskets with nasturtiums.  I didn’t see and sign of them all summer
then when I was trimming back the other plants there they
were all ready to take over blooming into the fall.  They are quite hardy, however they have not been happy about all the rain we have been getting.

     

The colors of Autumn are slowing creeping into the leaves,
but it won’t last long as the rain and wind has already taken
many of the leave off.  There is still lots of green left as well. 
Everything seems to change at such different times.

 

Wishing everyone a pleasant season change
and a
Good Morning…   Good Afternoon…   Good Night…
Whatever it is to you…

Photos & Words
by
Here I Am/Carrie